Senior Backend Developer

Company Overview

YP Club, based in Dubai, UAE, is an innovative technology-driven organization focused on delivering a dynamic membership platform that integrates real-time chat, forums, event management, and revenue-generating features. Leveraging a cutting-edge, AWS-first serverless architecture, we are committed to creating a scalable, user-centric product to enhance community engagement and monetization. As we recover from a three-month development delay, we are expanding our team to accelerate our go-to-market strategy within the next 10-12 weeks.

Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced Senior Backend Developer with a minimum of 6 years of professional experience to join YP Club and play a pivotal role in building out our new product. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in developing and optimizing monolithic architectures hosted on AWS cloud services, including AWS Lambda, Amazon S3, Amazon DynamoDB, and other serverless technologies. This role involves collaborating with a small, agile team—comprising a frontend developer, a product designer, and a DevOps engineer—to implement a robust backend monolith supporting a mobile app (React Native), website, and admin panel. The position requires a proactive approach to modular design, performance monitoring, and future-proofing for potential microservice extraction.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain a monolithic backend using Node.js with Fastify, structured with dedicated modules for Chat (real-time messaging with GraphQL subscriptions), Notifications (push alerts and emails via SES), Content Manager (Places, Vault, News), Community Manager (user profiles, forums, articles, reporting), Revenue Management (transactions, subscriptions, monetization), Event Management (scheduling, RSVPs), and User Management (profiles, roles, permissions).
• Implement and optimize AWS Lambda functions to host the monolith, ensuring seamless integration with AWS AppSync for real-time features, API Gateway for HTTP routing, and EventBridge for Lambda warming to mitigate cold starts.
• Manage data storage and retrieval, utilizing Amazon DynamoDB for high-velocity data (e.g., chats, forum likes, comments) and Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL for relational data (e.g., user profiles, event details), with efficient querying and indexing strategies.
• Leverage Amazon S3 for secure media storage (e.g., photos, documents) using presigned URLs, integrated with Lambda for upload processing.
• Collaborate with DevOps to configure CI/CD pipelines using Bitbucket repositories and Terraform, ensuring automated builds, tests, and deployments to staging and production environments in the AWS Middle East (UAE) Region.
• Monitor and optimize performance, tracking module-specific metrics (e.g., via CloudWatch custom logs) and implementing scalability measures like reserved concurrency for high-traffic modules (e.g., Chat).
• Ensure security and compliance with UAE data protection regulations (e.g., PDPL) by integrating AWS Cognito for authentication, WAF for protection, and CloudFront for CDN delivery.
• Contribute to the product roadmap, supporting a go-to-market timeline of 10-12 weeks, and participate in code reviews, guardrail enforcement (e.g., code standards, security protocols), and team handovers.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum 6 Years of Experience : Proven track record in backend development, with at least 3 years in AWS cloud environments.
• Technical Expertise :
• Proficient in Node.js and frameworks like Fastify for building high-performance APIs.
• Extensive experience with AWS services: Lambda (serverless functions), AppSync (GraphQL for real-time), API Gateway, DynamoDB (NoSQL), Aurora PostgreSQL (relational), S3 (storage), EventBridge (scheduling), Cognito (authentication), and CloudWatch (monitoring).
• Hands-on knowledge of CI/CD tools (e.g., Bitbucket, Terraform) and version control best practices.
• Familiarity with real-time systems and GraphQL subscriptions for chat applications.
• Soft Skills : Strong problem-solving abilities, effective communication for cross-functional collaboration, and a proactive mindset for agile development in a startup environment.
• Education : Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with monolith-to-microservices transitions and modular design principles.
• Previous work on social or community platforms with features like forums, notifications, or event management.
• Knowledge of load balancing, security hardening (e.g., WAF rules), and observability tools (e.g., Grafana).
• Familiarity with React Native integrations for mobile backend support.