Senior Backend Engineer – PHP & Java, 100% Remote (Portugal)

emagine; Portugal; Remote; EUR 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

100% remote (Portugal-based)

Opportunity to work on a mission‑crit

Job summary

emagine is seeking a highly experienced Senior Backend Engineer based in Portugal to join an international team and help design scalable, high‑volume financial backend systems using PHP and Java. You will own complex technical challenges, modernize services toward Go, optimize PostgreSQL queries, and ensure reliability, security, and performance across mission‑critical platforms in a fully remote setup.

This role emphasizes code quality, automated testing, CI/CD, and strong collaboration across

Qualifications

• Strong professional experience with both PHP and Java.
• Experience designing and developing scalable, high-performance backend services and REST APIs.
• Deep understanding of relational databases, SQL optimization, indexing, and query performance (PostgreSQL).
• Proven experience working with high-throughput, transaction-intensive, or business-critical systems.
• Strong knowledge of distributed systems, asynchronous processing, concurrency, and fault-tolerant architectures.
• Solid understanding of software architecture, system design, design patterns, and API security.
• Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot complex production issues and resolve performance bottlenecks.
• Strong commitment to code quality, automated testing, maintainability, and engineering best practices.
• Ability to work independently, take technical ownership, and make sound architectural decisions.
• Excellent analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively in an international engineering environment.
• Must currently reside in Portugal.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable backend services and B2B APIs using PHP and Java.
• Build robust, high-performance systems capable of processing large transaction volumes.
• Take end-to-end ownership of complex engineering challenges, from technical design to production.
• Design scalable APIs, data models, and distributed architectures with a strong focus on reliability, security, and maintainability.
• Contribute to the modernization and migration of existing PHP and Java services toward Go.

Skills

PHP

Java

REST APIs

Distributed systems

SQL optimization

Tools

PostgreSQL

Go

AWS

Job description

emagine is seeking a highly experienced Senior Backend Engineer based in Portugal to join an international team and help design scalable, high‑volume financial backend systems using PHP and Java. You will own complex technical challenges, modernize services toward Go, optimize PostgreSQL queries, and ensure reliability, security, and performance across mission‑critical platforms in a fully remote setup.

This role emphasizes code quality, automated testing, CI/CD, and strong collaboration across