Zenskar - Tech Lead - Backend Architecture - IIT/BITS

About This Role

Zenskar is building the operational backbone for how B2B enterprises run their business. As a Tech Lead on the backend team, you will own the technical direction for a core domain of the platform - the systems where correctness is non-negotiable, scale is unforgiving, and the edge cases never stop coming while mentoring the Senior Engineers in your pod.

This is a hands-on role : you're writing code and designing systems yourself, day to day, while also pairing on hard problems, reviewing the work of the engineers around you, and being the person who figures out what's actually broken before it becomes a fire. You'll report into the Engineering Manager / Head of Engineering. This is not a feature-factory role. You are here to raise the level of abstraction the team works at, not to ship tickets faster.

What You'll Own

• Design and build core platform services that handle complex business logic reliably at scale
• Architect and own integrations with external enterprise systems, each with their own quirks, rate limits, and failure modes
• Build APIs that enterprise engineering teams actually want to integrate with, not just ones that technically work
• Own production debugging end to end : diagnose issues across services using logs, traces, and metrics, and make incidents boring rather than fires
• Embed security and compliance thinking into your systems by default, not as a retrofit
• Mentor the Senior Backend Engineers in your pod : pair on hard problems, review their work, and help them grow as engineers
• Set the architectural direction for your domain : choose the frameworks, patterns, and abstractions the team builds on, and make the calls that shape the platform for years
• Lead design reviews and code reviews, and set the technical standard the rest of the team calibrates against
• Hold a clear bar for quality, follow-through, and ownership across the engineers you work with, and make sure work is healthy in production, not just merged
• Partner with product, implementation, and customer success as the engineer who understands the system deeply enough to push back when requirements are wrong
• Raise the bar for the engineers around you without slowing the team down
  
  

The Impact You'll Make

• The systems and frameworks you set up become the foundation the rest of the backend team builds on
• Architectural decisions you make now will define how the platform scales over the next several years
• You will shorten the time from new enterprise requirement to production-ready system, enabling the company to move faster without breaking things
• You will raise the engineering quality bar for the team through the standards you set, the reviews you run, and the code you ship
• You will work on problems that don't have obvious solutions and your judgment will determine the outcome
  
  

Must Have

• 6-8 years of professional software development experience building production systems at real companies
• CS degree or equivalent (B.Tech/B.E./B.S.), strong fundamentals in data structures, algorithms, OS, and networking
• Can describe the hard problems they have solved, why they were difficult, and what changed as a result, not just a list of technologies used
• Deep proficiency in at least one backend language; language matters less than depth and engineering judgment
• Strong system design instincts : can reason through tradeoffs, failure modes, and long-term maintainability under pressure
• Has set technical direction before : defined architecture, frameworks, or standards that other engineers built on, not just owned their own slice
• Has driven quality and accountability across a team, formally
  
  

Good To Have

• Hands-on observability : comfortable diagnosing complex issues across distributed services using logs, traces, and performance metrics, not just setting up dashboards
• Security and compliance awareness (SOC 2, DPDPA, or similar) with a grasp of the engineering implications, not just the checkbox
• Experience with event-driven architectures : Kafka, NATS, or RabbitMQ in production
• Cloud platform experience (AWS preferred), deploying and operating services at scale
• Early-stage startup experience : comfortable with ambiguity, evolving requirements, and wearing multiple hats
• Background in multi-tenant enterprise software : external integrations, enterprise workflows
• Strong testing culture : unit, integration, and e2e as a default, not an afterthought
• Containerization and CI/CD : Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions
• Uses AI coding tools like Cursor or GitHub Copilot to move faster without compromising quality
• Experience with financial systems, billing platforms, or fintech applications
• API design and integration experience
  
  

What Drives You

• You can go deep on the hard problems you have solved : the why, the tradeoffs, the outcome
• You ask 'what happens when this fails?' before shipping anything
• You own problems, not tasks : you follow through until the system is healthy, not just until the PR is merged
• You set direction without taking over : you make the engineers around you better instead of becoming the single point of knowledge
• You have strong opinions on system design but hold them loosely : you change your mind when the evidence does
• You thrive in a fast-moving environment where the requirements evolve and the answers aren't always obvious
• Not taking yourself too :
• Hybrid - 2 days per week
• Office Location : Indiranagar, Bengaluru.
• Address : 3rd Floor, A wing No 1, Carlton Towers, HAL Old Airport Rd, HAL 2nd Stage, Indiranagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560008.
  
  

Interview Process

Our interview process is designed to be structured, transparent, and efficient :

• R0 Recruiter Screening : Quick conversation to assess basic fit and role expectations.
• Round 1 - Introductory Chat : Focused on your career journey, key projects, technical depth, ownership, decision-making, and the impact you've driven in previous roles. We recommend reviewing the job description & CEOs recorded videos before this step.
• Round 2 - System Design (HLD & LLD) :
• High-Level Design (HLD) : Evaluates your ability to architect scalable, reliable systems and make sound trade-offs.
• Low-Level Design (LLD) : Assesses detailed design thinking, code structure, maintainability, and implementation choices.
• Reference Checks : We request contact details of two former direct managers. The hiring manager will connect with them to better understand your working style and alignment with Zenskars culture.
• Round 3 - Bar Raiser : Focuses on leadership, team collaboration, stakeholder management, engineering judgment, execution, and overall fit with Zenskar's culture and expectations. This serves as the final bar-raiser discussion.
  
  

The process may vary slightly depending on the role and whether we feel it would be useful for you to connect with additional members of the team

(ref:hirist.tech)