Lead Backend Engineer (Publishing, PHP / Laravel) Job at Empire in San Francisco

Full-time

EMPIRE is a premier and dynamic music company that prides itself on the development and support of independent artists. We are a rapidly growing firm that has been making waves in the music industry, with an extensive portfolio that spans multiple genres and reaches audiences worldwide.

Our commitment to artistic creativity, innovation, and progressive business solutions forms the foundation of our corporate culture. We believe in fostering talent, not just in our artists but also within our professional teams. As we continue to expand, we invite you to join us on this exciting journey.

The Role EMPIRE is looking for a Lead Backend Engineer, Publishing to join our downtown San Francisco office. This senior, hands-on role reports directly to the VP of Engineering. You will own the architecture, development, and scaling of backend systems that power our music publishing management platform.

Our system supports publishers, administrators, and rights holders in managing works, rights, royalties, and industry-standard reporting. You’ll partner closely with product managers, frontend engineers, and industry specialists to translate complex publishing data workflows into efficient, automated, and reliable backend solutions.

Responsibilities Own the architecture, design, and implementation of application code and APIs for our music publishing SaaS platform.

Build scalable, secure, and maintainable backend code using PHP (vanilla + Laravel).

Implement and maintain workflows for publishing data ingestion, validation, transformation, and delivery.

Drive backend performance, availability, and resilience across rights, works, and royalty processing pipelines.

Establish and enforce best practices in code quality, testing, database design, and deployment.

Mentor and guide backend engineers, providing technical direction and career growth support.

Collaborate cross-functionally with product, frontend, and publishing teams to deliver seamless, industry-compliant solutions.

Lead evaluation and adoption of backend frameworks, libraries, and infrastructure tooling.

Contribute to technical strategy and long-term planning for backend architecture to support publishing industry standards and company growth.

Key Qualifications 5+ years of professional backend engineering experience, including at least 2+ years leading PHP / Laravel development efforts.

Strong hands-on experience with PHP (vanilla and Laravel), relational databases (MySQL / PostgreSQL), and API design.

Proven ability to lead and mentor backend engineering teams.

Expertise in designing scalable data models for complex datasets.

Proficiency in automated testing frameworks for backend systems (e.g., PHPUnit, Pest).

Strong grounding in performance optimization, caching strategies, and database profiling.

Excellent leadership, collaboration, and communication skills in cross-functional environments.

Comfortable context switching between legacy code and newer codebases.

Proven track record in data modeling, database design, and schema optimization.

Nice to Have Deep familiarity with music publishing concepts : works, rights, royalties, splits, licensing, and publishing agreements.

Experience with industry-standard publishing data formats and flows, such as CWR, DDEX, and metadata exchange.

Knowledge of DevOps practices, CI / CD pipelines, and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform).

Experience in compliance-heavy environments (GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2, sensitive rights and royalty data).

Background in distributed systems design, event-driven architecture, or microservices.

Prior experience working on SaaS products tailored to music publishing or rights management.

Salary Range : $120,000 - $160,000 / annual salary + benefits + discretionary bonus + profit sharing program

We value diversity and always treat all employees and job applicants based on merit, qualifications, competence, and talent. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

If you are passionate about the music industry, and looking for a challenging role in a fast-paced, innovative environment, apply today.

Perks Competitive Compensation Package

Competitive Benefits Package

Company Paid Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, and Long-Term Disability Insurance

Company Paid Health Savings Account (HSA) Contribution

Healthcare and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)

Paid Time Off (Holidays, Vacation, and Sick)

Company 401(k) Plan

Wellness Resources

Commuter Allowance

Cell Phone Allowance

#J-18808-Ljbffr