Lead Back-End Developer

ADLIB Recruitment | B Corp; Exeter; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 58,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading software company in Exeter is seeking a Lead Back-End Developer to join their team. This role involves managing a talented back-end team and focusing on system delivery and performance improvements. Ideal candidates will have extensive experience with PHP and modern frameworks, along with cloud services knowledge. In return, the company offers a salary up to £58k, an annual bonus scheme, generous holiday, and a solid training budget for career development.

Benefits

Annual bonus scheme

Generous training budget

25 days holiday plus bank holidays

Qualifications

• Experience in a technical leadership or senior developer role within SaaS or enterprise software.
• Significant experience with PHP, Go, Symfony, Laravel.
• Understanding of databases, APIs, and microservices.

Responsibilities

• Drive the delivery of back-office systems and improve their performance.
• Mentor team members and promote best coding practices.
• Manage technical roadmaps and stakeholder expectations.

Skills

Technical leadership experience

PHP and modern frameworks

Understanding of databases and APIs

Cloud services experience

Experience with CI/CD pipelines

Familiarity with Vue.js or React

Job description

Fast-growing, award-winning SaaS scale-up.

PHP, Laravel / Symfony, lead a talented back-end team.

Exeter / Remote, ambitious market-leader, career development.

We’re looking for a Lead Back-End Developer to join a top software business in Exeter with more than a thousand Leisure, Tourism, and Events businesses across the globe. They’ve grown significantly over the last few years and off the back of a very successful 2025, they are now looking for a hands-on Lead Back-End Developer to join the team (80% Back-End, 20% Team Leadership).

2 days per week in Exeter office.

What skills you’ll be needing

• Experience in a technical leadership or senior developer role, ideally within SaaS or enterprise software.
• Significant experience with modern frameworks and languages (e.g., PHP, Go, Symfony, Laravel).
• Solid understanding of databases, APIs, and microservices.
• Experience managing technical roadmaps and stakeholder expectations.
• Confident working with cloud services (e.g., AWS, Azure) and CI / CD pipelines.
• Familiarity with reporting systems, data pipelines, and system configuration tools.
• Exposure to frontend frameworks such as Vue.js or React.
• Prior involvement in system re-architecture or platform migration projects.

What you’ll be doing :

The Lead Back-End Developer will drive the delivery and evolution of back-office systems, ensuring continuous improvements and enabling platforms to be high-performing, secure, and future-ready. This is a hands-on leadership role ideal for a technically skilled senior developer who can lead a team, manage delivery, and act as a key technical stakeholder for core system components such as reporting, configuration tools, and customer / venue management interfaces. You will plan sprints, mentor and support team members, promote best practice, high coding standards and track and report on team performance. They will look for you to be able to review code, propose improvements and manage technical debt, modernising legacy systems.

What you’ll get in return :

You’ll receive a starting salary up to £58k and benefits including : an annual bonus scheme, a generous individual training budget per year to spend on courses or accreditations. You’ll join the team with 25 days holiday plus bank holidays and your birthday off, but this will increase by a day a year (up to 30 days) to reward long service. This is a great opportunity to challenge and progress your career with one of the region’s tech success stories as they continue to thrive.

What’s next?

Interested? Send in your CV or you can get in touch with Mike if you have any questions.