Senior Backend Engineer

Gomibo l Belsimpel; Groningen; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base salary

Generous pension scheme

25 vacation days annually

Flexible start times

Personal development opportunities

Company laptop

Social activities

Job summary

A Dutch technology company in Groningen is looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to join their team. The role involves leading backend projects, enhancing systems using PHP, and refactoring legacy code. Ideal candidates should have over 6 years of experience, excellent knowledge of PHP, and familiarity with Docker and Kubernetes. The company offers competitive salary packages, a generous pension scheme, and hybrid working options. Candidates must be able to effectively communicate architectural decisions and coach teammates.

Qualifications

• 6+ years backend development experience.
• Excellent PHP knowledge.
• Proficiency with Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD tools.
• Strong communication skills for architectural discussions.
• Proficiency with Docker, Kubernetes, GitLab CI/CD, and observability tooling.
• GraphQL experience is a plus.
• Strong communicator of architecture choices and trade‑offs.
• Comfortable coaching peers via reviews or pair programming.
• Pragmatic approach to legacy code and technical debt.

Responsibilities

• Lead backend projects from design to production.
• Build new services or improve existing systems in PHP.
• Refactor legacy code for scalability and simplicity.
• Collaborate with other teams on shared models and interfaces.
• Debug complex bugs, such as race conditions in Redis.
• Collaborate with other teams on shared models and interfaces.
• Contribute to the technical roadmap and team priorities.
• Coach teammates, provide deep guidance, and share practical tips.

Skills

Backend development experience

PHP

MySQL/MariaDB

Redis caching

Docker

Kubernetes

GitLab CI/CD

Understanding of distributed systems

Communication skills

Tools

GraphQL

Sentry

Grafana

RabbitMQ

GitLab CI/CD

Observability tooling

MariaDB

Redis

Postgres

ElasticSearch

Laravel

Job description

Overview

Senior Backend Engineer role at Gomibo l Belsimpel. Join a small, autonomous team that builds and maintains our core backend services across payments, logistics, order processing, and content management. Lead complex projects, design scalable systems, and help deliver reliable, maintainable code that impacts the entire platform.

Tech stack

• PHP, TypeScript
• MariaDB, Postgres, Redis, ElasticSearch
• RabbitMQ, GraphQL (Lighthouse)
• Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, Flux
• GitLab CI/CD, Sentry, Graylog, Grafana, Prometheus, Loki
• Laravel, ActiveRecord, Composer, PhpStorm

Responsibilities

• Lead backend projects from design to production.
• Build new services or improve existing systems in PHP.
• Refactor legacy code for scalability and simplicity.
• Review merge requests and collaborate on complex features.
• Debug complex bugs, such as race conditions in Redis.
• Collaborate with other teams on shared models and interfaces.
• Contribute to the technical roadmap and team priorities.
• Coach teammates, provide deep guidance, and share practical tips.

Qualifications

• 6+ years backend development experience.
• Excellent PHP knowledge.
• Experience with MySQL/MariaDB and Redis caching.
• Understanding of distributed systems and messaging (RabbitMQ).
• Proficiency with Docker, Kubernetes, GitLab CI/CD, and observability tooling.
• GraphQL experience is a plus.
• Strong communicator of architecture choices and trade‑offs.
• Comfortable coaching peers via reviews or pair programming.
• Pragmatic approach to legacy code and technical debt.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary.
• Generous pension scheme.
• 25 vacation days annually (plus option to purchase 5 additional days).
• Monthly vacation pay.
• Local business discounts.
• Friends & Family vouchers.
• Personal development: training, one‑on‑one mentoring, and intervision.
• Social activities: board‑game nights, gaming, chess, bouldering, Friday drinks.
• Hybrid working: up to two days per week from home.
• Flexible start times (8:00–9:00).
• Company laptop.

Who you are

Hands‑on backend developer with proven ability to deliver complex projects independently, think strategically about technical choices, communicate clearly, collaborate well, and help teammates grow.

Remote policy

Must be present at the Groningen office during the entire onboarding period. After onboarding, you may work remotely up to two days per week, with additional days negotiable.