Senior Backend Engineer

The Senior Backend Engineer is responsible for building and maintaining the server-side systems that power DREST’s luxury mobile game and supporting platform. This role plays a critical part in the performance, reliability, and scalability of our backend architecture, ensuring smooth operation of our live services and enabling feature delivery across the organisation.

As a hands-on contributor, the Senior Backend Engineer designs, implements, and optimises backend services, collaborating closely with client, DevOps, QA and data teams. Reporting to the Lead Backend Engineer, you will also support technical planning and mentor other engineers, helping to shape the future of backend engineering at DREST.

What you will be accountable for

• Delivering high-quality, maintainable backend code and features on time, aligned with established codebase architectural standards and covered by tests

• Supporting backend system performance and reliability, helping maintain a 99% uptime SLA

• Contributing to incident response and resolution, ensuring 80% of P1 issues are resolved within SLA

• Mentoring junior team members and supporting the Lead Backend Engineer in upholding team performance and code quality
  

What you will be responsible for

• Act as a hands-on contributor to backend codebases, mainly in TypeScript (Node.js), and associated infrastructure

• Design, implement and extend robust APIs and microservices supporting gameplay, user management, platform and content management systems

• Analyse business requirements and translate them into technical specifications and scalable backend systems

• Write clean, tested, and maintainable code following engineering best practices

• Work closely with product and game teams to ensure alignment of features with backend architecture

• Collaborate with DevOps to ensure uptime, observability, and deployment reliability

• Help shape the technical direction of the team through mentorship, code reviews, and technical discussions

• Take ownership of complex systems and proactively address potential performance and scalability bottlenecks

• Write and update feature and technical documentation for the systems under development 

• Assist QA in testing and deploying  new features

Requirements

What you’ll bring

• 5+ years of experience developing and maintaining backend systems

• Strong programming skills in at least one server-side language (e.g., Node.js/TypeScript, Python, Java, C#)

• Proven experience with microservices, RESTful APIs, and scalable system architecture

• Experience working with relational and NoSQL databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, DynamoDB)

• Solid understanding of backend infrastructure, caching, load balancing, and distributed systems (including Kafka-based microservice meshes)

• Proficiency in Git and CI/CD workflows, with strong familiarity with tools like GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar

• Knowledge of containerisation (Docker), cloud services (especially AWS), and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform is a plus)

• A proactive mindset with strong debugging and performance optimisation skills

• Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively across disciplines

• Comfortable mentoring junior engineers and leading by example

• A willingness to be available outside standard working hours when needed to support critical issues or key deliveries
  

It would be a bonus if you have

• Experience working on a live game microservices, APIs & content pipelines, or in the mobile gaming industry

• Familiarity & expertise with multiple backend languages and runtimes (e.g. Typescript & node.js, C# and AWS dotnet lambdas, Go, the JVM) and understanding of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each

• Understanding of Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban)

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience