We are the team that created **OpenVPN**, the industry\-standard VPN protocol now used by most commercial VPN providers worldwide. We are looking for a **hands\-on Team Lead** to drive the development of critical security\-related cloud services used daily by millions of people around the world. This role is ideal for a technically strong leader who enjoys shaping distributed systems at scale, enabling engineers to do their best work, and applying modern AI\-assisted development practices to improve team productivity and quality. **Responsibilities:** * Lead and manage a team of 7–10 backend engineers, with clear ownership of delivery, quality, and sustainable execution. * Drive practical, team\-wide adoption of AI\-assisted software development, integrating AI tools into everyday workflows such as design, implementation, testing, code review, and incident analysis. * Own and continuously evolve the architecture of large\-scale, security\-critical cloud services consisting of 70\+ Java\-based microservices. * Act as the primary architectural decision\-maker for the team, balancing long\-term maintainability, security, and scalability with delivery needs. * Define and maintain engineering standards and best practices, including clear guidance on effective and responsible use of AI tools. * Support engineers through coaching, regular feedback, and mentorship, fostering a collaborative, psychologically safe, and high\-performing team environment. * Guide the design and development of web\-based management APIs using JSON and REST. * Collaborate closely with other teams and stakeholders on system design, integration, and deployment. * Remain hands\-on when needed, focusing on architectural validation, complex problem\-solving, and high\-impact code reviews rather than day\-to\-day feature delivery. * Promote high standards in security, reliability, performance, and operational readiness across all owned systems. * 6\+ years of commercial software development experience, **including 5\+ years of hands\-on Java development.** * Proven experience in a technical leadership or people management role, leading a small to mid\-sized engineering team. * Strong experience designing and maintaining distributed, cloud\-native systems in production environments. * **Practical, hands\-on experience using AI coding assistants and LLM\-based tools to improve development speed, code quality, or team efficiency.** * Experience introducing or standardizing AI\-assisted development practices at team level, with a focus on measurable productivity or quality improvements. * Strong experience building modern REST services using Spring Boot. * Hands\-on experience with security\-related technologies, including Spring Security (OAuth2, SAML). * **Solid understanding of TCP/IP networking, SSL/TLS, and VPN concepts.** * Experience working with MongoDB, Redis, and relational databases. * Experience with Docker\-based deployments, Kubernetes, and AWS infrastructure. * Experience using the AWS SDK for Java. * Experience with Java messaging systems (Kafka, SNS/SQS, etc.). * Comfortable working in Linux\-based development environments. * Upper\-intermediate or higher English, with the ability to communicate clearly about technical and architectural topics. * Strong communication skills and a collaborative working style. **Nice to Have:** * Experience with ClickHouse and other BigData solutions * Hands\-on experience with Java sockets, WebSockets, or WebRTC * Experience in security domains such as PKI, encryption, X.509 certificates * Experience with performance testing tools (Gatling, JMeter) * Open Source contributions, especially in networking, security, or Java ecosystems **What We Offer:** * Competitive compensation * Fully remote work environment * Self\-managed time off * Long\-term cooperation via B2B contract * Work on globally recognized, security\-critical products * A small team culture that values trust, ownership and engineering excellence