Senior Backend Engineer

ABOUT HARBOR LAB

Founded in 2020 in Greece, Harbor Lab is a fast-growing B2B maritime tech company on a mission to simplify and optimize port cost management. Our end-to-end, AI-powered SaaS platform transforms how Shipowners and Shipmanagers handle Disbursement Accounts (DAs), bringing automation, real-time data, control and transparency to one of the most complex and costly parts of global shipping.

But we don't stop there. Harbor Lab also powers a thriving Marketplace, connecting Principals with a global network of vetted Port Agents and Vendors.

At Harbor Lab, people come first. Our culture is anchored in ambition, trustworthiness, genuine care, and agility—values we bring to every interaction with our customers and our team. We're proud to be consistently recognized as a Best Workplace (2021, 2022, 2023) and recently certified as a Great Place to Work

If you're looking to make a global impact, grow alongside passionate peers, and shape the future of maritime innovation—we'd love to meet you.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We're looking for a Senior Backend Engineer – Team Lead to design, build, and scale the services that power our products. You'll lead a cross-functional team, guide architecture decisions, and tackle complex performance and scalability challenges, while remaining hands-on with our backend stack — Java 17+, Spring Boot 3.5+, RabbitMQ, PostgreSQL, JPA/Hibernate, Maven/Gradle, Groovy, JUnit, and a microservices architecture deployed on Kubernetes.

If you're passionate about solving complex problems, optimizing performance at every layer, and mentoring engineers to grow, this role is for you.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING

• Lead & Grow the Team – Lead a team of backend engineers (and collaborate closely with frontend peers), create and support PDPs, mentor team members, and foster a collaborative, high-performance culture.
• Own Architecture & System Design – Shape and evolve our backend architecture and microservices, ensuring systems are scalable, maintainable, and secure. Participate in full-stack design discussions, from APIs and messaging to data modeling and deployment.
• Deliver High-Quality, High-Performance Software – Build services with Spring Boot and Java, implement asynchronous messaging with RabbitMQ, and integrate with PostgreSQL. Continuously improve application performance, SQL queries, and system reliability.
• Operate & Monitor Systems – Ensure reliability, observability, and maintainability with Grafana, Prometheus, and other monitoring tools. Work closely with DevOps to deploy and run services in Kubernetes.
• Drive Best Practices & Delivery – Champion testing (JUnit), CI/CD, and agile workflows (Scrum/Kanban). Solve complex engineering challenges with clean, maintainable, and well-tested code.

Requirements

WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU IF YOU HAVE

Required:

• 6+ years of backend development experience, including 2+ years as a team or tech lead.
• Deep knowledge of Java 17+, Spring Boot, microservices, PostgreSQL, JPA/Hibernate, and SQL optimization.
• Experience with RabbitMQ, Kubernetes, Docker, and monitoring tools like Grafana/Prometheus.
• Strong problem-solving skills and a track record of delivering scalable, reliable backend systems.
• Familiarity with Agile practices, CI/CD workflows, and mentoring engineers.

Bonus points if you have:

• EExperience with Groovy, AWS, or designing large-scale distributed systems.
• Contributions to open-source or internal platform projects.
• Exposure to cloud-native infrastructure and advanced observability practices.

Why You'll Love Working Here

• Lead the development of mission-critical backend systems and shape our technical roadmap.
• Solve challenging scalability and performance problems with modern technologies.
• Work with a talented, collaborative team in a culture that values ownership, technical excellence, and innovation.

Benefits

WHAT WE OFFER

• Attractive compensation package based on experience and skillset
• 30 days of paid annual leave
• Comprehensive private health insurance coverage for your entire family
• Hybrid way of work
• Yoga classes, Life Coach, Running Coach and Kick-Boxing Sessions

• Cool start-up environment (with swag, and much more)

• Harbor Lab is certified as Great Place to Work in Greece and is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

**Harbor Lab collects and processes personal data in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We are bound to use the information provided within your job application for recruitment purposes only and not to share these with any third parties. We will keep your resume in our database for any future consideration. In case you want to be deleted from our database, you can contact us at

*** If you are applying to this job post, then we assume that you have the legal right to work in the EU.