Senior Backend Engineer

Join one of our platform teams and help us build the foundations and integrations that power Productboard – a one-of-a-kind product management system used by 5000+ global companies.

You will work on technically interesting and high-impact areas like Public APIs, integrations with third-party systems, automations, notifications, permissions, and more.

As a senior engineer (IC3), you'll lead the delivery of complex or ambiguous projects, driving clarity in technical and product scope while helping the team ship high-quality outcomes. You'll be a close partner to PMs and designers, ensuring we make pragmatic decisions, simplify complexity, and deliver iteratively. You'll also mentor other engineers and elevate the team's overall technical bar.

We value strong Kotlin or Java skills, product thinking, and a track record of owning outcomes. If you're motivated by impact, thrive in collaborative environments, and are excited to experiment with AI tools to accelerate development, we'd love to hear from you.

This role is primarily based in our Prague or Brno office with an office-centric hybrid schedule.

Responsibilities

As a Senior Backend Engineer (IC3), you will:

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of complex or ambiguous backend projects — breaking down business problems into technical plans, scoping effectively, and shipping iteratively.
• Collaborate closely with product managers and designers to define solutions that balance user needs, system complexity, and delivery speed.
• Contribute to roadmap discussions and continuously push the team toward better engineering practices and faster value delivery.
• Drive system-level improvements by identifying architectural bottlenecks or long-term technical debt, and pushing for pragmatic, scalable solutions.
• Write clean, maintainable, and efficient Kotlin (or Java) code — serving as a technical role model within the team.
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers by reviewing designs, pairing on implementation, and providing clear, actionable feedback.
• Represent your team's technical decisions during planning, retrospectives, and incident postmortems.
• Participate in the on-call rotation and improve the reliability and observability of your services over time.

Requirements

• 4+ years of professional experience building and maintaining backend systems at scale
• Deep experience with distributed architectures, API design, and backend performance tuning
• Strong proficiency in Kotlin or Java, with a proven ability to lead feature and system design discussions
• Ability to drive projects from problem definition through delivery, including scoping, risk mitigation, and cross-functional communication
• Familiarity with tools like PostgreSQL, Kafka, GraphQL, and AWS
• Experience mentoring other engineers and improving team-wide engineering quality
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to simplify complex ideas and influence technical decisions
• A pragmatic, product-focused mindset — you care about delivering value, not just code
• Bonus: Experience working on platform teams or API ecosystems
• Bonus: Comfort experimenting with AI-powered development tools to improve velocity or reduce toil

Our Tech Stack

You'll work with the following frameworks, tools, and languages:

• Frontend: TypeScript, React, GraphQL
• Backend: Kotlin, Ruby, Kafka
• Storage: PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Elastic, Redis
• Data Pipeline: Python, Keboola, Looker, Snowflake
• Infrastructure: AWS, Cloudflare, Kubernetes, Terraform
• Business tools: Slack, Jira, Google suite, Zoom, Notion
• Full Tech Stack

You Can Look Forward to the Following Benefits

• Stock options
• MacBook + 34″ monitor
• Budget for online courses, books, and conferences
• 5 weeks of vacation + sick days
• 1 Volunteer Day per year for you to help causes close to your heart
• Carrot Fertility Benefits
• Free snacks, drinks, and yummy catered lunches
• MultiSport card to access sports facilities
• Flexible working hours and home office
• Parental benefits
• Language lessons
• Mental Wellness Program to support your well-being and self-care
• Hone

– Live, interactive learning programs for managers, leaders, and teams

About Productboard

Productboard is the customer-centric product management platform that helps organizations get the right products to market, faster. Over 4,000 companies, including One Medical, Salesforce, Cartier, Autodesk, and UiPath use Productboard to understand what customers need, prioritize what to build next, and rally everyone around their roadmap.

With offices in San Francisco, Brno, and Prague, Productboard is backed by leading investors like Tiger Global Management, Dragoneer Investment Group, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Credo Ventures.

In January 2022, we closed our $125M Series D round, which put us into the Unicorn category of companies, with a valuation of $1.7B.

• Join at the golden startup age — established stability of a Unicorn with space for individual impact.
• You'll enjoy an exciting team atmosphere, building a whole new category of software.
• You can help change the way that products are built all over the world.
• We iterate quickly, and decisions are fast. You'll have a voice in what we do and see the impact of your work.
• We are backed by top Silicon Valley investors, giving us access to capital, networks, mentors, and new markets.
• We are recognized as one of the hottest tech startups on the market today, named by Forbes magazine and Business Insider as one of the best startup employers to bet your career on.

About our culture

Imagine working in a place where everything matters — most importantly, you. At Productboard, values aren't just something we like to talk about, they're something we live and breathe. We believe in creating a work environment where:

• People feel empowered, supported, and included
• Trust and transparency are built into the way we work
• Creativity, curiosity, and continuous improvement are encouraged and nurtured every day

Forming our company values was a group effort, with every employee allowed to contribute. From profit-sharing initiatives, like stock options, to open calendars and communication, we don't waste time on politics or ego. We champion openness by sharing our goals, successes, and failures.

Join colleagues who are passionate about what they do. Team members who are invested in their work environment, and the future of Productboard. Help shape our company, culture, and product

Check out our

LinkedIn Life page

, or listen to our

People of Productboard

podcast for a real feel of what life is like at Productboard.

Equal Opportunity Employer Statement

We are an equal opportunity employer and champion equity. We aim to help people from all backgrounds, cultures, and groups realize their full potential at Productboard. We do not tolerate any discrimination or harassment based on gender identity, race, color, religion, age, sexual orientation, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status, or any other bias covered by appropriate law. All aspects of employment, including hiring, training, promotion, and terminations, are based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We are committed to an inclusive hiring process and provide all candidates with equal opportunity to demonstrate their abilities. Togetherness is one of our core values, and our

Diversity Council

helps to ensure that we uphold the values of authenticity, humanity, and diversity to create an environment where every person matters. We are committed to leading by example to drive societal change.