Tech Lead - Backend (Java)

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:<