Backend Engineering Lead

Job Description Join a large-scale digital commerce organization as a Backend Engineering Lead, driving the design, development, and delivery of mission-critical backend systems. This role combines hands-on engineering, technical leadership, stakeholder management, and cross-functional collaboration in a bilingual environment. Description * Lead backend development initiatives from requirement gathering and technical planning through deployment and post-release support. * Collaborate with product managers, engineers, and business stakeholders in both Japanese and English to define project scope and technical solutions. * Design and develop scalable backend services, Web APIs, and batch processing systems. * Drive architectural decisions with a focus on performance, reliability, maintainability, and security. * Create technical specifications, design documents, and engineering proposals. * Review code, establish development standards, and promote engineering best practices. * Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership across project teams. * Present technical recommendations and project updates to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. * Improve team productivity through process enhancement and technical innovation. * Ensure high-quality delivery of backend solutions within a complex e-commerce ecosystem. Profile Experience & Leadership * 5+ years of professional backend development experience. * 3+ years of technical leadership, team lead, or people management experience. * Proven experience delivering complex software projects from planning through production release. * Track record of working with cross-functional teams including Product, Frontend, QA, and Business stakeholders. Language Skills * Business-level Japanese and English communication skills. * Ability to participate in stakeholder discussions, requirement gathering, and technical presentations in both languages. Technical Skills * Strong expertise in Java and Spring Boot within large-scale production environments. * Deep understanding of RESTful API design, authentication, and authorization. * Advanced experience with relational databases such as MySQL or PostgreSQL, including schema design, optimization, and transaction management. * Hands-on experience with Docker, containerized environments, and CI/CD pipelines. * Strong knowledge of software development best practices and code review processes. * Solid understanding of secure software development, web security principles, and risk mitigation. * Experience designing scalable, reliable distributed systems and microservices architectures. Preferred Qualifications * Agile/Scrum delivery experience. * Experience acting as a technical point of contact for stakeholders. * Background creating RFCs, technical specifications, or architecture documentation. * Familiarity with tools such as Jira, Asana, Linear, or Notion. * Experience partnering with Product teams on roadmap planning. * Understanding of e-commerce business models and customer journeys. * Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP. * Knowledge of modern architecture patterns including DDD, Clean Architecture, and SOLID principles. Job Offer * Opportunity to lead technical initiatives and mentor engineering talent. * End-to-end ownership across planning, architecture, development, and deployment. * Exposure to high-traffic, consumer-facing digital commerce systems. * Modern engineering environment leveraging AI-assisted development tools. * International and multicultural collaboration across global teams. * Access to cutting-edge technologies including Java, Spring Boot, Kubernetes, Kafka, cloud-native services, and large-scale distributed systems. * Hybrid work environment in Tokyo. * Excellent opportunity to influence product direction and business outcomes through close stakeholder engagement.