Staff Product Engineer, Backend, Java

Role Overview

• Own the system design on our biggest projects. You're working on major new features — not picking up a ticket, but writing the technical spec, presenting the architecture, getting alignment, and driving it to production. And working on it with the team in a state they can own.
• Lead our multi-tenant evolution. Today each customer gets their own workspace. As we grow, we're building support for organisations that need to manage multiple sub-tenants — think a holding company overseeing compliance across several subsidiaries, or a consultancy managing certifications for a portfolio of clients. You'll design the architecture that makes that possible cleanly and at scale.
• Build our first AI product. We're moving from "we use AI in our tooling" to "we ship AI to customers." This is a meaningful shift — and one of the most technically interesting challenges we've faced. You'll help define what that looks like and lead the backend architecture that makes it real.
• Lay the foundations for agentic AI. Longer-term, we're building towards AI that can autonomously run compliance workflows. The technical decisions made now will define how we get there. You'll be making them.
• Bring AI-assisted engineering to the whole team. You're genuinely curious about how AI tooling is changing the way we build — and you share that curiosity openly. You try new tools, figure out what actually works, and bring the rest of the team along with you. Not through formal sessions, but through the natural back-and-forth of working together day to day.
• Grow alongside the team. You care about the engineers around you. You review system designs thoughtfully, give real feedback on code, and help people work through hard problems — not by taking over, but by thinking out loud with them. Everyone gets better together.

Requirements

• 8+ years of OOP backend or product engineering experience, with a track record of owning large, complex systems end-to-end
• Experience building or integrating AI/ML features in production
• Practical experience working with LLMs and RAG-based systems — designing pipelines, managing context, and shipping AI features reliably
• Strong OOP fundamentals, Spring Boot, Hibernate (or equivalent frameworks)
• Experience leading system design on significant projects — not just contributing to them
• Relational database design and SQL optimisation
• Experience mentoring engineers and giving substantive design feedback
• Strong written communication; comfortable working async across timezones
• Able to work in European timezone (CET/CEST)

Tech Stack

• Hibernate
• Spring
• Spring Boot
• SpringBoot
• SQL

Benefits

• Remote: 100% remote with a real virtual office in Gather
• Salary: Local market rates at or above benchmark — we follow the GitLab pay philosophy
• Equity: Generous package — we're all owners here
• Development budget: €1,000/year — yours to spend on whatever makes you better
• Workspace: Remote workspace support + co-working access
• Holidays: 26 days + local public holidays
• Health insurance: Comprehensive coverage
• Annual retreat: Last year we went to Costa Brava 1f1e9
• Tech: MacBook, monitors, headphones — the latest