Senior Backend Engineer | Valencia or Rotterdam

We’re looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to help design and build the scalable backbone of HelloPrint’s ecommerce platforms. Based in Valencia or Rotterdam, you’ll work on microservices, APIs, and integrations, while mentoring others and driving technical excellence.

You’ll take a leading role in shaping the architecture of our ecommerce infrastructure. You’ll build reliable APIs, optimize performance, and ensure our systems scale as we expand globally. Beyond coding, you’ll mentor teammates, influence technical direction, and contribute to a high-performance engineering culture.

What You’ll Do:

• Architect Our API-First Future: Design, develop, and maintain a robust and high-performance API layer that will serve as the core of our headless platform.

• Own the Backend: Take full ownership of key backend services, from design to deployment, ensuring they align with our API-first strategy.

• Drive Modernization: Lead the modernization of our existing system, with a clear focus on decoupling the frontend from the backend and creating a clean, API-first architecture. We prefer a pragmatic approach over the complexity and overhead of microservices.

• Mentor and Lead: Guide and mentor other backend developers, sharing your expertise in API design, performance, and best practices.

• Collaborate and Innovate: Work closely with frontend engineers, product managers, and business stakeholders to translate ambitious goals into practical, well-engineered API specifications and solutions.

• Champion Best Practices: Introduce and advocate for modern API development tools, standards, and methodologies (e.g., OpenAPI, CI/CD, comprehensive testing).

Requirements

What We’re Looking For:

• Proven Seniority: At least 5+ years of professional experience in backend development, with a strong focus on PHP.

• API-First Mindset: Demonstrated experience designing and building scalable, RESTful or GraphQL APIs. You have a deep understanding of what it means to build a headless system.

• PHP8 Expertise: Deep, hands-on experience with modern PHP, including PHP8. You are comfortable with frameworks like Symfony or Laravel and understand the nuances of the PHP ecosystem.

• Strategic & Pragmatic: You are a problem-solver who prioritizes impact and understands the challenges of a large-scale modernization project. You know when to refactor and when to build new, all while avoiding unnecessary complexity.

• Ownership Mentality: You are proactive about identifying and fixing issues and feel a strong sense of responsibility for the performance and health of the codebase.

• Data Savvy: Strong experience with relational databases (MySQL/MariaDB) and a solid understanding of database design, optimization, and query performance in an API context.

• Experience with Git and agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban).

• AI-Accelerated Development: You are knowledgeable about and in favor of using AI to accelerate the software development lifecycle. You're keen on exploring how AI can be leveraged to generate code, improve quality, and maximize output.
  

Nice to Have:

• Experience with e-commerce or high-traffic consumer environments.

• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP) and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).

• Experience with message queues (e.g., GCP PubSub) or other asynchronous processing technologies.
  

What We Offer:

Depending on your location (Rotterdam or Valencia), here’s what you can expect at HelloPrint:

• 🚀 Growth & Ownership: A performance culture where you grow fast, take ownership early, and design your own path: with access to AI learning and real responsibility.

• 🌍 International Experience: Join a diverse team of 150+ HelloPrinters from 34+ nationalities, collaboratin