Backend Product Engineer

Twiva is a tech‑enabled creator ecosystem that provides tools, networks and financial services for creators, brands and agencies. The Platform and Rails Engineering team builds the core rails—identity, payments, wallets, campaigns, storefronts and APIs—that power Twiva’s products. As a Backend Product Engineer you will own the server‑side of product features, primarily using Laravel (PHP) with MySQL and Redis, and Node.js for asynchronous services, delivering reliable APIs and background jobs for the Flutter mobile app and web interfaces.

• Build and ship backend features in Laravel using MVC, from specification to production, collaborating with product, design and frontend engineers. • Design, document and contract REST APIs consumed by Flutter and web interfaces. • Write migrations, queries and indexes for high‑volume MySQL workloads. • Use Redis for caching and session management where it improves performance. • Develop and maintain Node.js services for webhooks, queues, notifications and scheduled jobs. • Integrate and maintain payment rails (M‑Pesa, Flutterwave, Pesapal, Flexpay, Spotit) and ensure idempotent processing. • Work with wallet services and integrate email (SendGrid) and SMS (Onfon) providers. • Maintain AliExpress and internal API integrations for reselling and partner commerce. • Enforce authentication, authorization and input validation; protect personal and financial data. • Monitor errors in Sentry, diagnose root causes and resolve production issues quickly. • Profile and tune slow queries, endpoints and jobs across PHP‑FPM, Nginx, MySQL and Redis. • Collaborate with Security and Infrastructure engineers on hardening, secrets handling and backups. • Maintain GitLab CI pipelines and deploy via Laravel Forge to AWS EC2 environments. • Write clean, tested, readable code; conduct code reviews; participate in sprint planning and Jira refinement. • Document APIs, data models and integrations; contribute to shared backend standards and best practices.

Required: • 3+ years of professional experience building backend systems in production. • Strong PHP and Laravel experience (Eloquent, queues, jobs, migrations, automated testing). • Hands‑on Node.js experience for asynchronous services. • Solid MySQL skills (schema design, indexing, query tuning) and practical Redis usage. • Experience building and consuming REST APIs with token‑based authentication and versioning. • Experience integrating third‑party APIs (payment gateways, SMS/email providers) including webhook handling. • Proficiency with Git and GitLab merge request and CI workflows. • Working knowledge of Linux, Nginx and deploying applications on AWS. Nice to have: • Experience in fintech, mobile money, wallets, marketplaces or creator platforms. • Experience with Laravel Forge, Docker or similar deployment tooling. • Experience with PHPUnit or Pest, and with Sentry or similar monitoring. • Experience supporting Flutter or other mobile clients with backend APIs. • A degree in computer science, IT or related field, or equivalent practical experience.

• Work on a platform that moves real money for creators and brands across East Africa. • Direct ownership of backend features with access to the Head of Platform and Rails Engineering. • Practical, product‑led tech stack: Laravel, Node.js, Flutter and AWS. • Opportunities to grow as Twiva scales its creator base and expands to new markets.