Backend Developer

Do you want to help evolve a mature SaaS platform by building reliable, scalable back-end services in PHP? Do you enjoy working with frameworks, ORMs, automated testing, and pragmatic architecture that supports real customer-facing features? Don’t look any further — Foleon is expanding the team and looking for a back-end developer who can strengthen our core platform while contributing to future-facing technology choices. Foleon is a content experience platform for creating immersive, measurable digital publications. We’re growing our product and platform capabilities and need engineers who can build robust APIs, maintainable services, and well-tested back-end features that help our customers create better digital content. Your Mission As part of a cross-functional product team, you’ll design, build, test, and maintain back-end functionality across our platform. You’ll work primarily with PHP and Node-based systems, collaborate closely with front-end and product colleagues, and help modernize our architecture while keeping quality, reliability, and maintainability at the center of your work. Your Focus Design, build, and maintain back-end services, APIs, and platform features using PHP. Work with relational data models, Doctrine, database migrations, and performance-conscious queries. Write and maintain automated tests with PHPUnit and contribute to a strong testing culture. Develop clean, maintainable application code using modern PHP practices and frameworks such as Laravel or similar. Contribute to refactoring, modernization, and gradual improvement of existing systems, including legacy components where needed. Collaborate with front-end engineers, product owners, designers, and QA to deliver reliable customer-facing features. Participate in code reviews, technical planning, troubleshooting, and production support as part of an engineering team. Your Competences Team Player: You communicate with clarity and empathy, whether you’re explaining a technical trade-off to a stakeholder or giving feedback to a peer. Ownership Mindset: You take pride in your work. If something breaks, you fix it; if something can be better, you propose a solution. Analytical & Creative: You see the "big picture" and can break down complex problems into manageable milestones. Feedback Pro: You thrive in a culture of radical candor, where giving and receiving constructive feedback is seen as the ultimate tool for growth. Your Qualifications 8+ years of professional back-end development experience, with strong hands-on experience in PHP. Experience with modern PHP application development and frameworks; Laravel experience is a strong plus. Practical experience with Doctrine, relational databases, data modelling, and query optimization. Comfortable writing automated tests, especially with PHPUnit, and working in CI/CD-enabled development workflows. Strong understanding of REST APIs, service boundaries, authentication, validation, error handling, and maintainable integration patterns. Familiarity with cloud-native delivery, containers, observability, and production operations is a plus, including experience with microservices architectures on Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and Amazon Web Services (AWS). Nice to have: Experience with Zend/Laminas or maintaining and modernizing legacy PHP applications. Experience with Node.js or other TypeScript-based back-end frameworks. Hands-on experience designing and operating event-driven architectures using asynchronous messaging, pub/sub patterns, queues, and resilient integration flows. Experience using AI-assisted development tools such as Claude Code, including effective prompting to improve productivity, code quality, and technical exploration. What you get: Be part of a top-tier team in the Content Creation scale-up. Collaborate with an adaptable and flexible group of individuals to benefit from collective growth. Embrace the variety of backgrounds and values that each individual brings to the table. A flexible workplace that offers a conducive atmosphere for productivity. Perks: 🏠 Hybrid working: Work 2 days in the office and the rest at home. Plus, receive a monthly WFH allowance. 🚆 Commuting covered: Not living in Amsterdam? We’ve got you. Get an NS Business Card or receive up to €400/month. Smooth travels! 💸 Pension program: You're not in this alone, we also contribute to your pension plan! 📚 Learning budget: You’ll get €500 each year to spend on courses, books, workshops, or anything that helps you grow. 🌴 25 holiday days + bonus days: You’ll get 25 paid days off, and if Christmas or New Year’s falls on a weekend, you get an extra day. + Special days off! 🗓️ Floating holidays for inclusivity: Celebrate what matters to you. Move up to 2 public holidays per year to align with your cultural or religious observances. 🌍 Work from abroad: 2 times a year, you can work from another country for up to 3 weeks. 🥗 Office lunch: We’ll cover part of the cost of lunch at the office twice a week. 💪🏼 Fitness support: Stay active with up to €25/month toward your workouts, whether you’re into spinning, lifting, or just stretching. 🚴🏼 Lease a bike: Need a new ride? Lease (e)bike for commuting or personal use at an affordable rate. 🧠 Mental health matters: We offer access to a mental health platform and professional counseling. ❤️ Volunteer day: Take a paid day off each year to give back and support a cause close to your heart. 🌟 Employee recognition program: Get the kudos you deserve through our recognition program. Note: All our hiring is done in-house, so we’re not looking for agency support for this role. Thanks for understanding!