Technical Lead II – Backend – Live Chat Platform – Scalable Real‑Time Messaging & AI‑Enhanced Support Solutions

About arenaflex – Pioneering the Future of Customer Interaction

arenaflex is an AI‑powered customer platform that brings together the software, integrations, and expertise businesses need to connect marketing, sales, and service. Our mission is simple yet ambitious: empower every customer‑facing team to deliver fast, personalized, and reliable experiences that drive growth. With a global footprint, a culture built on boldness, rapid learning, and heartfelt collaboration, arenaflex has been recognized by industry leaders for its award‑winning workplace environment.

Why This Role Matters

The Live Chat team at arenaflex is responsible for a flagship product that enables support agents to converse with customers in real time, handling millions of messages daily while maintaining sub‑second latency and rock‑solid reliability. As the product expands beyond pure chat—integrating generative AI, unified communication channels, and a powerful data backbone—the need for visionary technical leadership has never been greater. This is your chance to shape a high‑impact service that touches every corner of the arenaflex ecosystem.

Role Overview – Technical Lead II, Backend (Live Chat)

Reporting to the Senior Engineering Manager, you will lead a small, high‑performing backend team. While 70% of your time will be spent writing clean, production‑grade Java code, you will also act as a mentor, coach, and strategic partner to product, design, and fellow engineering leaders. Your influence will span feature delivery, system architecture, on‑call reliability, and the professional growth of the engineers you guide.

Key Responsibilities

• Product Delivery & Technical Execution: Drive the design, implementation, and release of new Live Chat features that accelerate time‑to‑value for customers.
• System Unification: Consolidate disparate messaging subsystems into a seamless, end‑to‑end chat experience that feels native to users.
• AI Innovation: Explore and prototype generative AI solutions—such as AI‑assisted reply suggestions and automated routing—to empower support agents and delight customers.
• Tooling & Infrastructure: Leverage industry‑leading third‑party services alongside arenaflex‑built platforms to create a resilient, scalable backend ecosystem.
• Data Platform Development: Build and maintain a robust data pipeline that feeds analytics, reporting, and machine‑learning models across the organization.
• Team Leadership & Coaching: Provide day‑to‑day guidance, performance feedback, and career development plans for each team member.
• Cross‑Team Collaboration: Partner with other Tech Leads to resolve inter‑service dependencies, align roadmaps, and ensure consistent architectural standards.
• On‑Call & Reliability Ownership: Champion proactive monitoring, incident response, and continuous improvement of service health.
• Strategic Product Influence: Participate actively in product decision‑making, ensuring technical feasibility and long‑term scalability are baked into every roadmap item.

Technical Environment

• Primary language: Java 11 with a focus on clean, test‑driven development.
• Frameworks: Dropwizard for building lightweight, high‑performance RESTful APIs.
• Messaging: Apache Kafka for high‑throughput event streaming and real‑time data processing.
• Microservices architecture: Design, deploy, and maintain dozens of independent services that collectively power the Live Chat platform.
• Observability stack: Prometheus, Grafana, and distributed tracing tools to monitor latency, error rates, and system health.
• CI/CD pipelines: Automated testing, static analysis, and containerized deployments using Docker and Kubernetes.
• Cloud platform: Leveraging arenaflex’s private cloud infrastructure for elasticity, security, and compliance.

Leadership Expectations – The Player‑Coach Model

• Demonstrate hands‑on expertise while simultaneously delegating and empowering team members.
• Foster a culture of psychological safety where engineers feel free to experiment, fail, and iterate.
• Champion diversity, inclusion, and belonging by actively recruiting, mentoring, and advocating for under‑represented talent.
• Guide engineers from senior to senior‑plus levels, preparing them for future Tech Lead or Staff Engineer roles.
• Maintain a balanced triad of product, design, and engineering leadership to set clear, ambitious, and achievable goals.

Essential Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software development experience, with at least 2 years in a lead or senior engineering role.
• Proven track record of shipping large‑scale, high‑performance backend services in Java.
• Deep understanding of RESTful API design, microservice patterns, and event‑driven architectures (Kafka experience required).
• Strong problem‑solving skills, with the ability to diagnose complex performance bottlenecks and propose elegant solutions.
• Excellent communication skills—able to articulate technical concepts to non‑technical stakeholders and influence product direction.
• Demonstrated commitment to mentorship, coaching, and building high‑performing engineering teams.
• Passion for code quality: unit testing, code reviews, static analysis, and continuous improvement.

Preferred Qualifications & Nice‑to‑Haves

• Experience with generative AI APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic) and a curiosity for applying AI to real‑time chat scenarios.
• Familiarity with container orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes and service mesh technologies.
• Background in building data pipelines for analytics, machine learning, or business intelligence.
• Exposure to front‑end technologies (React, TypeScript) to better understand full‑stack implications of backend decisions.
• Previous work in a fully remote or distributed team environment, demonstrating self‑discipline and strong virtual collaboration skills.

Core Skills & Competencies

• Technical Mastery: Java, Dropwizard, Kafka, REST, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, observability tools.
• Leadership Acumen: Coaching, performance management, conflict resolution, and talent development.
• Strategic Thinking: Ability to align engineering initiatives with broader business objectives and product vision.
• Collaboration: Working effectively with product managers, designers, data scientists, and other engineering squads.
• Customer Obsession: Keeping the end‑user experience at the forefront of every technical decision.
• Adaptability: Thriving in a fast‑moving environment where priorities shift and new challenges emerge daily.

Career Growth & Learning Opportunities

arenaflex invests heavily in the professional development of its engineers. As a Technical Lead II you will have access to:

• Personalized learning budgets for conferences, certifications, and advanced coursework.
• Mentorship programs that pair you with senior staff engineers and industry thought leaders.
• Opportunities to lead cross‑functional initiatives, such as AI‑driven product experiments or large‑scale data migrations.
• Clear promotion pathways—from Tech Lead II to Senior Tech Lead, Staff Engineer, and eventually Engineering Manager or Director.
• Regular “Learn Fast” workshops, hackathons, and internal tech talks that keep you at the cutting edge of cloud, AI, and distributed systems.

Culture, Values, and Work Environment at arenaflex

Our culture is built on four core commitments that guide every interaction:

• Solve for the Customer: Every line of code is written with the end‑user in mind.
• Be Bold: We encourage risk‑taking, rapid experimentation, and learning from failure.
• Learn Fast: Continuous improvement is a daily habit, supported by transparent feedback loops.
• Align, Adapt & Go!: Cross‑functional alignment ensures we move quickly without sacrificing quality.

arenaflex offers a flexible remote‑first model, complemented by regional hubs for in‑person onboarding, quarterly meet‑ups, and team‑building events. Whether you work from a home office or a coworking space, you’ll be part of a supportive community that values autonomy, psychological safety, and genuine connection.

Compensation, Perks, & Benefits

We recognize that top talent deserves competitive rewards. The cash compensation range for this role is $191,100 – $305,800 USD annually, complemented by a comprehensive benefits package that includes:

• Health, dental, and vision coverage with multiple plan options.
• Generous paid time off, parental leave, and flexible holidays.
• 401(k) matching and financial wellness programs.
• Annual performance bonuses and equity participation.
• Professional development stipend, learning platforms, and conference attendance.
• Wellness resources, mental‑health counseling, and employee assistance programs.
• Home office stipend, ergonomic equipment, and high‑speed internet subsidies for remote workers.

Commitment to Inclusion & Accessibility

arenaflex is dedicated to building an inclusive workplace where every individual can thrive. We actively support candidates who require accommodations during the hiring process—simply let your recruiter know. Our diversity initiatives span recruitment, mentorship, and community outreach, ensuring that a broad range of perspectives shape our products and culture.

How to Apply

If you are excited about leading a high‑impact backend team, love writing production‑grade Java code, and want to influence the future of AI‑enhanced live chat, we want to hear from you. Apply today and join a company where bold ideas are celebrated, learning is continuous, and your growth is a top priority.

Apply now