Tech Lead – Backend

Real is a fast-growing national real estate brokerage powered by technology. Real is currently operating in all U.S. states, Canada, and the District of Columbia. Founded in 2014, Real is a trailblazer in the Residential Real Estate industry, as we lead the disruption with our cutting-edge technology platform. We are on a mission to revolutionize the home-buying and selling process, making agents' lives better while creating lucrative financial opportunities for them.

We’re seeking a versatile Tech Lead Engineer who is highly proficient in coding. In this role, your leadership responsibilities are more technical than managerial. At Real, we operate with a startup mindset and value go-getters. If you possess a keen sense of ownership and are eager to make a positive impact on people’s lives, please read on.

To learn more about what we’re building, visit: onereal.com

What We Require From You:

• Schedule: You will work Eastern Standard Time (EST) hours, regardless of your location.

• Location: This is a fully remote position; however, US residency is required. Candidates outside the US will not be considered. (Sponsorship will be provided if required.)

About The Job:
This is a hands-on engineering position. You’ll spend approximately 60–70% of your time writing code, with the rest dedicated to mentoring, collaborating with cross-functional teams, and contributing to product success. If you're seeking a purely managerial role, this may not be the right fit. At Real Brokerage, we operate with a startup mindset, valuing individual leadership, and people who lead by doing

Job Description:
As a Tech Lead, you will be reporting to the VP of Engineering and would be a key member of Real’s R&D team. You will help lead the overall technical vision for all things back end, implementing features, squash bugs, and make improvements across our Java Spring Microservices. In addition to being a hands-on contributor, you will mentor other engineers, provide technical leadership, and guide the team in best practices and design principles. If you are self-motivated, and wish to join a results-oriented team, we encourage you to join us.

Duties/Responsibilities:

• Provide technical mentorship and leadership to junior and mid-level engineers, guiding them in software engineering methodology, design, and best practices to support their skill development and growth within the team.

• Work with the product team and feature owners to understand requirements and see them through to execution and deployment.

• Take ownership of technical initiatives, driving projects independently from concept to completion while ensuring alignment with the overall platform strategy.

• Collaborate with other engineers through pairing sessions, code reviews, and knowledge sharing in our weekly Friday Dev Chats.

Required Skills/Abilities:

• You have extensive experience with Java 17+, Spring Boot, JPA (Hibernate), and SQL relational databases.

• You are comfortable writing unit and integration tests and maintaining strong code coverage

• You have hands-on experience building application using the microservices architecture

• You have in-depth knowledge of relational databases, including indices, connection pools, transactions (ACID), and implications of schema designs on performance

• You have experience with NoSQL databases, understand their advantages and disadvantages, and know when to prefer one over a relational database.

• You have experience as a tech lead, guiding teams through complex engineering challenges and fostering a culture of learning and innovation.

• You are opinionated in the direction that backend software development is going and will give recommendations and take the initiative for the long-term health of the project.

• You have a keen eye for where to refactor and when, using standard design principles and patterns, and are excited to lead the team on the path to better code

• You are highly self-motivated and take initiative without requiring constant oversight.

• You are welcoming to other engineers, have a collaborative attitude, and are excited to both learn and teach new knowledge

• You enjoy working with a remote team that spans many different time zones and locations

• You are comfortable in an agile, fast-paced startup environment where you work closely with product to understand how your work will fit into the larger project while acting on limited information

Our Tech Stack:

• Java 17+

• Spring Boot 2.7+

• Postgres

• Kafka

• DynamoDB

• AWS

• Docker

• Kubernetes

• Datadog

• Bugsnag

• ArgoCD

• TeamCity

• Maven

• IntelliJ

We are empowered through our strong test coverage to allow continuous delivery with multiple deploys per day.

Our Interview Process:
We believe in transparency and strive to create a supportive environment where you can showcase your skills and experience. Our interview process includes the following steps:

1. Initial Screening Interview: Your first conversation will be with a member of our talent team. This session includes a live coding test which will be recorded to be reviewed by our engineering team. 

2. Code Pairing with Senior Engineers: In this round, you'll meet and work alongside our senior engineers. You will build on the initial coding test, discussing broader computer science topics, system design, and problem-solving approaches. 

3. Design Interview: This session will focus on architectural thinking, problem-solving, and broader computer science concepts. Topics from your previous interview may be revisited and expanded upon.

4. Final Leadership Interview: The final stage includes a conversation with our CTO, VP of Engineering, and other senior leaders. The discussion will cover mutual expectations, technical proficiency, team dynamics, and cultural fit.

Education and Experience:

• BA/BS degree and 10+ years of related experience; or any combination of education and experience, which would provide an equivalent background

• Must have experience in Spring/Spring Boot, Hibernate, and Relational Databases

• A real estate background with transferable skills would be an asset

• Demonstrated Project Coordination/Management skills

• Prior experience leading technical initiatives and mentoring engineers is required.

Must Have: Ability to truly encompass our Company Core Values

• Work Hard. Be Kind

• “We” are bigger than “me”

• Tech x Humanity

REAL is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status.