Description
Staff Backend Engineer (Kotlin/Java)
Location: Prague
Department: Product Engineering
Location Type: HYBRID
Employment Type: FULL_TIME
The opportunity
The way software is built is changing, and fast! Engineers who embrace AI-native workflows today will define the next decade of product development. Those who don’t? They will be explaining what they used to do.
At Productboard, this transformation to being AI native is not a side project; it is our entire focus. AI first is our operating model, and this is how we work. We are building an AI-first Product Engineering organization where learning velocity matters as much as shipping. Our northstar: turn ideas into validated learning twice as fast. More experiments. Tighter feedback loops. Better outcomes.
We are looking for a Staff Backend Engineer who wants to be at the center of this transformation, not watching it happen from the outside. You will work on technically critical and high-leverage areas like authentication, permissions, platform services, developer experience, and shared infrastructure - all foundational pieces that enable every product team at Productboard to move faster and build more reliably.
You’ll be a force multiplier: unblocking delivery, setting technical direction, and creating systems that raise the bar for engineering velocity and quality across the company. You’ll lead through technical strategy and execution, represent your team in cross-functional forums, and mentor engineers to become more effective. You’ll work closely with PMs and other tech leads to drive platform thinking and pragmatic architectural choices.
We value strong Kotlin skills and thoughtful backend design. Ruby experience is a big plus, but more important is your ability to think clearly and adapt - regardless of language. Join us, and help shape the future of AI-powered product development.
Why this matters for your career
The gap between engineers who are building with AI daily and those who are still watching is widening fast. At Productboard, you won't just use AI tools. You will shape the architecture that makes AI agents effective, define the workflows that make them reliable, and build the evaluation systems that make them trustworthy. You will work in an environment where AI first is not a future aspiration. It is the current standard.
The skills you build here, agent native design, multi-model orchestration, eval-driven development, AI-ready codebase architecture, are the skills that will define senior engineering for the next decade.
AI is how we build
This is not a tagline. It is our daily operating model across Engineering, Product, and Design. PMs and designers don't just spec features here. They prototype with AI tools and ship to production alongside engineers.
AI is embedded across the full lifecycle: technical discoveries, spec writing, design exploration, implementation, test generation, code review, CI/CD, and incident resolution. Human judgment stays in control. People own product intent and quality decisions, with strong review practices and guardrails that keep shipping safe.
What we are building underneath:
- Agent native architecture standards: clear API contracts, semantic naming, and well-defined module boundaries that keep AI effective as systems grow.
- A context infrastructure layer with repo versioned guidance that AI tools automatically load, improving the output of Cursor, Claude Code, and Codex simultaneously.
- AI agent workflows for on-call and incident resolution: triage alerts, pull logs, surface relevant history, and suggest remediation.
- Systematic optimization of AI code review to catch correctness, security, and maintainability issues earlier.
What you will do
- Identify and lead high-impact technical initiatives that improve platform scalability, reliability, or developer experience.
- Own complex system design and architectural decisions, collaborating across teams to align technical direction with product needs.
- Unblock your team by simplifying complexity, cutting scope when needed, and delivering pragmatic solutions that accelerate value delivery.
- Proactively tackle tech debt, instability, or bottlenecks that affect multiple teams - and build reusable solutions that serve the whole org.
- Write high-quality Kotlin (or Java) code and establish clear patterns, documentation, and design artifacts others can build on.
- Mentor engineers across levels, supporting their growth through pairing, feedback, and architectural guidance.
- Represent your team in cross-functional initiatives and engineering-wide discussions around architecture, tooling, or quality.
- Improve the reliability, observability, and performance of shared services - and contribute to our incident response practices.
- Make our codebase AI-ready: define clear module boundaries, improve API contracts, add semantic context, and build the structured documentation that makes AI agents more effective across every repo.
- Design and implement agent workflows that go beyond chat: multi-step reasoning, tool use, autonomous task execution, and human-gated checkpoints.
- Run experiments, validate with real users, and iterate based on evidence. We measure learning velocity, not just output.
- Collaborate closely with product managers and designers to shape what we build, not just how we build it. We expect a product mindset, not just technical execution.
- Act as a knowledge multiplier, sharing what you learn across and beyond your team to raise the bar for everyone.
About you
- Have 5+ years of professional engineering experience.
- 7+ years of professional experience building and evolving backend systems at scale, ideally on platform or infrastructure teams.
- Deep technical expertise in system design, distributed architectures, and scalable backend services.
- Strong proficiency in Kotlin or Java; Ruby experience is a plus - but more importantly, you’re language-agnostic and focus on good thinking.
- Proven ability to drive cross-team initiatives and technical strategy from concept through delivery.
- Experience improving developer experience, CI/CD pipelines, or service reliability across teams.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to drive alignment through crisp documentation and design artifacts (e.g. ADRs, RFCs).
- Experience mentoring and elevating engineers by creating systems, standards, and feedback loops that scale.
- A pragmatic, impact-driven mindset - you bias toward action and push for solutions that balance quality, scope, and speed.
- Bonus: Experience working on authentication, permissions, observability, or similar foundational concerns.
- Bonus: Curiosity to explore AI-based tooling for accelerating backend development or automation.
- Strong communication skills and collaborative mindset.
- Curiosity, adaptability, and a proactive, startup-friendly attitude.
- Bring product thinking to engineering work. You can articulate why something matters for users, not just how it works technically.
- Embrace AI as a daily tool in your own workflow. You use AI coding assistants, iterate on prompts, and constantly look for ways to move faster.
- Are curious about what agent native architecture looks like: how to structure codebases, APIs, and documentation so AI agents can operate effectively at scale.
Our tech stack
- Python for ML code
- Celery and Kubernetes for pipeline orchestration
- AWS, Docker, Helm, Kafka, Git, and CI/CD for real time services
- LangGraph for agent orchestration, Braintrust for observability and evaluation
- GraphQL, Postgres, Datadog, Sentry, and Looker
- Business tools: Slack, Jira, Google suite, Zoom, Notion
- Full Tech Stack
Our Benefits Include
💰Stock options
💻 MacBook + 34″ monitor
📚 Budget for online courses, books, and conferences
🏝️ 5 weeks of vacation + 9 sick days
🫶 Volunteer Days for you to help causes close to your heart
🥗 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
Relocation Opportunities
If joining us means making a move, we’re here to help make that transition easier.
Candidates must have the legal right to work in the EU. While we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this role, we’re happy to support relocation to Prague for candidates already authorized to work in the EU.
Relocation Support
We offer a one-time relocation bonus ranging from $6,000 to $13,000 USD, depending on your personal situation, whether you’re moving on your own or with a partner or family.
This bonus is intended to help offset moving expenses and support your transition into your new city. While it may not cover every cost, it provides meaningful financial support as you get settled.
If you’re thinking about relocating and want to explore what this could look like for you, we’d be happy to have that conversation.
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