Lead Back-end Application Engineer - Web

ToucanTech; London; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading tech scale-up, ToucanTech, seeks a Lead Back-end Application Engineer to lead the development of scalable backend systems. This role will involve mentoring junior developers and collaborating with cross-functional teams to drive best practices and optimize database performance.

Benefits

Flexible working hours and style

Training and support for skill development

No blame, only learn culture

Transparent company strategy

Regular team events and lunches

Fully stocked drinks fridge in the office

24 days holiday per year + public holidays

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional experience in backend development, focusing on PHP.
• Experience with leading and mentoring developers.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development, and deployment of backend applications using PHP.
• Mentor a team of backend engineers and ensure adherence to coding standards.

Skills

PHP

SQL

Symfony

RESTful API

AWS

Git

OOP

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Job description

Lead Back-end Application Engineer - Web

Location : HQ in London, UK. Remote/office working as preferred.

Reporting to : CTO

Salary : Competitive, depending on experience.

Contract : Permanent, full-time role

Company Overview:

ToucanTech is a fast-growing tech scale-up revolutionising community management with an all-in-one database, website, and comms system. The software is used by teams managing membership, alumni, fundraising, and special interest networks.

It is used in over 25 countries around the world by organisations including schools, charities, universities, museums, professional associations, and sports clubs. We’ve grown from 2 co-founders to an expanding team of over 60 Toucans based between London, Lisbon, Washington DC, and Sydney.

Role Overview:

We are seeking a highly experienced and motivated Lead Back-end Application Engineer to join our growing Engineering team. In this pivotal role, you will be responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining robust and scalable backend systems using PHP and SQL. You will lead a small team of backend developers, mentor junior engineers, and drive best practices in software development. This is an excellent opportunity for a seasoned professional to make a significant impact on our product and technical direction.

Role Responsibilities:

• Lead the design, development, testing, and deployment of high-performance, scalable, and secure backend applications using PHP.
• Architect and optimize SQL databases (e.g., MySQL, Aurora) for performance, scalability, and data integrity.
• Mentor and guide a team of backend application engineers, fostering their professional growth and ensuring adherence to coding standards and best practices.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, front-end applications engineers, and other stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical solutions.
• Conduct code reviews, ensuring code quality, maintainability, and adherence to architectural guidelines.
• Identify and resolve complex technical issues, performance bottlenecks, and security vulnerabilities.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of our development processes, tools, and infrastructure.
• Stay up-to-date with emerging technologies and industry trends, evaluating and recommending their adoption where appropriate.
• Participate in strategic technical planning and roadmap development.
• Play a key role in integrating the technical team into the heart of the business, fostering a shared culture and fun that reflects the spirit of the entire company.

Required Skills

• 8+ years of professional experience in backend development, with a strong focus on PHP.
• Extensive experience with modern PHP frameworks, especially Symfony.
• Deep expertise in SQL database design, optimization, and administration (e.g., complex queries, indexing, stored procedures, replication).
• Proven experience leading and mentoring a team of developers.
• Strong understanding of object-oriented programming (OOP) principles and design patterns.
• Experience with RESTful API design and development.
• Familiarity with version control systems, especially Git.
• Solid understanding of software development lifecycle (SDLC) and agile methodologies.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to troubleshoot complex technical issues.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to articulate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience with cloud platforms, especially AWS.
• Experience using Flutter/Dart to create mobile applications.
• Knowledge of other programming languages, especially Python and Node.js.
• Experience with containerization technologies, especially Docker and Kubernetes.
• Familiarity with message queues, especially RabbitMQ.
• Experience with continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.
• Contributions to open-source projects.

Some of the benefits of this role:

• Flexible working hours and style.
• Training and support to develop your skills and career.
• Friendly nurturing environment with a strict no blame only learn culture!
• Transparency internally about company direction/ strategy & tactics across teams.
• Regular team events, lunches, and meetups.
• A central London office with a fully stocked drinks fridge.
• 24 days holiday per year + public holidays.

Unfortunately we are not able to sponsor foreign working visas at this time, so you will need to have the right to work in the UK.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Engineering and Information Technology

• Industries

  Software Development

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