Back-end tech lead (remote)

Role Overview

Investing your talent in creating a better world

We are searching for a Backend Tech Lead with strong programming expertise and proven team leadership experience. Collaborating closely with our full-stack development team, you will design and develop the backend architecture of our explorer.land platform, ensuring scalability, performance, and reliability. This role combines hands-on backend development (PHP/Laravel) with architectural leadership and operational responsibilities

• 5+ years of professional experience in backend development and technical leadership.
• Located in the EU or in a GDPR-compliant country (as recognized by the European Commission).
• Part-time position, with the potential to evolve into a full-time role.
• Potential start date: 1 September ’25

About OpenForests

OpenForests builds technology at the service of people and nature. We develop tools for forest restoration and conservation projects to manage their data, communicate their impact openly, immerse stakeholders in the place of the project, and build networks of supporters. OpenForests offers custom forest information services and a map-based project presentation platform, explorer.land.

Key Responsabilities

As a Tech Lead for our Backend team, you won’t just be writing code; you’ll be shaping the technical direction and fostering the growth of our backend services. We’re looking for an experienced engineer with a strong systems thinking mindset and a proven track record of leading and mentoring others. You’ll dive deep into architectural design, ensure the scalability and performance of our API systems, and guide the team in adopting best practices. Our backend stack primarily uses PHP and Laravel for our API systems, PostgreSQL and PostGIS for data storage , Elasticsearch for indexed search, and Redis for key/value storage. We leverage Docker for local development and GitHub Actions for CI/CD. While experience with our full stack is a plus, a strong understanding of robust backend architecture and leadership is paramount.

Tasks

(Ideally, but not all strictly required; Groups sorted by priority)

Technical Leadership & BE Team Coordination

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to the backend development team.
• Coordinate development tasks, team workflows, and bug triage/fixes.
• Lead and structure code review processes, ensuring code quality and adherence to clean code principles.
• Define, uphold, and advocate for coding standards, development best practices, tech debt reduction, and refactoring.
• Support strategic roadmap execution and communicate feasibility, ensuring alignment with cross-functional stakeholders (Frontend Tech Lead, Product Owner, QA, DevOps).
• Collaborate closely with the frontend tech lead to coordinate the development roadmap and supervise live deployments.
• Participate in recruiting, onboarding, and team-building processes for backend engineers.
• Communicate technical challenges and solutions effectively to non-technical stakeholders and executive management.

Architecture, Design & Feature Development

• Take ownership of the design and architecture of stable and scalable API systems (PHP, Laravel), supporting the growth of explorer.land.
• Plan, design, and implement new features, contributing technical expertise and helping shape the platform’s future.
• Research, evaluate, and document new technologies and methodologies; communicate findings to the team.
• Contribute to new/improved API & DB architectures for feature improvements/extensions.
• Participate in infrastructure and solution architecture discussions with DevOps and the solution architect team.
• Integrate third-party services and coordinate optimization/performance tuning with developers.
• Anticipate growth and proactively plan for scalability, capacity planning, and load balancing strategies.

Process Improvement & Quality Assurance

• Drive continuous improvement and optimization of existing solutions.
• Ensure technical documentation is complete, current, and accessible.
• Coordinate and prioritize framework/library upgrades.
• Regularly analyze performance metrics, identify bottlenecks, and implement optimizations at the database, API, and application levels.

DevOps, Operations & Monitoring

• Oversee and manage DevOps processes, including CI/CD pipelines (using Docker, GitHub Actions, etc.).
• Automate deployments, rollbacks, and internal changelogs.
• Together with the frontend tech lead, supervise live deployments and ensure smooth delivery to production.
• Set up and manage monitoring, logging, and alerting strategies to proactively handle system stability issues.
• Coordinate and manage incident responses, conduct root cause analyses, and plan follow-up mitigations.
• Contribute technical perspective to budget planning regarding tooling, infrastructure, and resource allocation.

Security & Compliance

• Responsible for establishing and guaranteeing API/data layer security.

Our Tech Stack

• PHP and Laravel for our API systems
• PostgreSQL for persistent data storage
• PostGIS for spatial data
• Elasticsearch for indexed search
• Redis for key/value storage
• Docker for local development
• GitHub Actions for CI/CD
• PaaS cloud solutions for production environments
• AWS S3 and Lambda@Edge for asset handling

Qualifications

• At least 5+ years of development experience with PHP and Laravel.
• Possess a strong background in building robust, scalable APIs and backend systems.
• Have experience building and maintaining large-scale applications.
• Are well-versed in architecture and business logic, with a holistic view of systems.
• Have significant experience with Docker, CI/CD pipelines, and modern DevOps practices.
• Have a strong understanding of API and data security best practices.
• Are proficient in written and spoken English, enabling effective communication with the team and stakeholders.
• Enjoy mentoring and guiding developers, fostering a culture of quality, learning, and collaboration.
• Strive for clean, maintainable code while balancing practicality and business needs.
• Enjoy collaborating with technical and non-technical team members.
• Proactively seek opportunities to improve code, processes, and system performance.
• Demonstrate a deep understanding of the development lifecycle — from design to deployment, maintenance, monitoring, and day-to-day operations.
• Take pride in your work and strive for excellence in what you build.

Benefits

• This position 100% remote can be conducted as freelancer or via employment.
• Flexible work arrangements
• Opportunities for professional growth within a mission-driven company dedicated to sustainable development.

Application Process

• Make sure you have read our working philosophy and conditions, before you proceed.
• Fill in and submit the following form. We will get back to you within four weeks.
• Within our form, briefly describe two projects you worked on before, what challenges you faced and how you overcame them.

https://airtable.com/appsNTmLE4YF5MXvJ/shra3neAKxlC43kui

• If your profile sounds interesting, we will invite you to a 1-hour video call to get to know each other better. We will get back to you mid August.
• In case both parties perceive a potential match, we will plan for a joint assignment as an opportunity to work together, paid, and over a defined period of time.
• Should both parties be satisfied and inspired by this joint work period, we will formalize a regular work relation.

Start date (tentative): 15. September 2025

APPLY HERE: https://airtable.com/appsNTmLE4YF5MXvJ/shra3neAKxlC43kui

Note to agencies: As we directly work with individuals, we will not review nor reply to application coming from agencies. Thank you for your understanding.

Job Types: Full-time, Part-time, Temporary, Permanent
Contract length: 6 months

Pay: 2.500,00€ - 5.000,00€ per month

Expected hours: 20 – 40 per week

Experience:

• back end dev: 5 years (Preferred)

Language:

• English (Required)

Location:

• Berlin (Preferred)

Expected Start Date: 15/09/2025