Lead Engineer Lisboa

Lead Engineer
Lisboa
Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

Job Title : Lead Engineer

Contract Type : Full-time

Work Arrangement : Hybrid / Remote

Location : UK / Europe

To apply

Email a CV and covering letter to applications@rainforestbuilder.com. Applications are not accepted via Linked
In. Short-listed candidates will be contacted.

About Rainforest Builder

Rainforest Builder is Africa’s leading forest restoration company, on a mission to restore one million hectares of degraded land to natural tropical forest. We combine
-
- class science, forestry, and tech, to deliver forest restoration at unprecedented scale, sequestering hundreds of millions of tonnes of CO2, saving
- threatened biodiversity, and delivering equitable economic growth to local communities. We currently operate four projects across three countries in West Africa and are expanding within the region.

About the role

We’re looking for an experienced Lead Engineer to join our growing software team. You’ll be
- on, leading by doing: writing
- quality code, setting technical direction, making architectural decisions, and shaping our engineering practices. You will lead a small,
- functional team—currently one Product Manager and two developers—and will be responsible for expanding this team through hiring and development. The focus is to build
-
- class software that enhances operational efficiency, supports
- fidelity data streams, and documents our work. We seek someone motivated by
- world impact, contributing to equitable development, biodiversity recovery, and greenhouse gas removal through forest restoration.

What you'll do

• Collaborate with our PM and users to design and build software for field teams, operations leads, and HQ, focusing on
  - integrity data capture, supporting daily workflows, and improving visibility across operations.
• Work across the stack, from frontend interfaces to backend services, data pipelines, and infrastructure.
• Own technical decisions, from architecture to tooling, balancing speed, scale, and sustainability.
• Establish good engineering practices to enable fast shipping, quick learning, and
  - term sustainability.
• Mentor and support other developers to help them grow and work effectively.

Essential qualifications

• 10+ years of
  - on experience building and scaling
  - stack applications, confidently owning frontend UI, backend logic, and deployment infrastructure.
• Proficiency in writing
  - quality, maintainable code in Python and React, following modern best practices, including testing (TDD) and readability.
• Deep experience designing, deploying, and operating production systems in cloud environments (e. g. , AWS, Azure), including CI/CD pipelines, automation, and testing.
• Experience designing scalable, modular architectures and making
  - offs between performance, simplicity, and maintainability.
• Regular use of AI-assisted development tools (e. g. , Git
  Hub Copilot, Codeium) to accelerate development and productivity.
• Experience recruiting, managing, and coaching software development teams.
• Strong communication skills to translate technical decisions for
  - technical stakeholders and align product goals with technical strategies.
• Ability to thrive in ambiguous,
  - changing environments and solve complex problems simply.
• Strong product mindset focused on outcomes, with a good understanding of Agile principles.

Desirable qualifications

• Familiarity with
  - first or
  - first applications.
• Experience in
  - stage startups or small,
  - functional teams.
• Knowledge of mapping tools, geospatial data, or data visualization.

Why join us?

• Be part of a
  - driven startup addressing urgent environmental challenges.
• Help shape our tech and product foundations.
• Join a supportive,
  - led team focused on solving hard problems to enable
  - scale restoration.