Lead Backend Engineer (Python/Django)

 

Hi, we’re Search Atlas! We’re a rapidly growing SEO software company and full-service digital agency that helps websites improve their Google performance. From Fortune 500 companies to Silicon Valley startups, our clients trust us to drive results.

We’re hiring a Lead Backend Engineer to guide the technical direction of one of our core product teams within our SEO intelligence platform.

This role combines deep technical expertise with leadership and collaboration skills, you’ll be both a hands-on engineer and a technical partner to the Product Manager and other key stakeholders.

You’ll act as the most senior backend engineer in the team, mentoring other developers, driving architectural decisions, and ensuring that our backend systems are performant, maintainable, and aligned with product goals.

We’re looking for someone who is technically excellent, people-oriented, and proactive in leading by example.

Responsibilities

• Lead backend development for the product team, ensuring alignment with company-wide engineering standards.
• Translate product objectives into actionable technical plans and milestones.
• Build and maintain scalable Django REST applications and well-documented APIs.
• Oversee efficient, fault-tolerant background task processing with Celery.
• Contribute to architecture design to improve scalability, maintainability, and performance.
• Mentor and lead engineers through code reviews and promote a collaborative, high-performing culture.
• Partner with Product, QA, DevOps, and Frontend teams to deliver reliable end-to-end features.
• Implement strong engineering practices including TDD, linting, and test coverage enforcement.
• Monitor and optimize systems using Sentry, Datadog, and Grafana for observability and stability.
• Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks across applications, databases, and task queues.
  

Requirements

• 6+ years of experience with Python 3 and Django REST Framework
• Prior experience mentoring engineers or acting as a tech lead on a product team
• Proven experience designing, building, and maintaining production-grade REST APIs
• Strong experience with PostgreSQL in production environments
• Experience with Celery or equivalent task queue systems
• Strong testing discipline (pytest, coverage, Flake8, Black, Isort)
• Familiarity with Docker Compose and modern CI/CD pipelines
• Experience working with Sentry, Datadog, and Grafana for monitoring and observability
• Excellent communication skills, especially when working with cross-functional teams

Salary & Benefits

• $4,500-$5,500 per month/depending on your location and skills/experience
• 15 Days Paid Time Off + Christmas Day + New Year's Day Paid Off
  

Our Recruitment Process

• Step 1: Initial screening call with our recruitment team
• Step 2: Assessment to showcase your skills (if applicable)
• Step 3: Final interview with our Hiring Manager
• Step 4: Offer extended