[Hiring] Staff Backend Developer @PAR Technology

Role Description

A Staff Backend Developer is a highly experienced software engineer responsible for designing, developing and evolving complex backend systems and services using PHP and/or Go (Golang), MySQL and related technologies.

• Deep technical expertise, strong engineering judgment, and a high level of ownership.
• Independently drive complex technical work and contribute to architecture and technical decisions.
• Understand the broader product and system context, proactively identify technical risks and improvement opportunities.
• Take responsibility for features and technical initiatives from initial design through implementation, testing, release, production validation, and continuous improvement.
• Make extensive and effective use of AI-assisted engineering tools as part of the daily development workflow.
• Critically evaluate, validate, and improve AI-generated solutions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Extensive professional experience in backend software development and independently delivering complex production systems.
• Strong knowledge of PHP and modern PHP web frameworks and/or Go (Golang).
• Strong knowledge of relational databases, particularly MySQL, including data modeling, query optimization and performance considerations.
• Strong experience designing and maintaining APIs and integrations.
• Deep understanding of software architecture, design patterns, maintainability, scalability and performance.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, service integrations, asynchronous processing and failure scenarios.
• Strong understanding of testing practices, including unit, integration and automated testing.
• Strong understanding of production systems, observability, logging, monitoring, troubleshooting and root cause analysis.
• Strong experience with Git, Linux environments and modern CI/CD development practices.
• Experience working in Agile and continuous delivery environments with frequent releases and short development cycles.
• Demonstrated ability to independently solve complex technical problems and make sound engineering decisions with limited supervision.
• Demonstrated ability to take end-to-end ownership of complex features and technical initiatives.
• Demonstrated practical experience using AI-assisted software engineering tools as a significant part of the development workflow.
• Strong understanding of both the capabilities and limitations of AI-assisted development.
• Ability to use AI effectively to accelerate development, investigation, testing, documentation and problem solving without compromising engineering quality.

Requirements

• Strong ability to identify technical risks and improvement opportunities proactively.
• Ability to help other engineers adopt effective AI-assisted development practices.
• Strong code review and technical mentoring skills.
• Ability to act as a technical reference for other developers and support the Engineering Manager with technical recommendations and decisions.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills across Engineering, Product, Quality Engineering, Architecture and DevOps.
• High level of ownership, accountability and self-direction.
• Strong focus on software quality, performance, reliability and long-term maintainability.
• Ability to balance technical excellence with business priorities and delivery needs.

Benefits

• Design, develop and maintain complex backend systems, services and APIs that support integrated ordering, payment and workflow management solutions.
• Actively contribute to the technical design and architecture of the software system.
• Take ownership of complex features and technical initiatives from initial requirements and technical design through implementation, testing, deployment, production validation and post-release follow-up.
• Ensure that feature ownership continues through successful delivery, production stability and resolution of any issues identified after release.
• Identify technical problems, risks, dependencies and improvement opportunities proactively.
• Serve as a technical reference point for the development team.
• Work closely with the Engineering Manager and provide technical input, recommendations and support for technical decisions.
• Mentor and support other developers, share technical knowledge and help raise the overall engineering capability of the team.
• Perform high-quality code reviews focused on architecture, maintainability, performance, security, scalability and long-term technical impact.
• Contribute to establishing and improving engineering standards, coding practices, development processes and technical guidelines.
• Make extensive and effective use of AI-assisted engineering tools to improve development speed and code quality.
• Continuously evaluate new AI-assisted development approaches and identify practical opportunities to improve engineering efficiency and software quality.
• Collaborate with Quality Engineering throughout the development lifecycle to ensure testability and appropriate test coverage.
• Write and maintain appropriate unit, integration and automated tests to ensure software reliability.
• Design and implement APIs and integrations with a strong focus on reliability, backward compatibility, performance, scalability and maintainability.
• Proactively identify performance bottlenecks and resource utilization issues.
• Participate in investigation and resolution of complex production issues.
• Use production monitoring, logging, metrics and other observability tools.
• Provide reliable technical estimates and communicate assumptions, dependencies, risks and uncertainties.
• Prioritize work in cooperation with the Engineering Manager while managing technical execution.
• Communicate technical risks, blockers and development problems early and clearly.
• Take responsibility for the quality, maintainability and technical correctness of delivered solutions.
• Continuously improve their own technical knowledge and evaluate technologies, tools and practices.
• Contribute to reducing technical debt and proactively identify areas of the system that require modernization.
• Balance delivery speed with long-term maintainability.

Interview Process

• Interview #1: Initial Screening: Video interview with the Recruiter and Hiring Manager (via MS Teams)
• Interview #2: Technical Discussion: Video interview with a Technical Team Member (via MS Teams)
• Interview #3: Leadership Interview: Video interview with VP of Engineering (via MS Teams)