DxL Platform Engineering Lead

Vodafone

Lisbon or Porto, Portugal

We are seeking an experienced and strategic DxL Platform Engineering Lead - to lead the backend engineering capability within our Digital Experience Layer (DxL) domain.

This role combines strong technical leadership with people management, engineering governance, and hands-on architectural oversight.

The successful candidate will drive the evolution of scalable, secure, and high-performing backend platforms that enable seamless digital experiences across multiple channels and products.

The role requires deep expertise in backend engineering, distributed systems, cloud-native architectures, API ecosystems, and modern software delivery practices.

You will be responsible for growing engineering excellence, mentoring backend engineers, defining technical standards, and ensuring alignment between architecture, platform strategy, and product delivery teams.

What you’ll do

Lead and develop the Backend Engineering within the DxL Layer domain;
Define and enforce backend engineering standards, principles, and best practices;
Drive the architecture and evolution of scalable microservices and API platforms;
Collaborate with Solution Architects, Product Managers, Engineering Managers, and Platform teams to deliver business capabilities;
Provide technical leadership across multiple squads and initiatives;
Mentor and coach senior and mid-level backend engineers;
Promote engineering excellence through code quality, observability, testing, automation, and CI/CD practices;
Ensure backend solutions meet scalability, resiliency, performance, and security requirements;
Support the definition of domain-driven and event-driven architectures;
Guide modernization initiatives and cloud-native adoption strategies;
Participate in technical design reviews, architecture governance, and engineering decision-making;
Drive continuous improvement in developer experience, delivery efficiency, and operational maturity;
Contribute to hiring, performance management, capability development, and succession planning within the chapter;
Foster a strong engineering culture based on ownership, collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning.

Who you are

Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field;
Experience operating within large-scale digital transformation programs;
Experience in platform engineering or developer experience initiatives;
Knowledge of security, compliance, and enterprise integration patterns;
Exposure to frontend integration layers and omnichannel digital ecosystems;
Certifications in cloud platforms or architecture are considered a plus;
Strong experience leading backend engineering teams in complex enterprise environments;
Extensive hands-on experience with Java and the Spring ecosystem (Spring Boot, Spring Cloud);
Deep understanding of microservices, distributed systems, and API-first architectures;
Experience with event-driven architectures and messaging platforms such as Kafka or RabbitMQ;
Strong knowledge of RESTful APIs, API gateways, authentication, and authorization standards;
Experience designing scalable cloud-native solutions in AWS, Azure, or GCP;
Strong understanding of containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes;
Experience with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices;
Strong knowledge of observability tooling, monitoring, logging, and performance optimization;
Experience with relational and non-relational databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, etc.);
Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code and platform engineering concepts;
Experience with testing strategies and frameworks including unit, integration, contract, and performance testing;
Strong understanding of software architecture patterns and clean code principles;
Experience working in Agile product delivery organizations;
Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration skills;
Excellent communication, leadership, mentoring, and decision-making capabilities;
Act as a technical reference and trusted advisor across engineering teams;
Fluency in English.