EMPIRE is looking to solve the problem of managing and scaling their music publishing platform by hiring a Lead Backend Engineer to own the architecture, development, and scaling of backend systems that support publishers, administrators, and rights holders in managing works, rights, royalties, and industry-standard reporting.
Requirements
- Strong hands-on experience with PHP (vanilla and Laravel), relational databases (MySQL/PostgreSQL), and API design.
- Proficiency in automated testing frameworks for backend systems (e.g., PHPUnit, Pest).
- Strong grounding in performance optimization, caching strategies, and database profiling.
- Proven track record in data modeling, database design, and schema optimization.
- Knowledge of DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform).
- Background in distributed systems design, event-driven architecture, or microservices.
- Experience with industry-standard publishing data formats and flows, such as CWR, DDEX, and metadata exchange.
Responsibilities
- Own the architecture, design, and implementation of application code and APIs for our music publishing SaaS platform.
- Build scalable, secure, and maintainable backend code using PHP (vanilla + Laravel).
- Implement and maintain workflows for publishing data ingestion, validation, transformation, and delivery.
- Drive backend performance, availability, and resilience across rights, works, and royalty processing pipelines.
- Establish and enforce best practices in code quality, testing, database design, and deployment.
- Mentor and guide backend engineers, providing technical direction and career growth support.
- Lead evaluation and adoption of backend frameworks, libraries, and infrastructure tooling.
Other
- 5+ years of professional backend engineering experience, including at least 2+ years leading PHP/Laravel development efforts.
- Proven ability to lead and mentor backend engineering teams.
- Excellent leadership, collaboration, and communication skills in cross-functional environments.
- Comfortable context switching between legacy code and newer codebases.
- Deep familiarity with music publishing concepts: works, rights, royalties, splits, licensing, and publishing agreements.
