Lead Backend Developer (PHP)

We’re looking for a Lead Backend Developer to join our new development team within the global VR video streaming ecosystem. This person will lead the new content processing team while staying hands-on.

What You Will Do

• Own the architecture and technical direction of the content processing pipeline - upload API, Camunda BPMN workflows, admin panel, and supporting services

• Lead system design for new features and complex changes; create and maintain architecture documentation and ADRs

• Drive code quality, review standards, and engineering practices (testing, CI/CD, code style, operational readiness)

• Lead technical incident response; write post-mortems with clear root causes and follow-up actions

• Identify and manage technical debt - maintain a prioritized backlog and advocate for regular capacity to address it

• Translate product requirements into technical solutions, milestones, and well-decomposed tasks

• Mentor engineers through design sessions, pair programming, and code reviews; reduce key-person risk by spreading knowledge across the team

• Define and maintain SLIs/SLOs for team-owned services; ensure sufficient logging, metrics, and alerting are in place

• Coordinate technical dependencies with other teams (Content Serving, Billing, UGC, DevOps); represent the team in architecture syncs and design reviews

• Evaluate and recommend technologies, patterns, and tools; pilot new approaches where they bring clear benefit

What We Are Looking For

• 4+ years of backend software engineering experience with PHP, including demonstrated technical leadership (leading design, mentoring engineers, owning architecture)

• Experience with NoSQL databases (MongoDB or similar)

• Experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL or similar)

• Experience of using Golang in production environment

• Experience designing and evolving backend architectures - APIs, data flows, service decomposition

• Strong understanding of testing practices (unit, integration, E2E) and CI/CD pipelines

• Ability to communicate technical trade-offs, risks, and designs clearly to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders

• English B1+ (written and verbal communication)

Bonus Points

• Experience with Camunda or similar BPMN/workflow orchestration engines

• Experience with various video formats, media containers, and transcoding pipelines

• Experience defining and working with SLIs/SLOs in production

• Understanding of message brokers and event-driven architectures (RabbitMQ, Kafka, or similar)

Tech Stack

• PHP

• MongoDB

• PostgreSQL

• Kubernetes

• Docker

• CI/CD

• Camunda BPMN (Java)

• Redis

• Kafka

• RabbitMQ

• Go

Hiring Process

• HR Screening (30 min)

• Team Interview (1.5 hour)

• Live Coding Interview (1 hour)

• CEO Interview (30 min)

What We Offer

Please note: fully remote contract role. B2B only - work as an independent contractor with your own legal entity.

• The chance to be part of a pioneering team in a rapidly evolving industry

• Direct impact on the future of immersive media

• Flexible working hours and remote-first culture

• A team that values initiative, clarity, and collaboration

• Access to all tools and tech you need

• Unlimited DeoVR Premium

• A work environment where ideas matter and people are treated with respect