Lead Backend Engineer
About Tonsser
Tonsser is on a mission to redefine youth sports. Hundreds of thousands of young athletes across Europe already use Tonsser to track their performance, get discovered, and feel part of something bigger than the next match. We're now starting our most ambitious chapter yet, a new project that will reshape an entire category, and we're looking for a Lead Backend Engineer to help us build it.
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The Role
You'll own the architecture of the Tonsser platform as we move into this next phase. That means making the foundational technical decisions for a product used by a generation of athletes and setting the bar for how a small, ambitious team builds in 2026.
This is a hands-on lead role. You'll write code, shape the system, and set the technical direction. You'll also help us level up as a team, particularly around how we adopt AI as a core part of how we build and what we ship.
What you'll do
Lead the architectural direction of our backend platform as we evolve from where we are today toward what's next
Drive the technical roadmap for our new flagship project
Set the standard for how the team works with AI, both in our development workflow and as a product capability
Ship production code, review PRs, and mentor the engineers around you
Partner closely with product, mobile, and design to turn ambitious ideas into things that actually work at scale
Make pragmatic calls about what to keep, what to evolve, and what to rebuild
Our current stack
Ruby monolith with a GraphQL API
SQL (PostgreSQL)
Hosted on Heroku
Native iOS and Android apps, with the ambition to move to Kotlin Multiplatform
We're not dogmatic about the stack, we're looking for someone who can help us decide what stays, what changes, and what comes next.
What we're looking for
Significant experience as a senior or lead backend engineer, ideally with time spent owning architecture decisions in a production environment
Deep comfort with at least one of Ruby, Python, Elixir, Go, or a similar modern backend language, and the judgement to know when language choice matters and when it doesn't
Strong opinions on API design, data modelling, and system evolution
Hands-on experience integrating AI/LLM capabilities into real products, or a strong, demonstrable interest in doing so
Experience leading or mentoring other engineers
Comfortable working remotely across European timezones
Bonus: experience with consumer-scale mobile backends, GraphQL, or Kotlin Multiplatform
The shape of the role
Location: Remote, anywhere in Europe
Engagement: Open to starting as a freelance contract, with the clear intention of moving to a permanent role
Compensation: ā¬80,000āā¬90,000, with flexibility based on experience
How to applySend us a short note about what you've built, what you're looking for next, and why this caught your eye. We read every application.
\nā¬80,000 - ā¬90,000 a year
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Apply To This Job
Tonsser is on a mission to redefine youth sports. Hundreds of thousands of young athletes across Europe already use Tonsser to track their performance, get discovered, and feel part of something bigger than the next match. We're now starting our most ambitious chapter yet, a new project that will reshape an entire category, and we're looking for a Lead Backend Engineer to help us build it.
\n
The Role
You'll own the architecture of the Tonsser platform as we move into this next phase. That means making the foundational technical decisions for a product used by a generation of athletes and setting the bar for how a small, ambitious team builds in 2026.
This is a hands-on lead role. You'll write code, shape the system, and set the technical direction. You'll also help us level up as a team, particularly around how we adopt AI as a core part of how we build and what we ship.
What you'll do
Lead the architectural direction of our backend platform as we evolve from where we are today toward what's next
Drive the technical roadmap for our new flagship project
Set the standard for how the team works with AI, both in our development workflow and as a product capability
Ship production code, review PRs, and mentor the engineers around you
Partner closely with product, mobile, and design to turn ambitious ideas into things that actually work at scale
Make pragmatic calls about what to keep, what to evolve, and what to rebuild
Our current stack
Ruby monolith with a GraphQL API
SQL (PostgreSQL)
Hosted on Heroku
Native iOS and Android apps, with the ambition to move to Kotlin Multiplatform
We're not dogmatic about the stack, we're looking for someone who can help us decide what stays, what changes, and what comes next.
What we're looking for
Significant experience as a senior or lead backend engineer, ideally with time spent owning architecture decisions in a production environment
Deep comfort with at least one of Ruby, Python, Elixir, Go, or a similar modern backend language, and the judgement to know when language choice matters and when it doesn't
Strong opinions on API design, data modelling, and system evolution
Hands-on experience integrating AI/LLM capabilities into real products, or a strong, demonstrable interest in doing so
Experience leading or mentoring other engineers
Comfortable working remotely across European timezones
Bonus: experience with consumer-scale mobile backends, GraphQL, or Kotlin Multiplatform
The shape of the role
Location: Remote, anywhere in Europe
Engagement: Open to starting as a freelance contract, with the clear intention of moving to a permanent role
Compensation: ā¬80,000āā¬90,000, with flexibility based on experience
How to applySend us a short note about what you've built, what you're looking for next, and why this caught your eye. We read every application.
\nā¬80,000 - ā¬90,000 a year
\n
Apply To This Job