Backend Engineering Lead

Backend Engineering Lead

Location: Barcelona (Hybrid) / Remote Salary: Competitive (EUR) Company: Bïrch

Hi 👋

We are Bïrch. Our product is a mighty toolbox for all the things creative and growth marketing teams do --- content creation, collaboration, and ad campaigns, all in one place. We've been in the game for over 8 years, trusted by 600+ companies and more than 5,500 marketers. With billions in ad spend running through our platform, we're not just keeping up, we're one of Meta's fastest-growing partners and officially backed by both Meta and Google. Recently, we rebranded from Revealbot to Bïrch, and we wrote about this transformation journey here.

We're hiring a Backend Lead to take over part of the engineering team so our CTO can focus on more strategic work like long-term architecture and product direction. In the first few months, this person will be deeply involved in day-to-day coding, while gradually taking on more leadership responsibilities. The role includes running 1:1s, supporting growth, catching quality issues earlier in the process, and contributing to architectural decisions. We're looking for someone who can guide engineers, give clear and honest feedback, and help the team run effectively without depending on the CTO to step in.

✍🏼 What will you do?

You'll report directly to the CTO and manage three talented backend engineers --- Kamila, Marat, and Dmitriy. Some of your work areas:

• You'll start with a 70/30 split between hands-on coding and leadership, gradually moving toward a 50/50 balance. By leadership, we mean making technical decisions, shaping high-level prototypes, and overseeing implementation across the team.
• You'll work closely with the team to support their growth: running regular 1:1s, giving feedback, and helping them identify their strengths, areas to improve, and next steps in their development. You'll also lead performance reviews.
• Around 30% of your time will be spent on code reviews, with a focus on logic, readability, and overall quality.
• You'll take the lead on architectural design --- thinking through and writing the foundational structures that other developers can use to build features, services, or entire parts of the product.
• You'll participate in planning sessions, helping to estimate, prioritize, and guide backend work in a way that aligns with product and technical goals.
• Take part in hiring for the backend team as we grow --- shaping the process, writing job descriptions, screening candidates, and interviewing potential new teammates.

How do you know you are succeeding at Birch?

• In your first months, you'll shadow the CTO to understand the product, the team, and how we work --- preparing to step into a key leadership role.
• Within 3 months, you'll get up to speed on our industry (ads, Meta ecosystem), take over team communication, lead all 1:1s, and begin doing regular code reviews.
• By month 6, you'll be running deep, context-aware reviews that go beyond surface-level issues.
• By month 12, you'll be leading the architecture for mid-size projects and serving as the go-to technical lead for the backend team.

Requirements: 🧑‍🎤 Who are you?

• You've led a small engineering team (around 5-6 people), ideally in a startup. You've helped people grow, improved how the team works, and introduced lightweight processes that keep things moving without slowing the team down.
• You're confident in Go and Ruby, with solid PostgreSQL experience. Go is especially important right now, as it's where we need the most support. Ruby is also active in our stack, so both matter.
• You challenge ideas constructively and aren't afraid to say, "I think we should do it differently." You back it up with reasoning, helping the team adjust without creating blockers or friction.
• You're good at quick prototyping --- building simple MVPs that show value fast. You don't overengineer, but you know when to keep the bar high and when to let things be simple.
• Experience with Python is a plus, especially since we're building AI tool and services that rely on it. It's not required, but helpful.

Benefits: 💝 What do we offer?

• A chance to help build a future unicorn. We're working on a hype-worthy product with the potential to scale to tens of thousands of users. You'll be part of a team building AI-powered, agent-led marketing tools --- an area with huge momentum.
• High autonomy and real ownership. No bureaucracy, no micromanagement --- just the space to bring your own technical approach, shape decisions, and drive things forward at a high level.
• We're more than colleagues --- we're friends. Our culture is special. We genuinely like each other as people, create meaningful work, and enjoy spending time together.
• Competitive salary and various benefits:
  • 🏖 38 days of paid time off annually to take enough time to rest and explore the world.
  • ❤️ Full health insurance is provided through Alan or SafetyWing.
  • ✈️ $2000 annual holiday travel bonus for tickets and accommodation for yourself and your loved one.
  • 🎓 $2000 annual Learn & Development budget to upskill yourself.
  • 🫂 $2000 annual bonus for meeting with your team in Barcelona or another country.
  • 🇪🇸 Company's support in relocation to Barcelona.
  • 💻 Laptop budget to buy the latest MacBook (or other powerful gear).
  • 🌍 Regular team meet-ups and off-sites to work and have fun together.
  • 🏠 You can choose to work remotely or have a hybrid work arrangement if you are in Barcelona.
  • 🖥️ Co-working budget if you need a break from your home office.

🪩 What does our development process look like?

In our team, engineers, product managers, and designers all work in small product squads --- think of them as small but mighty internal startups that fully own their part of the product. In each squad typically we have one frontend engineer, one backend engineer, and one product designer.

Our process usually looks like this:

• We decide we want to build an app or feature, talk it through, and sketch out how it might look. Together with our designer, we create initial mockups.
• We discuss these mockups with engineers, figuring out what's simple, what's tricky, and how long it might take. We gather feedback and make any needed tweaks.
• We review the final design together and move into development. The developer starts coding and keeps everyone updated week by week.
• We typically work in two-week sprints. If tasks wrap up sooner, we pick up additional items (like updates or improvements).
• Every two weeks, we do a planning session to decide what comes next and keep the team aligned.

⛔️ Before you apply

Let's be honest --- working with us isn't all fun and pink unicorns (though it is a big part). Here are some potential challenges you'll face:

• High uncertainty. What we're building hasn't really been done before, or if it has, no one's talking about it. There are lots of unknowns, and we'll often need to invent new solutions and make technical leaps from scratch.
• Real risk of failure. Things might not work. The product might not take off. That's the nature of what we're doing. You'll need resilience and a founder-like mindset --- ready to learn from setbacks and keep moving without taking it personally.

If all of that is not an issue for you, we would be happy to receive your application 🫶