Lead Software Engineer - Backend

Lead Software EngineerLocation: BengaluruExperience: 7+ years

About Pocket FMAt our core, we are an AI-powered entertainment company with a deeply human-first philosophy. We believe technology should amplify creativity. Our proprietary AI systems work alongside writers, voice artists, and creative teams to help stories scale globally, faster, smarter, and with cultural depth and emotional integrity intact.

Today, Pocket FM is home to a vibrant community of 350+ million listeners, 500,000+ creators, and 100,000+ audio series. With over 140 billion minutes streamed annually, we have emerged as one of the fastest-growing media-tech companies in the world, and we are just getting started. We operate at a massive global scale, but with a startup mindset: curious, fast-moving, and deeply owner-driven. At Pocket FM, teams are encouraged to think boldly, move with intent, and build for long-term impact as we shape the future of audio-first storytelling worldwide.

About the role:The Lead Software Engineer is a senior technical leader responsible for owning delivery and technical outcomes for a defined engineering POD. The role spans Backend and Frontend systems and partners closely with Product, Design, QA and Data teams to deliver scalable, reliable and high quality product features.This role requires strong system design skills, hands-on technical depth and the ability to align multiple stakeholders toward predictable delivery outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Product and Delivery OwnershipCollaborate with Product and Design teams to understand requirements, user flows and success metrics.Lead technical discovery, scope finalisation and solution design across Backend and Frontend components.Own end to end execution for the assigned POD, including planning, estimation, dependency management and delivery tracking.Proactively align scope, timelines and dependencies across engineering, QA and data teams.

Technical LeadershipOwn system design and architectural decisions for features spanning APIs, services and user facing applications.Act as the primary technical authority for the POD, balancing near term delivery with long term platform health.Ensure consistent engineering standards, design principles and coding practices across Backend and Frontend work.Provide hands-on technical guidance and unblock teams during complex implementation or integration challenges.Participate in hiring through technical interviews and candidate evaluation.

Delivery and ExecutionTrack delivery progress against agreed milestones and communicate risks early with mitigation plans.Partner with QA to ensure release readiness and quality gates are met.Support post release monitoring, performance analysis and iterative improvements based on production signals.Drive predictable delivery by breaking down work, assigning ownership, tracking progress and course correcting when needed within the team.

Reliability and Incident ManagementLead incident response for production issues, coordinating across engineering, product and operations teams.Drive root cause analysis, corrective actions and long term preventive measures.Identify recurring failure patterns and champion reliability, observability and operational improvements.

Mentorship and Team DevelopmentMentor engineers through design discussions, code reviews and ongoing technical feedback.Raise the overall technical bar of the POD by promoting strong engineering practices and ownership mindset.Partner with the Engineering Manager by providing input on performance trends, growth areas and team health.

What You Will Need for this Position:Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience.6+ years of experience building and delivering production software systems.Prior experience leading a small team or POD with accountability for delivery and technical outcomes.Strong hands on experience with Backend technologies such as Python or Golang and familiarity with modern Frontend frameworks such as React or similar.Solid understanding of system design, APIs, data stores, cloud infrastructure and distributed systems.Experience operating in a scaled engineering environment with multiple teams and shared dependencies.Demonstrated ability to drive execution through influence rather than formal authority.Strong communication skills to explain technical tradeoffs to both technical and non technical stakeholders.Ability to manage ambiguity, prioritise effectively and operate with a high level of ownership.

Bonus QualitiesThe following experience or interests will be considered a strong plus:Experience with AI assisted development workflows, including the use of tools such as Cursor, Claude Code or similar systems to improve developer productivity and code quality.Research oriented mindset toward emerging AI tools, frameworks and techniques, with the ability to evaluate, prototype or build internal tooling, automation or instrumentation where it adds clear engineering value.Experience working with content management systems, content pipelines or large scale content platforms.Strong understanding of application security, including secure coding practices, data protection, access control and handling sensitive user or content related data.

Current Technology StackWhile this role does not require prior experience with every technology listed below, familiarity with modern Backend and Frontend systems at scale is expected.BackendLanguages: Python, GolangArchitecture: Microservices, REST and event driven systemsDatastores: Relational and NoSQL databasesMessaging and Streaming: Kafka, RabbitMQ or equivalentInfrastructure: Cloud based deployment on AWS or equivalentFrontendLanguages and Frameworks: JavaScript, React or similar modern frameworksApplication Architecture: Component driven design, performance focused UI patternsPlatform and Engineering PracticesCI/CD pipelinesObservability, monitoring and alerting systemsAutomated testing and code quality tooling

You can get more updates, insights and everything behind the scenes at Pocket FM here - Pocket FM