Lead Backend Developer

We're looking for a Backend Developer Lead to take technical ownership of the core platform at Ultimate Guitar — the world's largest destination for musicians, with over 14 million monthly active users. This is a hands-on leadership role: you'll drive architecture decisions, mentor engineers, and own the technical direction of the platform — while staying close to the code.

We are actively integrating AI and automation into all areas of the business and expect candidates with a mindset focused on improving efficiency and delivering a better user experience.

What is in it for you?

• Real impact at scale. Your work will reach 14M+ musicians every month — across the platform that defines how the world learns and plays guitar.

• Ownership from day one. You'll shape the technical direction of the platform, not just execute tickets. We trust our leads to drive decisions.

• A team that values craft. We allocate dedicated capacity to technical debt, run regular architecture discussions, and take engineering quality seriously — not just velocity.

• Room to grow. Direct path to broader engineering leadership as the company scales, with full support for learning new tools and practices.

Key responsibilities

• Design and evolve scalable backend architecture and core platform services

• Lead technical initiatives from solution design and estimation through production release

• Develop new functionality, improve existing systems, and reduce technical debt

• Ensure system scalability, reliability, performance, and maintainability

• Optimize databases, APIs, caching layers, and background processing

• Identify and resolve production incidents, bottlenecks, and technical risks

• Participate in architectural decision-making and long-term platform evolution

• Conduct code reviews and maintain engineering quality standards

• Mentor developers, support onboarding, and provide technical leadership within the team

• Collaborate with Product, Analytics, QA, and other engineering teams

Requirements

Technical

• 5–7+ years of commercial PHP development experience

• Strong knowledge of modern PHP (8.0+) and backend engineering best practices

• Solid hands-on experience with Yii2

• Experience designing scalable backend systems with a strong grasp of software architecture and system design principles

• Strong MySQL experience: schema design, indexing, query optimization, performance tuning

• Experience with high-load production systems and application performance optimization

• Experience designing APIs and service integrations

• Solid Git workflows, code review practices, and CI/CD experience

• Strong debugging, troubleshooting, and root-cause analysis skills

Leadership & Ownership

• Proven experience leading development teams or major technical initiatives

• Ability to independently drive projects from design to production

• Experience working with large legacy codebases and driving incremental modernisation without disrupting business operations

• Strong estimation, planning, prioritisation, and risk management skills

• Experience mentoring engineers and supporting their professional growth

Soft skills

• Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset

• Effective communication and collaboration in cross-functional teams

• High autonomy, accountability, and product ownership

• Product-oriented thinking with a focus on business impact

Nice to have

• Interest in music and willingness to go deep on the product domain

• Experience building large-scale consumer products

• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, etc.)

Benefits

• Creativity every day: Make inspiring products for musicians, artists and creators – no day is the same.

• Impactful work Influence the future of the music industry and change the lives of millions worldwide.

• Work set up: We’ll make sure you’re set up for success with the right work equipment, whether that’s company-provided hardware or an equipment allowance.

• Growth and development: Receive specialized training, language lessons, conferences and learning materials.

• Team well-being: Support for your mental health and wellbeing, including confidential help during life’s tougher moments.