About the role
Mayflower is a technology company building highload products used by millions of people worldwide. Operating at the scale of one of the world's top-50 websites, we solve complex engineering challenges and create solutions that power real-time entertainment for a global audience.
We are looking for a Backend Team Lead for our ML development team focused on building and delivering production-grade ML-powered applications.
This role is not about research or experimentation. You will be responsible for turning ML models into reliable, scalable, user-facing services.
You will work at the intersection of machine learning and backend engineering, owning the full lifecycle of ML-powered features — from integration to deployment and operation in production.
Job Responsibilities
- Design and build production ML services (APIs, microservices, real-time systems)
- Lead and grow a team of backend engineers: plan work, mentor team members, conduct code reviews, provide technical guidance, and foster engineering excellence.
- Drive architectural decisions and ensure the scalability, reliability, and maintainability of ML services.
- Integrate ML models into user-facing applications
- Ensure reliability, scalability, and performance of ML-powered systems
- Define and implement best practices for serving, versioning, and monitoring models in production
- Collaborate closely with:
- ML engineers / data scientists (who develop models)
- DevOps / MLOps team (who provide platform and infrastructure)
- Own the delivery pipeline of ML features into production
- Lead and mentor engineers working on ML-powered applications
- Drive architectural decisions around low-latency and high-load systems
- Identify bottlenecks between experimentation and production and eliminate them
Requirements
You’ll thrive here if you have
- 5+ years of experience in backend/software engineering in a Lead or Senior role (mentoring, ownership, decision-making).
- Strong commercial Python experience.
- Managerial experience leading an engineering team.
- Experience designing and building production backend systems and microservice architecture.
- Strong understanding of system design, scalability and high-load systems.
- Experience developing APIs (FastAPI, Flask, gRPC or similar).
- Hands-on experience with code reviews, mentoring and technical decision-making.
- Ability to drive cross-team collaboration and own complex technical integrations.
That can be a plus:
- Experience with real-time ML systems (recommendations, ranking, personalization)
- Experience in video streaming or high-throughput platforms
- Familiarity with Kubernetes and cloud/on-prem environments
- Experience with feature stores, model monitoring, A/B testing
- Experience working alongside MLOps platforms (MLflow, Airflow, etc.)
Conditions
We know that great talent deserves great conditions, so here's what you can expect when joining us:
- EU-based employment contract and a 3-year Cyprus work visa with full support for your relocation and visa processes, including assistance for your family.
- EU passport. Opportunity to obtain an EU passport after 4 years of residence
- Full relocation package: flights to Limassol for you and your family, a company-covered apartment for the first month, and full relocation support to make your move smooth and hassle-free.
- Transparent performance reviews twice a year, with bonus opportunities and salary adjustments.
- Private medical insurance for you and your family
- Provident fund (Cypus): a long-term savings plan co-funded by you and the Company together (available after probation) that grows throughout your time with us in Cyprus.
- Corporate mobile plan (unlimited in Cyprus with roaming included)
- Mindfulness & well-being support, including psychological assistance with 50% coverage.
- 50% coverage of school and kindergarten fees for your children.
- Fully covered sports benefits, and also access to in-house electric scooters and bike rentals
- Professional growth support: language courses, conferences, training programs, and coaching.
- Peer recognition program: receive and share kudos for great work.
- A fully equipped office in Limassol’s city center, with everything you need for deep work and collaboration.
- Free breakfasts and lunches in the office and an in-house coffee bar with high-quality drinks and a health bar stocked with nutritious snacks.
- A strong engineering culture: international teams, corporate events, team buildings, and hackathons — because great work happens in great communities.
Interview steps:
1. HR Interview (45 min) 2. Technical Interview (90 min) 3. Live code-review interview (90 min) 4. Final interview with the team (60 min)
Text as published by Mayflower. We don't edit postings; apply and ask questions on the employer's site.