Python Team Lead - Hybrid Lisbon (4 Days On-Site/Week)

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

Join a technology-driven company as a Python Team Lead and take ownership of both technical leadership and people management in building an intelligent, event-driven system that powers risk assessment and control at scale. 

Working in a hybrid model with 4 days on-site per week, you'll lead the design and construction of a sophisticated multi-layered backend system that aggregates customer asset data to enable smart algorithms and policy-based control. This is a role that truly balances technical architecture leadership with team mentorship and development - you'll be writing code, making architectural decisions, troubleshooting complex production issues, and growing your team's capabilities simultaneously.

The position is ideal for experienced senior engineers (5+ years in Python) who have proven leadership experience managing and developing engineering teams. This isn't a first-time team lead opportunity - the role requires demonstrated ability to lead high-performing teams by fostering trust, ownership, and collaboration while aligning people growth with business priorities. You'll drive a culture that is passionate, innovative, and thorough, encouraging your team to research, invent, and implement cutting-edge solutions.

PROJECT & CONTEXT

You'll be leading the development of an intelligent risk assessment and control system built on event-driven architecture principles, processing high volumes of customer asset data in real-time to enable sophisticated algorithms and policy-based decision-making. The system architecture emphasizes microservices patterns, containerized deployments, and eventually consistent systems using streaming technologies like Redis Streams for queue architectures.

Your technical leadership responsibilities span the complete architectural spectrum - from designing scalable, multi-layered backend systems and making technology stack decisions, to leading troubleshooting of complex production issues and ensuring high availability of mission-critical services. You'll work with a modern tech stack centered on Python for backend development, Docker for containerization, event-driven patterns using Redis Streams, and both NoSQL (Redis) and SQL databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) for data persistence.

As Team Lead, your people management responsibilities are equally critical. You'll mentor developers in building high-availability backend services, advocate for and enforce engineering best practices across the team, and contribute directly to talent development and engineering culture. This includes conducting 1:1s, setting objectives, managing performance, fostering innovation, and building a collaborative environment where engineers can grow their skills while delivering impactful outcomes.

DevOps and process ownership fall under your purview - you'll oversee application of development and testing best practices, CI/CD methodologies across the software development lifecycle, containerized deployment strategies, and automation practices. Working within Agile principles, you'll effectively manage team sprints, balance technical debt with feature delivery, and ensure the team maintains velocity while upholding quality standards through strong testing capabilities.

The role demands someone who is passionate, innovative, and thorough - willing to research new technologies, invent creative solutions to complex problems, and implement them with production-grade rigor. You'll drive operational excellence by ensuring your team's services maintain high availability, respond effectively to incidents, and continuously improve based on operational learnings.

Core Tech Stack: Python (primary), Microservices/SOA architecture, Docker (containerization)
Event-Driven: Redis Streams, queues, eventually consistent systems
Databases: NoSQL (Redis), SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL)
DevOps: CI/CD pipelines, containerized deployment, automation
Architecture: Multi-layered backend, event-driven, high-availability systems

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR (Required)

• Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field
• Python Expertise: 5+ years of extensive hands-on experience coding in Python (or other modern programming languages like C#, Java, Scala), preferably in large-scale, data-intensive environments
• Proven Leadership Experience: Demonstrated ability to lead and develop high-performing engineering teams - this is critical, not a first-time team lead role
• People Development: Track record of fostering trust, ownership, and collaboration within teams while aligning people growth with business priorities
• Microservices Architecture: Proven experience writing large-scale or high-availability backend services in microservices/SOA/functional architecture patterns
• Containerization: Hands-on experience with Docker or other containerization technologies and containerized application deployments
• Event-Driven Systems: Solid experience developing event-driven/eventually consistent systems, working with streams and queues architecture such as Redis Streams
• NoSQL Proficiency: Proficient experience with NoSQL databases, particularly Redis for caching, streaming, and application database uses
• SQL Proficiency: Proficient experience with SQL databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, or similar relational databases
• Architectural Design: Ability to lead design and construction of complex, multi-layered backend systems that aggregate data at scale
• Production Operations: Experience troubleshooting and resolving complex issues in production systems with high-availability requirements
• Best Practices Advocacy: Ability to advocate engineering best practices and mentor team members in implementing them
• Testing Culture: Ownership of strong testing capabilities - ensuring high product quality through comprehensive testing strategies
• Agile Methodologies: Strong understanding of Agile principles and methodologies to effectively manage team sprints and iterative delivery
• DevOps Oversight: Ability to oversee application of development/testing best practices and CI/CD methodologies across SDLC
• Innovation Driver: Passionate about driving a culture that is innovative and thorough - encouraging research, invention, and implementation of new solutions
• Technical Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills with fluent B2+ English to lead technical discussions
• Team Mentorship: Genuine passion for mentoring developers and contributing to team growth and continuous excellence
• Problem-Solving: Strong analytical abilities for complex architectural and operational challenges
• Impactful Delivery: Track record of delivering impactful outcomes that align with business priorities
• Location: Based in Lisbon with availability for 4 days on-site per week

NICE TO HAVE (Preferred)

• Cloud Backend Experience: Experience building scalable cloud-based backends preferably in Azure or AWS/GCP
• Redis Advanced: Deep expertise using Redis for streaming and as an application database beyond just caching
• Azure Services: Hands-on experience with Azure cloud services (Azure Functions, Service Bus, Event Hubs, Cosmos DB)
• AWS/GCP Services: Alternatively, experience with AWS (Lambda, SQS, Kinesis, DynamoDB) or GCP equivalents
• Advanced Event Patterns: Deep knowledge of event sourcing, CQRS, saga patterns, and event-driven architecture best practices
• Redis Streams Advanced: Expert-level understanding of Redis Streams internals, consumer groups, and high-throughput optimization
• Kafka Experience: Additional experience with Apache Kafka or other enterprise message brokers
• PostgreSQL Advanced: Advanced PostgreSQL skills including query optimization, replication, partitioning, and performance tuning
• Kubernetes: Experience with Kubernetes for container orchestration at scale
• Python Advanced: Deep Python expertise including async/await, performance optimization, and modern Python 3.10+ features
• API Design: Experience designing RESTful or GraphQL APIs with proper versioning and documentation
• Monitoring & Observability: Hands-on experience implementing observability (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, distributed tracing)
• Security Best Practices: Understanding of application security, secure coding practices, and security architecture
• Performance Engineering: Experience with performance profiling, optimization, and capacity planning for high-throughput systems
• Infrastructure as Code: Familiarity with Terraform, Ansible, or similar IaC tools
• Team Scaling: Experience scaling engineering teams and processes during company growth phases
• Agile Leadership: Experience facilitating agile ceremonies and continuous improvement practices
• Technical Hiring: Participation in recruitment, technical interviewing, and candidate assessment
• Conflict Resolution: Skills in managing team conflicts and difficult conversations constructively
• Multiple Languages: Polyglot programming experience with languages beyond Python (Java, Go, Scala, Rust)
• Data-Intensive Systems: Deep understanding of challenges in large-scale data processing and storage
• Functional Programming: Experience with functional programming paradigms and their application in backend systems
• Testing Strategies: Expertise in TDD, BDD, integration testing, contract testing, and testing pyramid principles
• CI/CD Advanced: Deep knowledge of GitLab CI/CD, Jenkins, or GitHub Actions with complex pipeline implementations
• Financial Services: Previous experience in fintech, banking, or regulated industries with compliance requirements

Location: Lisbon, Portugal - Hybrid with 4 days on-site, 1 day remote