Lead Backend Engineer

Tide is seeking a highly skilled and motivated Lead Backend Engineer with expertise in Python and AI to join our innovative team in Delhi, India. This pivotal role involves building the foundational platform for cutting-edge generative AI and agentic applications that will drive business-wide solutions. The ideal candidate will possess a strong backend software engineering background, complemented by practical experience in developing and deploying AI/ML models, particularly within the Generative AI domain.

As a Lead Backend Engineer, you will be instrumental in:

• Designing, constructing, and maintaining scalable and robust systems powered by Generative AI and agentic capabilities.
• Collaborating with data scientists and fellow engineers to develop our internal Agentic Platform, establishing reusable components and services.
• Implementing and optimizing data pipelines essential for training and evaluating AI models.
• Ensuring the reliability, observability, and high performance of our AI-driven systems through rigorous testing, advanced CI/CD practices, and comprehensive monitoring.
• Staying abreast of the latest breakthroughs in AI, large language models (LLMs), and agentic systems, and applying this knowledge to address complex business challenges.

We are looking for candidates with:

• Demonstrated experience in architecting, building, and managing enterprise-scale distributed systems and microservices.
• A proficient backend developer with a strong foundation in Python.
• A keen interest in and hands-on experience with machine learning and Generative AI, including:
• Proficiency with LLMs and their practical applications.
• Experience in prompting techniques and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).
• Familiarity with frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, or similar tools.
• A solid understanding of the end-to-end AI/ML model lifecycle, from data acquisition to deployment, testing, and ongoing monitoring.
• Practical experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP) and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
• A firm grasp of CI/CD principles and experience with tools like GitHub Actions.
• Exceptional problem-solving abilities and the capacity to thrive in a collaborative, fast-paced environment.
• Familiarity with data storage solutions, including relational databases and data warehouses (BigQuery).
• A drive for innovation and a passion for creating impactful, state-of-the-art products.

Desirable skills include:

• Experience with event-driven architectures and message queues (Kafka, AWS SNS/SQS).
• Familiarity with vector databases.
• Experience with MLOps tools and methodologies.

Our technology stack includes (but is not limited to):

• Databricks on AWS
• Python Flask
• Snowflake
• Tecton - feature store
• Fiddler - model observability platform

What we offer:

• Competitive compensation package with salary and share options.
• Generous annual leave.
• Comprehensive parental leave.
• Sabbatical options for extended breaks.
• Private family health insurance with OPD coverage.
• Life & Accident Cover.
• Mental wellbeing support, including therapy sessions and courses.
• Paid volunteering and development days.
• An annual budget for learning and development.
• Opportunity to work outside the office (WOO) for up to 90 days annually.
• Home office setup contribution.
• Laptop ownership program.
• Office perks including snacks, coffee, tea, and lunch (location dependent).

Tide champions a flexible workplace model, supporting both in-person and remote work to meet team needs. While remote work is supported, we value face-to-face interactions for team spirit and collaboration, with offices designed as hubs for innovation and community building.