Technical Lead

Tech Lead - Reliability & Distributed Product Engineering About AlmabaseWe are on a mission to make education affordable to everyone by helping universities & schools build better relationships with their alumni, which leads to increased donations.Democratizing quality education: Quality education is a great equalizer. When many students receive scholarships to access education because of alumni generosity they pay-it-forward when they have the capacity to do so. We derive our inspiration from actions like thisBuilding a large profitable business: We envision building a capital-efficient, large profitable business to achieve our mission of democratising quality education. This means less dependence on investors & more ownership with the team. We are one of the few profitable Indian SaaS startups building Value SaaS.Employee Wellness Customer Success: We give as much importance to each team member's personal & professional success as much as we care about our customer's success. We believe it's all about balance. Our recent WFH policies reflect this belief.Mission: Make education affordable by helping universities & schools build better relationships with alumni, leading to increased donations.Impact so far:3 M alumni connected450 k students impacted$25 M donations raised54 M engagement opportunities created32 months profitableCulture & Benefits: We live by a principle of Freedom & Responsibility, underpinned by an unwavering commitment to efficiency. We are an AI-first operating company, which means we actively invest in your professional growth and AI fluency. Expect dedicated time and resources for you to learn, experiment with, and adopt the latest AI tools to optimize your role—from coding and testing to strategic planning. Our comprehensive package includes: great salary & equity, holistic growth opportunities, full transparency, unlimited PTO & WFH flexibility, health insurance, and great food & workplace perks. The OpportunityWe are hiring Tech Leads who work across the entire Almabase product suite — not limited to a single product.You will lead technical execution, reliability, and system performance across:EventsGivingDigital Engagement Platform (DEP)Communication (Email/SMS)Payments (BBMS, Chariot, ACH)CRM Integrations (RE NXT, Salesforce, SFTP)Core Systems (Redis, queues, workers, async pipelines)This is a horizontal, system-wide leadership role that ensures Almabase's products remain reliable, fast, secure, and scalable. Role & Responsibilities1. Reliability Across All Products (Primary Accountability)You are responsible for reliability metrics across the engineering org:Uptime & SLA adherenceP95 latency for pages and APIsSentry error trends & bug leakageDistributed system correctness (sync, async, batching, retries)Queue depth & worker throughputRedis performance and stabilityEvent/Giving day high-traffic readinessSystemic root-cause analysis & permanent fixesYou are the technical owner for: "Why did this break?" and "How do we ensure it never happens again?"2. Architecture & ScalingWork closely with the Sr. Technical Lead to:Shape architecture across all productsImprove data models and API designIntroduce distributed system patterns (idempotent flows, orchestration, fan-out)Build scalable async pipelinesPlan capacity for spikes (Giving Days, large events)Design fail-safes, timeouts, and circuit breakers3. Hands-On Engineering LeadershipLead design reviews across teamsUnblock engineers on complex issuesOwn cross-product refactorsDrive clean code, testing standards, and observability-first developmentMentor engineers on system design and debuggingThis is a technical execution role, not a people-management role.4. Observability & MonitoringDefine SLIs/SLOs across productsBuild dashboards and alerting (Datadog, Sentry, logs, traces)Ensure issues are detected before customers noticeWork with Core Systems to instrument distributed flows deeply5. Security & ComplianceYou will ensure product work aligns with:SOC 2 Type II requirementsSecure coding practicesProper secrets handlingAudit logging, access correctness, and data integrityAPI protection & permission correctness6. Cross-Functional CollaborationWork directly with:Product → turn specs into technically realistic scopesCustomer Success & Support → understand failures deeplyCore Systems → ensure infra reliability (Redis, queues, workers)QA → define proper test strategy (load, integration, failure modes)You function as a technical glue across pods. RequirementsMust Have3–4+ years backend engineering experience (Python preferred)Strong understanding of distributed systemsDeep understanding of sql databases and query optimisationDeep experience with Redis, queues, async jobs, retries, and fan-out flowsStrong debugging skills across infra + app layersAbility to lead design decisions across multiple teamsSolid data modeling & performance optimization experienceExperience improving system reliability at scaleExcellent communication & collaboration skillsNice to HaveDatadog / Sentry / ElasticsearchExperience with RE NXT, Salesforce, or large CRM systemsPrior reliability ownership for multi-product SaaSExperience with secure coding / SOC 2 practices What Success Looks Like0–3 MonthsUnderstand full architecture of Events/Giving/DEP/CommunicationDeliver immediate reliability wins (latency drops, error reductions)Become the go-to technical problem solver across pods4–6 MonthsEstablish clear SLIs/SLOs for all key systemsIntroduce meaningful architectural guardrailsReduce Sentry noise and bug leakage significantly7–12 MonthsAchieve 99.9–99.99% uptime across core productsEnsure predictable behavior of async pipelinesImprove performance across high-traffic surfacesEngineering teams move faster because systems are cleaner and more stable Why This Role Is High ImpactYou influence reliability across every product used by millions of alumniYou solve high-stakes problems like Giving Day load spikesYou help Almabase become a reliability-first, AI-first engineering orgYou operate with massive ownership and autonomyYour work directly impacts scholarships, donor generosity, and educational access