Backend Engineer (API)

Role overview

Whip Around is expanding its product and engineering efforts after a recent majority investment from Accel-KKR. The team is hiring a Backend Engineer who enjoys shaping the APIs that support the platform and making backend systems dependable, efficient, and easy to work with.

This position is best suited to someone who prefers backend work over interface polish and wants to focus on robust services, data design, and API development.

What you will work on

• Designing and developing RESTful API endpoints
• Planning data models and structuring databases
• Creating backend services and system integrations
• Enhancing application speed, stability, and scalability
• Collaborating with mobile engineers to define API behaviour and contracts
• Delivering secure, dependable, and well-tested software used daily by customers

This role is centred on backend engineering rather than frontend styling or visual adjustments.

Requirements

The company is seeking someone with practical API-building experience, a strong grasp of REST, and the ability to work with PHP and Laravel or get up to speed quickly. You should also be comfortable with SQL, database design, security concepts, and writing code with testing and maintainability in mind. Experience using modern AI-assisted development tools is also expected.

Preferred background

• Hands-on experience with AWS
• Exposure to PostgreSQL
• Background in SaaS products
• Personal projects or open-source work

Why join Whip Around

Whip Around describes itself as a New Zealand SaaS success story serving customers across North America and other regions. The engineering culture values practical thinking, teamwork, and ongoing improvement while building software that helps thousands of users solve real operational challenges.

Benefits

• Hybrid working flexibility
• Southern Cross health insurance
• Birthday leave
• Extra paid parental leave
• Monthly team lunches
• Free parking

Who this role suits

This opportunity is a strong fit for engineers who enjoy debating API design, improving database performance, and building endpoints that other developers find genuinely pleasant to use.