Staff Engineer Backend & Architecture (all genders) in Köln

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: The 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?

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 your team.

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