Lead Software Engineer, Phrase
Neural AI
Cloud-based translation platform
Open for applications
Cloud-based translation platform
201-500 employees
Open for applications
201-500 employees
Company mission
To open the door to global business by giving everybody access to the content they need in the language they speak.
Role
Who you are
- We are looking for a product-minded engineer who prioritizes customer value, navigates trade-offs, and promotes collaboration across engineering, product, and design
- Proven experience as a Tech Lead or Senior Engineer in backend systems within product-led environments
- Strong backend skills in Java (17+), Spring Boot, and ideally Groovy/Grails
- Solid grasp of scalable architectures, distributed systems, streaming (Kafka), and async communication (RabbitMQ)
- Proficiency with relational and NoSQL databases (MariaDB, MongoDB), CI/CD pipelines, containerization, and AWS or similar
- Product-oriented mindset with a focus on customer outcomes and pragmatic problem-solving
- Collaborative, hands-on, and adaptable—balancing alignment with decisive execution
What the job involves
- As a Lead Software Engineer in the Neural AI Team at Phrase, you will drive the evolution of AI-powered localization, focusing on machine translation workflows and backend platform capabilities
- You’ll guide technical direction, foster alignment, and ensure impactful outcomes
- This role goes beyond coding—you’ll own complex initiatives, shape product and architectural decisions, and empower the team to scale its impact
- Whether or not you take on line management, you’ll act as a domain leader, ensuring clarity and direction for both the team and stakeholder
- Define technical strategy and architecture for AI-driven translation workflows
- Integrate external translation engines and models to extend Phrase’s platform
- Collaborate with Product and Design to deliver valuable, scalable solutions
- Lead end-to-end initiatives, balancing delivery with system evolution
- Foster team autonomy and ownership
- Mentor engineers and support technical decision-making
- Lead by example with clean, scalable, testable code
- Represent Neural AI in architecture and strategy discussions
- Align with Generative AI, Research, and Infrastructure teams on shared initiatives
- Proactively resolve ambiguity and reduce cross-team friction
- Work experience in a successful and growing global SaaS company
Our take
Even today, language barriers can hold businesses back from achieving their full potential. Phrase (from Memsource) solves this problem with its translation management solution. Its cloud-based platform offers efficient automated translation. Its AI-driven approach is mainly targeted toward enterprises that typically need to translate large volumes of text.
In 2021, Memsource acquired Phrase, officially unifying both its platforms (and brands) under one integrated suite. By doing so, it enables enterprises to seamlessly drive growth with a connected ecosystem of tools.
Phrase boasts an impressive client base with the likes of Uber, Shopify, Volkswagen amongst thousands of others. IT recently brought in impressive funding, which will be used to expand its global footprint through hiring world-class, international talent.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
20% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (1 round)
Jun 2022
$17.3m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Total funding: $17.3m
Company benefits
- 4 Phrase holidays where the entire company is off to celebrate our accomplishments and recharge
- Your birthday as a paid day off because we want to celebrate you, too
- Annual budget for your personal training and development, because if you grow, we grow
- Access to free language courses—we are a translation business after all!
- Travel budget to meet up with your team and build strong personal relationships in one of our main locations once per quarter
- 2 paid give-back days per year to support your local community, volunteer, and/or take part in charity events and activities
- Pet-friendly offices in Prague and Hamburg for our furry friends to bring us joy
- Bonus are available for all non-commission carrying roles, so everyone benefits from the company’s success
Company HQ
New Town, Prague, Prague
Leadership
David Canek
(Board Member & Founder)Previously worked as Sales Manager at Czech Telecom. Was Director of Product at NewsTin and a Partner at Czech Translations.
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