Acolad is the global leader in content and language solutions. Its mission is to support companies in every industry to scale across markets and enable growth through cutting-edge technology and localization expertise. Established in 1995, the group is present in 22 countries across Europe, North America and Asia, with over 1.600 employees supported by a network of +10.000 linguists around the world.
At Acolad, every position is key to our global growth: we know that we will only succeed if our people succeed.
Joining Acolad means a unique opportunity for professional development through a collaborative global environment that promotes talent and creativity. We are continuously looking for new talent (like you!) to support our mission to drive growth and innovation across some of the world’s leading brands.
Check out Our brand video to learn more about us!
About the role
We are looking for a senior backend engineer to help maintain and evolve a production platform that supports AI-powered language services.
This role is hands-on. You will work on backend services, async workflows, API integrations, message queues, Redis-based state management, and structured data outputs used for operational reporting and analytics. The platform connects with several external systems, including translation platforms, workflow tools, AI/LLM services, and internal business systems.
This is a good fit for someone who enjoys backend engineering in a real production environment: reliability, integration, edge cases, retries, observability, and pragmatic technical improvement. The role also includes a first step into technical leadership.
You may support one or two engineers through code reviews, pairing, technical guidance, and day-to-day engineering support.
Key Responsibilities
- Build, maintain, and improve backend services in a production environment. Work on async workflows using message queues, background jobs, retries, and failure handling.
- Integrate with external APIs, including AI/LLM services, translation platforms, workflow tools, and internal systems.
- Help manage workflow state across Redis, PostgreSQL, and related backend components.
- Contribute to structured data outputs used for reporting and analytics, including Snowflake where relevant. Improve reliability through better logging, monitoring, error handling, and operational visibility.
- Support deployment and release processes together with the wider engineering team.
- Refactor fragile areas, reduce technical debt, and improve test coverage where it matters.
- Review code and support one or two engineers on technical topics.
- Translate business requirements into clear engineering tasks with support from product and technical leadership.
Requirements
Must Have:
- 5+ years of backend engineering experience in production systems. Strong experience with backend APIs and service-to-service integrations.
- Experience with async processing, message queues, background jobs, retries, and idempotency.
- Good understanding of Redis, PostgreSQL, and backend state management.
- Strong SQL skills and ability to work with structured operational data.
- Experience with AWS, Docker and basic Kubernetes concepts.
- Ability to debug production issues across logs, APIs, queues, and databases.
- Practical and growth mindset: you can improve existing systems without over-engineering.
Nice to Have:
- Experience with RabbitMQ, Kafka, SQS, or similar.
- Experience with Kubernetes, Helm, autoscaling, or cloud deployments.
- Experience with Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, or other analytical databases.
- Experience integrating LLM APIs or AI services in production workflows.
- Experience with observability tools such as Datadog, OpenTelemetry, or structured logging.
- Experience in localization, translation workflows, XLIFF, CAT tools, or terminology systems.
Tech Experience:
- Backend: .NET / C# (for now; open to changes)
- Databases: PostgreSQL, Redis, Snowflake
- Messaging: RabbitMQ
- Infrastructure: Docker, Kubernetes, AWS EKS
- CI/CD: GitHub Actions
- Observability: Datadog
- AI/LLM: LLM APIs and workflow tools
- Integrations: translation platforms, workflow engines, enterprise APIs
You will contribute to an important production system, help make it more reliable, and gradually grow into more technical leadership responsibility.
Benefits
- A senior hands-on backend role in a real production environment.
- Exposure to AI integration in business-critical workflows.
- Opportunity to work on async systems, APIs, queues, state management, and reliability.
- A first step into technical leadership without moving away from engineering.
- The chance to support and mentor one or two engineers while continuing to build hands-on.
- A pragmatic environment where reliability, maintainability, and delivery matter.
Acolad is committed to creating a diverse and equitable workforce. We believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion in all its forms—gender, age, disability, marital status, ethnic or social origin, religion, belief, or sexual orientation—enrich the workplace. It opens opportunities for individuals to express their talents, both individually and collectively, and strengthens our ability to adapt to a changing world. As an equal opportunity employer, we welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of their backgrounds.