Backend Development Team Lead – Real‑Time C++ Systems

About the role

XTEND is seeking a Backend Development Team Lead to drive the design and delivery of high‑performance C++ software that powers autonomous drone systems used by defense and security forces worldwide. You will combine hands‑on coding with people management, ensuring that mission‑critical back‑end services are robust, scalable, and production‑ready.

Key responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of backend engineers, fostering technical excellence and ownership.
• Take full responsibility for backend delivery from architecture design through production deployment.
• Contribute directly to high‑performance C++ code in real‑time, mission‑critical environments.
• Collaborate with software, hardware, and systems teams across XTEND to deliver integrated solutions.
• Ensure reliability, performance, and efficient resource utilization in live systems.
• Conduct code and design reviews, enforce best practices, and maintain high development standards.
• Manage sprint planning, task prioritisation, and roadmap alignment within an Agile framework.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, and professional development of backend engineers.

Required profile

• 7+ years of hands‑on software development experience, with deep expertise in C++.
• Proven experience leading or mentoring engineers in a technical team.
• Strong system design and architectural skills for complex, real‑time software.
• Extensive experience working in Linux environments and using Git‑based workflows.
• Solid understanding of OOP, memory management, multithreading, and concurrency.

Required skills

• C++
• Linux
• Git
• Multithreading and concurrency
• Object‑oriented programming
• Memory management
• ROS2 (preferred)
• DDS communication protocols (preferred)
• Docker and containerised deployments (preferred)