Rekruton Technologies

Engineering Manager – Backend (PHP/Laravel) About the Role We are looking for an experienced Engineering Manager – Backend to lead our backend&nbsp;engineering team and take ownership of the delivery, quality, scalability, performance, and&nbsp;reliability of our web-based telecommunications testing platform. Our platform enables customers to test and validate telecommunications services, including IVR&nbsp;(Interactive Voice Response) and related telecom workflows, across different networks and&nbsp;environments.&nbsp;This is a hands-on engineering leadership role. The successful candidate will combine strong&nbsp;PHP/Laravel backend expertise with engineering management, system-design,&nbsp;troubleshooting, delivery management, and people-leadership skills. You will work closely with frontend engineering, QA, Product, DevOps/Platform, and other&nbsp;stakeholders to build and operate reliable, secure, and scalable systems. Key Responsibilities Engineering &amp; Architecture ● Own the technical direction and day-to-day execution of backend engineering. ● Design, review, and evolve scalable backend architecture using PHP and Laravel. ● Own backend APIs, databases, integrations, background processing, and related&nbsp;services. ● Make sound architectural decisions considering scalability, maintainability, performance,&nbsp;reliability, and security. ● Review technical designs and provide guidance for complex implementations. ● Identify and address architectural weaknesses and technical debt. ● Ensure appropriate logging, monitoring, exception handling, and observability are&nbsp;incorporated into backend services. ● Drive continuous improvement and modernization of existing systems. Delivery &amp; Execution ● Lead planning and execution of backend engineering work. ● Break business and product requirements into appropriate technical solutions and&nbsp;implementation plans. ● Provide and review engineering estimates and ensure commitments are realistic. ● Coordinate priorities and workload across backend engineers. ● Track delivery risks, dependencies, and technical blockers and address them proactively. ● Ensure backend deliverables are completed with appropriate quality and testing. ● Work with Product and other stakeholders to communicate technical trade offs,&nbsp;dependencies, risks, and timelines. Code Quality &amp; Engineering Excellence ● Establish and maintain backend engineering standards and best practices. ● Drive effective code reviews and maintain high standards for production code. ● Promote clean architecture, reusable components, maintainable code, and appropriate&nbsp;design patterns. ● Ensure effective automated testing and continuously improve backend test coverage. ● Lead refactoring initiatives and manage technical debt systematically. ● Improve API performance and application/database efficiency. ● Investigate production issues and ensure appropriate root-cause analysis and preventive&nbsp;actions. Reliability, Performance &amp; Security ● Ensure backend systems remain reliable and performant as usage grows. ● Monitor and improve API response times and backend service performance. ● Design systems with appropriate availability, resilience, failure handling, and recovery mechanisms. ● Work with DevOps/Platform teams on CI/CD, deployments, monitoring, infrastructure, and production reliability. ● Ensure backend development follows secure coding and data-protection practices. ● Participate in incident investigation and improvements following production issues. Telecommunications Domain ● Develop a strong understanding of telecommunications testing workflows and customer&nbsp;requirements. ● Work with systems that interact with telecommunications services such as IVR,&nbsp;voice/call flows, SMS and related communication workflows, where applicable. ● Help engineering teams diagnose issues spanning web applications, APIs, integrations,&nbsp;telecom workflows, and external systems. ● Previous telecommunications experience is desirable but strong candidates from other&nbsp;complex SaaS/platform environments are also encouraged to apply. Team Leadership &amp; Development ● Lead, mentor, and develop backend engineers. ● Conduct regular technical and performance discussions with team members. ● Help engineers grow in architecture, coding, debugging, ownership, and decision-&nbsp;making. ● Support onboarding and development of new engineers. ● Build a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous learning, and engineering&nbsp;excellence. ● Identify skill gaps and contribute to hiring and team-development plans. ● Participate in technical interviews and hiring decisions for backend engineering roles. Required Skills &amp; Experience ● Strong professional software engineering experience, including significant experience&nbsp;building backend web applications. ● Strong hands-on experience with PHP and Laravel. ● Experience leading or managing backend software engineering teams. ● Strong understanding of REST APIs and API design. ● Strong knowledge of relational databases such as MySQL/MariaDB, including schema&nbsp;design, indexing, query optimization, and performance troubleshooting. ● Experience designing scalable, reliable web-based/SaaS applications. ● Strong knowledge of software architecture, design patterns, and clean-code principles. ● Experience with automated testing and backend testing strategies. ● Experience with Git-based development and code-review workflows. ● Understanding of CI/CD and modern software deployment practices. ● Experience diagnosing complex production and performance issues. ● Understanding of application security and secure software-development practices. ● Strong problem-solving and debugging abilities. ● Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills. ● Ability to balance hands-on technical leadership with people and delivery management. Preferred Qualifications Experience in one or more of the following would be advantageous: ● Telecommunications or telecom testing platforms. ● IVR, telephony, voice, SMS, or communication platforms. ● High-volume API or transaction-processing systems. ● Redis, queues, caching, scheduled/background jobs, and asynchronous processing. ● Docker/containerized applications. ● Cloud infrastructure. ● Application and infrastructure monitoring/observability. ● CI/CD and deployment automation. ● Performance tuning and load testing. ● Working with distributed or geographically dispersed engineering teams.