About Zeal:
Zeal is addressing the critical challenge of untapped transactional data. At the moment, whenever a transaction is processed on a POS terminal (payment card machine), physical retailers have no idea who the paying customer is, unless they use a loyalty program. Think of when you go to a supermarket and you pay by card, unless you go to a supermarket that has a loyalty program and you get your loyalty card out, the POS terminal doesn't tell the retailer if you're a new or returning customer, demographics, gender, etc. Unlike e-ecommerce, in physical retail customer identification always had to be a separate step because the payment terminal is not built to self-identify the paying customer. Hence, a plethora of valuable data is lost or underutilized. With Zeal’s advanced Smart POS plugin, the company integrates with POS terminals globally to provide payment acquirers and ISVs with a unique differentiator for their POS terminals. The merchants of our partners benefit from world-class data, analytics & tools to predict consumer behavior using Artificial Intelligence, enabling merchants to unlock the full potential of transactional data.
About The Role:
We’re seeking a Senior Backend Engineer who thrives in a fast-paced environment and has a passion for building scalable, high-performance backend systems. In this role, you will take ownership of backend solutions, from design to deployment, ensuring they meet the highest standards for performance, security, and maintainability. While this position doesn’t carry direct leadership responsibilities, you’ll act as a technical guide, mentoring mid-level and associate engineers, and driving architectural improvements.
You’ll work closely with product managers, DevOps, and frontend teams to align technical solutions with business goals, ensuring our fintech applications remain robust, secure, and user-focused.
Your Main Responsibilities Are to:
- Design, develop, and maintain scalable, high-performance backend services.
- Optimize database queries and performance in MySQL to efficiently handle large-scale transactions.
- Build and maintain microservices architectures and RESTful APIs, ensuring seamless system integrations.
- Ensure the reliability, security, and maintainability of backend systems.
- Conduct in-depth code reviews, ensuring adherence to best practices and clean code standards.
- Stay updated on new technologies and propose innovative solutions to improve backend processes.
- Work closely with product managers to align backend solutions with business requirements.
- Collaborate with frontend developers, DevOps, and cross-functional teams for seamless project delivery.
- Guide and mentor mid-level and associate engineers on best practices, code quality, and architecture.
- Implement caching strategies (e.g., Redis) to optimize performance.
- Integrate message brokers (e.g., RabbitMQ, Kafka) for asynchronous processing.
- Ensure backend applications meet security and compliance standards, especially within fintech systems.
The Ideal Candidate Should Have:
- 5+ years of hands-on experience in backend development.
- Strong experience with PHP Laravel in building scalable and maintainable backend services.
- Solid understanding of MySQL, with expertise in query optimization and database design.
- Proven experience in building and scaling distributed systems.
- Hands-on experience with AWS cloud services.
- Strong knowledge of microservices architecture and API design principles.
- Proficiency with Redis for caching strategies.
- Experience working with message queues like RabbitMQ or Kafka.
- Familiarity with containerization and orchestration tools (Docker, Kubernetes).
- Solid understanding of security best practices in backend development.
- Version control expertise with Git/GitHub.
- Experience using API development tools (Postman, Swagger).
- Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across teams.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, agile development environment.
Nice to Haves:
- Experience with event-driven architecture.
- Exposure to GraphQL or other modern API frameworks.
- Knowledge of Elasticsearch or similar search technologies.
- Understanding of business logic in fintech systems (e.g., fraud detection, compliance).
What You’ll Love About Us:
- 💻 Work from Anywhere: Enjoy the flexibility of remote work or join us in a hybrid setup. Your choice, your comfort.
- 💰 Competitive Compensation: We value your talent and offer packages that reflect it.
- 🤝 Collaborative Culture: Join a team where trust, transparency, and continuous learning are at the heart of everything we do.
- 💡 Make an Impact: Have ideas to make things better? Awesome. We’re all ears and ready to innovate.
- 🚀 Shape the Future of Fintech: Work on cutting-edge fintech solutions that impact thousands of users.
Top Skills
What We Do
Zeal: Pioneering the Future of Payments - Born in Cairo, thriving in London. We're a fintech innovator merging payments, loyalty, and AI-driven insights to empower brands globally.
Empowering Merchants with AI: Zeal equips retailers with advanced data analytics, predicting consumer behavior with unparalleled precision. We level the playing field, offering e-commerce insights to physical stores.
Acclaimed in the Fintech World: Proudly shortlisted for the London Fintech Awards and The Card And Payment Awards. Our innovative spirit has earned us wins in the Visa Everywhere Initiative and Ingenico Paytech Start-Up Competition.
Our Mission: To forge a comprehensive digital ecosystem for transactions and consumer insights. Zeal is the nexus where technology, data, and commerce converge.
A Call to Industry Leaders: To payment acquirers seeking cutting-edge solutions: join us in redefining payments. We're your gateway to the future.
Join Our Zealous Team: Driven by innovation? Aspire to impact the payment landscape? Zeal is your platform to excel. Be a part of our journey to transform payments
