Staff Engineer Backend & Architecture (all genders)

What you will do You own and evolve the backend and service architecture across product teams and ensure consistency, scalability, and maintainability. You lead the technical migration of our legacy monolith towards a modular, API-first service architecture - from planning to hands-on delivery. You design our event-driven architecture on Kafka and establish the streaming patterns our teams build on. You make and document impactful architectural decisions, leading cross-team alignment and communicating trade-offs clearly to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders. You mentor and grow engineers across experience levels through pair programming, design reviews, and code-quality feedback. You drive AWS infrastructure decisions relevant to service delivery, including deployment pipelines and cloud cost awareness. You identify and introduce AI tooling to improve developer productivity and product quality. You proactively communicate technical risks, progress, and recommendations to your manager and peers. Your profile You are already working at Staff Engineer level (or equivalent) - you have demonstrated technical leadership across teams, not just within one. You have expert-level backend knowledge in a modern typed language and framework, and a deep understanding of modern architecture patterns. Our stack is PHP/Symfony and TypeScript; experience there is a plus, not a requirement. You have decomposed a monolith into services in production, incrementally, and know why such migrations stall. You have designed event-driven architectures with Kafka - event and topic design, delivery semantics, and schema evolution. You have strong experience with AWS, understand how cloud infrastructure impacts service delivery, and know Kubernetes as a deployment target. You are AI-keen - you actively explore and apply AI tools and techniques in your daily engineering work. You communicate proactively and clearly - in writing and in conversation - and act as an enabler and catalyst: you help teams find a shared technical direction instead of prescribing one. You are fluent in English; German is a plus. Why us? Remote First: Whether you prefer working from home, using co-working spaces across Germany, or being in our modern headquarters in Cologne – we support all working styles. Well equipped : To make sure you have everything you need in your home office, we provide the appropriate hardware. After your probation period, you’ll also receive a budget for ergonomic home office equipment. Flexibility: You can organize your working hours flexibly. With a core working time from 9:00 to 12:00, you have plenty of freedom to balance work and personal life. With our Workation Worldwide program, you can work remotely for up to 60 days per year from anywhere within ±4 hours of the German time zone. Benefits à la carte: With Probonio, you can design your benefits anew every month: Use your budget for meal subsidies, childcare support, vouchers, or book your Urban Sports Club membership – all easily managed via app. Time Off & Recharge: You benefit from 32 days of paid vacation per year. In addition, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are fully off. With our Culture Day, you can also take a day off that is personally important to you - intentionally and individually. Company-wide Bonus: Our Shared Success Plan strengthens a shared result orientation by transparently and fairly sharing company success with everyone. Mobility & sustainability: Through FINN JobAuto, you can lease your own electric vehicle at attractive conditions. You can also benefit from bike leasing. Team spirit: Our teams meet in person once per tertial for brainstorming, workshops, and of course for our much-loved summer and winter events. Healthy at work: We support you with Urban Sports Club, life coaching programs, and additional offerings to help you stay fit and stress-free in your daily work. Dog-Friendly Headquarters: Your four-legged friend is welcome in the office—bring your dog to work! And more: 20% contribution to your company pension plan, access to our attractive corporate benefits portal, and lots of fun – “Spark joy together” is one of our core company values for a reason Employment type Full-time, 40 hours, permanent Want to join the team? We look forward to receiving your application! At our company, everyone is welcome - regardless of gender, gender identity, disability, ethnic background, nationality, religion, belief, age, or sexual orientation. What matters most is that you’re a great fit for our team.