Backend Engineer - Internal Systems and Restaurant Platform

Company Overview

First Table is dedicated to connecting diners with exceptional restaurants while helping those establishments fill their least busy tables. Operating across New Zealand, Australia, and the UK, the company is expanding rapidly with the goal of becoming the primary choice for restaurant bookings.

Role Summary

We are seeking a Backend Engineer to focus on creating and enhancing internal systems, automation processes, integrations, and restaurant-facing tools that enable our business to operate more efficiently and provide increased value to our restaurant partners. This role involves close collaboration with multiple departments including Sales, Marketing, Customer Support, Operations, Product, and Engineering to identify challenges and opportunities and craft effective technical solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and develop tools that boost productivity across various business areas.
• Build workflows and automations to eliminate manual tasks.
• Integrate internal systems with third-party platforms to streamline operations.
• Support and extend the customer engagement platform, Braze.
• Create operational and reporting dashboards to improve data accessibility for non-technical teams.
• Develop and maintain data pipelines and reporting tools to empower better decision-making.
• Contribute to experimentation and customer engagement initiatives.
• Build features that help restaurant partners increase value from the platform, including onboarding and management tools.
• Maintain backend services and APIs within a PHP and AWS environment, ensuring scalability and reliability.
• Participate in architectural and technical design discussions to drive platform evolution.

Technical Skills Required

• Proven experience in backend development, particularly with PHP.
• Strong skills in API development and system integration.
• Good understanding of relational databases and proficiency with SQL.
• Experience designing robust, maintainable systems and services.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms, preferably AWS.

Preferred Additional Experience

• Working knowledge of customer engagement platforms like Braze.
• Background in data engineering or analytics workflows.
• Experience with GraphQL.
• Building internal tooling and automation solutions.
• Familiarity with event-driven systems and automation platforms.

Personal Attributes

• Curious, proactive, and comfortable working in ambiguous environments.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to engage stakeholders across departments.
• Focus on solving real business problems rather than just technical challenges.
• Pragmatic and outcome-oriented approach to project ownership from concept to delivery.

Why This Role is Important

The business has growing demand for technical support across departments such as Marketing, Sales, Support, and Operations. This position is pivotal in enabling these teams to work more effectively and swiftly by removing manual bottlenecks and delivering new tools that enhance both internal operations and partner experiences. Success in this role means accelerating the entire company’s growth and innovation.

Technology Stack

• PHP
• MySQL
• GraphQL
• AWS
• Docker
• Braze
• React (as applicable)
• GitHub and CI/CD pipelines

Location

This position is based in Queenstown, New Zealand, with a hybrid work setup. Auckland-based candidates may work hybrid or remote.

Success Metrics

• Automation reduces manual workload, enhancing internal team speed.
• Data accessibility and insights improve decision-making for teams.
• Restaurant partners gain increased value from the platform through new tools.
• New opportunities can be rapidly prototyped and delivered.
• Engineering acts as a key enabler for company-wide initiatives.