Playson

Senior Backend Engineer (Core Team)

Europe, Ukraine full-time Mid Salary not listed
full-time Mid level Technology & IT Curated
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About the role

About the Role

We’re looking for a Senior Backend Developer who thrives in a deeply hands-on environment and enjoys being close to the code on a daily basis. This role is heavily focused on building, optimising, and scaling backend services in a high-load system where performance and reliability are critical.

You’ll be working on complex, real-time challenges at the core of our platform - improving latency, ensuring high availability, and making systems more efficient at scale. This is not a coordination-heavy role; it’s for someone who enjoys writing production code, solving tough engineering problems, and seeing the direct impact of their work.

If you’re product-driven, take ownership, and prefer a “build first, improve fast” approach while working on systems where every millisecond matters - this role will feel like home.

Key Responsibilities

Work as part of a cross-functional team owning a core product within the platform

Design, build, and deliver new backend features end-to-end in a distributed environment

Write high-quality, production-level code daily, contributing directly to a high-load, scalable system

Take ownership of services handling financial transactions at scale, with a strong focus on reliability and accuracy

Proactively suggest and implement improvements in architecture, processes, and development practices

Participate in code and architectural reviews to maintain high engineering standards

Solve complex business and technical challenges with pragmatic, efficient solutions

Participating in on-call rotations within the squad to ensure the reliability and availability of our systems

Play an active role in ongoing tech transformation initiatives across the platform

Collaborate closely with engineers, product, and other stakeholders to deliver impactful solutions used by millions globally

Requirements

Solid experience with Node.js/TypeScript is ideal, but we also welcome experts in other OOP languages such as Java, Python, C++, C#, or Go

Strong understanding of asynchronous programming techniques

Deep production experience with Kafka: confident reasoning about consumer-group rebalances and their impact on in-flight processing, offset-commit strategies under retries and duplicate delivery, and the limits of "exactly-once" semantics

Experience designing idempotent, retry-safe handlers for at-least-once pipelines: transactional outbox, idempotency keys, and deduplication

Experience building services with gRPC or similar RPC frameworks

Strong knowledge of relational databases such as MySQL or PostgreSQL, plus production experience with at least one NoSQL technology at scale, such as DynamoDB, MongoDB, or Redis

Hands-on experience running services on Kubernetes and AWS/GCP: deployment, autoscaling, resource limits, and production debugging

Production operations experience: on-call ownership of a high-load system, including incident response, impact assessment, root-cause analysis, and post-incident improvements

Nice to Have

Experience with ClickHouse or other columnar/analytical databases

Experience with multi-region / failover architectures: data replication, regional isolation, and graceful degradation

Practical use of AI coding agents such as Cursor or Claude Code as part of daily development: effective prompting, reviewing, and validating AI-generated code

Understanding of application security and industry best practices

Gambling domain experience

What We Offer

Competitive Salary

Quarterly Bonuses

Unlimited Paid Time Off

Unlimited Paid Sick Leave

Remote & Flexible Working

Private Medical Insurance

Financial Support for Life Events

Professional Development Budget

International Exposure

Regular Company Events

*Benefits may vary depending on location and contractual agreement

Recruitment process

1. HR interview (30-45mins)

2. Interview with a Hiring Manager (45mins)

3. Technical interview with live coding (90mins)

4. Final Interview with C-level (60 mins)

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Interview prep

Walk in with sharper answers.

Use this as a quick practice sheet before you speak with the employer.

Mid
Technology & IT Human Resources Javascript MySQL Operations Python Mid level

Likely questions

  1. Tell us about work you have done that is close to the Senior Backend Engineer (Core Team) role.
  2. How would you approach your first 30 days at Playson?
  3. Which of Human Resources, Javascript and MySQL have you used recently, and what did it help you achieve?
  4. Describe a time you solved a problem without waiting to be told exactly what to do.
  5. How do you handle busy days, changing priorities, or pressure at work?

Prepare before the call

  • A recent example that proves your experience with Human Resources, Javascript and MySQL.
  • One short story with a problem, your action, and the result.
  • Two examples that show the strengths listed on your CV.
  • A clear reason why this role and company interest you.
  • Your availability, preferred work style, and salary expectations.

Ask them

  • What would success look like in the first 90 days?
  • What are the main problems this hire should help solve?
  • How does the team give feedback and measure good work?
  • What does a normal working week look like for this role?
Practice line

I am interested in the Senior Backend Engineer (Core Team) role because I can bring practical experience in Human Resources, Javascript and MySQL, learn the team quickly, and contribute to the outcomes Playson needs from this hire.

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