Lead Backend Developer
Description
We're looking for a Backend Developer Lead to take technical ownership of the core platform at Ultimate Guitar — the world's largest destination for musicians, with over 14 million monthly active users. This is a hands-on leadership role: you'll drive architecture decisions, mentor engineers, and own the technical direction of the platform — while staying close to the code.
We are actively integrating AI and automation into all areas of the business and expect candidates with a mindset focused on improving efficiency and delivering a better user experience.
What is in it for you?
- Real impact at scale. Your work will reach 14M+ musicians every month — across the platform that defines how the world learns and plays guitar.
- Ownership from day one. You'll shape the technical direction of the platform, not just execute tickets. We trust our leads to drive decisions.
- A team that values craft. We allocate dedicated capacity to technical debt, run regular architecture discussions, and take engineering quality seriously — not just velocity.
- Room to grow. Direct path to broader engineering leadership as the company scales, with full support for learning new tools and practices.
Key responsibilities
- Design and evolve scalable backend architecture and core platform services
- Lead technical initiatives from solution design and estimation through production release
- Develop new functionality, improve existing systems, and reduce technical debt
- Ensure system scalability, reliability, performance, and maintainability
- Optimize databases, APIs, caching layers, and background processing
- Identify and resolve production incidents, bottlenecks, and technical risks
- Participate in architectural decision-making and long-term platform evolution
- Conduct code reviews and maintain engineering quality standards
- Mentor developers, support onboarding, and provide technical leadership within the team
- Collaborate with Product, Analytics, QA, and other engineering teams
Requirements
Technical
- 5–7+ years of commercial PHP development experience
- Strong knowledge of modern PHP (8.0+) and backend engineering best practices
- Solid hands-on experience with Yii2
- Experience designing scalable backend systems with a strong grasp of software architecture and system design principles
- Strong MySQL experience: schema design, indexing, query optimization, performance tuning
- Experience with high-load production systems and application performance optimization
- Experience designing APIs and service integrations
- Solid Git workflows, code review practices, and CI/CD experience
- Strong debugging, troubleshooting, and root-cause analysis skills
Leadership & Ownership
- Proven experience leading development teams or major technical initiatives
- Ability to independently drive projects from design to production
- Experience working with large legacy codebases and driving incremental modernisation without disrupting business operations
- Strong estimation, planning, prioritisation, and risk management skills
- Experience mentoring engineers and supporting their professional growth
Soft skills
- Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset
- Effective communication and collaboration in cross-functional teams
- High autonomy, accountability, and product ownership
- Product-oriented thinking with a focus on business impact
Nice to have
- Interest in music and willingness to go deep on the product domain
- Experience building large-scale consumer products
- Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, etc.)
Benefits
Creativity every day: Make inspiring products for musicians, artists and creators – no day is the same.
Impactful work Influence the future of the music industry and change the lives of millions worldwide.
Work set up: We’ll make sure you’re set up for success with the right work equipment, whether that’s company-provided hardware or an equipment allowance.
Growth and development: Receive specialized training, language lessons, conferences and learning materials.
Team well-being: Support for your mental health and wellbeing, including confidential help during life’s tougher moments.
