Senior Backend - Technical lead

Job Title: Senior Backend - Technical lead

Employment type: Contract (Full-time)

Contract length: 6 months

Location: Almaty, Kazakhstan (On-site)

PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Technical Specialist (Backend) to join our project team. This role requires a strong backend engineering background with the ability to design, develop, and scale secure, high-performance systems that support global payment solutions.

The successful candidate will play a key role in driving technical excellence, contributing to architecture decisions, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver resilient and scalable services. This position also involves supporting the continuous evolution of our technology stack in line with global digital payment standards.

Core Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable, secure, and high-performance backend systems that support mission-critical global payment platforms.
• Contribute to and influence system architecture decisions, ensuring alignment with enterprise standards, scalability requirements, and best practices across distributed systems and microservices.
• Ensure systems meet stringent performance benchmarks while adhering to security standards and regulatory requirements relevant to global digital payments, including data protection and transaction integrity.
• Work closely with product managers, frontend engineers, DevOps, and other stakeholders to deliver end-to-end solutions, ensuring seamless integration and alignment with business objectives.
• Drive ongoing enhancements to the technology stack by adopting modern frameworks, tools, and practices, while promoting engineering excellence through code quality, reviews, and process optimization.

Knowledge and Experience:

• Extensive experience with PostgreSQL (SQL), including indexing, partitioning, and query optimization.
• Strong proficiency in Golang, including frameworks such as Gin, GORM, and Sarama.
• Solid foundational knowledge of Kafka.
• Strong architectural design skills with understanding of performance, security, data consistency, and completeness.
• Experience with microservices, event-driven architecture, distributed systems, and API design.
• Ability to produce technical documentation (UML, architecture diagrams).

Mandatory Skills:

• Bachelor's degree in Technology, or a related field (Master's preferred).
• Previous experience within Banking, Digital Payment & Card solutions or the FinTech industry.
• Regional experience across Kazakhstan, including working in a faced-paced matrix organisation.
• Excellent communication skills (written, verbal, and presentation) in English.

Preferred Skills:

• The ability to analyse data, troubleshoot payment issues, optimize processes, and make data-driven decisions.
• Good understanding of payment systems, digital platforms, system workflows, security basics, and industry technologies.
• An understanding of regional regulations across financial services or payment networks.