Lead Software Engineer
Porto, Portugal · Hybrid (3 days in-office) · €60–70K base + benefits
Build the technology behind the world's leading luxury brands
PlatformE is the operating system for made-to-order, a platform trusted by World’s top luxury brands . When a client configures a bespoke product at one of these houses — online or in-boutique, our platform is what makes it real, at scale, across digital and physical touchpoints.
We're a small, senior team (London · Porto) shipping production software that sits inside some of the most demanding brands on earth. You'll have more ownership here in your first month than in years at a larger company.
The role
We're looking for a Lead Engineer who wants to stay hands-on. You'll be the senior technical anchor of our Porto engineering team — the person who owns the architecture and sets the standard in the codebase. You'll work alongside a strong DevOps/infrastructure engineer and a QA engineer, with the room and the mandate to shape and grow the team as we scale. This is a builder's leadership role, not a meetings-and-roadmaps one: you'll still be writing and reviewing code every week.
You'll work closely with the founder on key technical decisions and the future evolution of the platform.
Every technical decision you make will directly influence a platform powering personalised commerce for some of the world's leading luxury brands, giving you the opportunity to solve complex engineering challenges with real business impact.
What you'll actually do
- Own the architecture and technical direction of our personalisation platform, and keep shipping alongside the team.
- Write and review code, prototype new capabilities, and set the bar for quality and delivery speed.
- Lead and grow a small team — a capable DevOps/infrastructure engineer and a QA engineer today — setting technical direction, unblocking them, and raising the level as we scale.
- Lead by example, setting high standards for quality, ownership and continuous improvement.
- Coach and mentor engineers through technical guidance, regular feedback and collaborative problem solving.
- Modernize how we build and run: strengthen our CI/CD, infrastructure and observability so releases are boring and reliable.
- Put AI to work in the product and in how we build it — from personalisation to automation, testing and internal tooling.
- Keep security and compliance (GDPR, SOC2-aligned) built in, not bolted on.
- Translate what our brand clients need into technical decisions the business can stand behind.
What we're looking for
- 5+ years building production software, with real depth in Python (and comfort across the stack — React/TypeScript on the front end).
- Experience owning systems end-to-end: you've made architectural decisions and lived with the consequences.
- You've led, mentored, or set technical direction for other engineers, formally or informally, and raised the level around you — people shipped better and faster because you were there.
- Solid, pragmatic DevOps instincts — Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD — enough to keep the lights on and improve the setup, without needing to be a full-time SRE.
- A genuine startup temperament: resourceful, decisive, comfortable when priorities move.
- Clear communicator who takes ownership by default.
Nice to have: e-commerce integration experience (Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento); personalisation / rendering / configuration pipelines; hands-on curiosity about AI/agent tooling (MCP, code agents).
Our stack
- Core: Python (FastAPI), PostgreSQL & MongoDB, Redis, React/TypeScript.
- Infra: Kubernetes on our own hardware (Rancher/Helm), GitHub Actions CI/CD, Prometheus & Grafana. A capable DevOps/infrastructure engineer already owns much of this day-to-day, so it isn't a solo on-call burden — and there's real appetite to modernize the setup, with a mandate to lead it.
- AI/automation: code agents, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and ML workflows for personalisation and internal tooling.
Why this role is different
- The clients. There is almost nowhere else in Porto where your code ships inside the very top end of the luxury world.
- The ownership. Small team, direct line to the founder, and genuine authority over the architecture.
- The timing. We're building the next layer of our platform — including where AI and agentic commerce are heading — and you'd be central to it.
We also offer: private health insurance · gym membership · hybrid working (3 days in Porto, 2 remote) · 13th and 14th month salary and meal allowance per Portuguese standard.
PlatformE is an equal-opportunity employer. We hire on ability and potential, and welcome applicants of every background.
Apply here: https://jobs.deel.com/platforme-mto-unipessoal-lda/job-details/30ff29c6-8794-4609-9032-13e3bb5e7714
Localização do trabalho: Trabalho remoto híbrido em Porto
