Backend Engineer (PHP)

About the role

Joining AMBOSS as a Backend Engineer places you at the heart of a mission that directly shapes the future of global medical education. In this role, you will own the server-side logic and architecture of critical features within our new B2B product, the Educator Tool, which empowers institutions to teach more effectively. You will be responsible for translating complex educational workflows into robust, scalable, and secure backend systems that our users rely on every day. This position gives you the opportunity to work alongside educators and clinicians, ensuring the technology supports real-world teaching and learning needs. You will leverage modern PHP frameworks to build high-performance services that handle significant data and traffic with ease. As an AI-first engineer, you will integrate agentic tools like Claude Code to explore, implement, and refine solutions throughout the development lifecycle. Your work will have a direct impact on how millions of medical students and residents access and interact with life-saving knowledge.

Key facts

What you'll do

Architect and implement backend services for the Educator Tool, defining APIs and data models that enable seamless integration with educational platforms.

Design and maintain robust database schemas and queries in MySQL to ensure data integrity, performance, and scalability for complex educational datasets.

Develop and expose RESTful and GraphQL APIs that allow frontend applications and third-party systems to interact with our educational features.

Implement and optimize server-side logic to handle ad-hoc requests from customer support channels, ensuring timely resolution of educator issues.

Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and cross-functional teams to refine project requirements and translate them into technical specifications.

Apply best practices in clean code, SOLID principles, and common design patterns to maintain high code health and long-term maintainability.

Write comprehensive tests and utilize automated testing strategies to verify the correctness and reliability of backend components.

Use AI coding tools such as Claude Code across the entire development lifecycle, from exploration and implementation to debugging and code review.

Optimize existing backend systems for performance, security, and scalability as user demands and educational workflows evolve.

Share technical expertise and mentor other engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing within the AMBOSS community.

Participate in code reviews and contribute to the improvement of engineering standards, ensuring consistency and quality across the codebase.

Investigate and resolve production issues, working with monitoring and logging tools to identify and eliminate bottlenecks or failures.

Contribute to system design discussions, helping to define the technical roadmap for backend services that support medical education.

Stay up to date with industry trends and emerging technologies, evaluating their potential impact on our educational platform and engineering practices.

Requirements

You possess solid hands-on experience with PHP and at least one of its modern frameworks such as Symfony, Slim, or Laravel.

You have a strong understanding of MySQL and relational database design, including complex queries, indexing, and optimization techniques.

You are experienced using AI coding tools such as Claude Code or similar agents, and you are comfortable working within agentic engineering workflows.

You have worked across the full web development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, system design, coding, testing, deployment, and maintenance.

You are familiar with RESTful API design principles and have built or integrated APIs that are well-documented and reliable.

You understand and appreciate SOLID principles, clean code practices, and common design patterns, and you actively seek opportunities to apply them.

You are proficient with Git for version control, including branching, merging, and participating in code review processes.

You demonstrate strong problem-solving and analytical skills, approaching complex technical challenges with logical and methodical thinking.

You communicate effectively in English, both verbally and in writing, and can explain technical concepts clearly to diverse stakeholders.

You show curiosity and initiative, constantly looking for ways to optimize processes and deepen your understanding of the medical education domain.

You take ownership of your work, acting proactively and with a solution-oriented mindset to drive topics to completion.

You are comfortable working in an agile environment, collaborating closely with team members in iterative cycles.

You care about quality and maintainability, and you strive to balance rapid delivery with long-term code health.

You are excited by the opportunity to build tools that have a meaningful impact on healthcare education and patient outcomes.

Nice to have

Exposure to building and integrating GraphQL APIs in addition to RESTful services.

Experience contributing to open source projects or demonstrating a strong interest in community-driven development.

Practical notes

This role is based in Berlin and requires full-time on-site engagement.

Candidates must be legally authorized to work in Germany and may be required to pass a visa or work permit screening process.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled, so early submission is encouraged.