Lead Backend Engineer (Publishing, PHP/Laravel)

Description

Lead Backend Engineer (Publishing, PHP/Laravel)

Description

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. We have become the largest independent record label in the U.S., with a significant global presence covering Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and North and South America. We keep ourselves busy with a large range of music-related services from original content and marketing to distribution and recordings. 

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 Remix: 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. The ideal candidate has deep expertise in PHP (vanilla + Laravel), strong experience designing content and rights management systems, and fluency in music publishing concepts such as work registrations, metadata standards, royalty calculations, and CWR/DDEX flows. If you’ve successfully led backend teams in high-growth or SaaS environments—and you know the publishing ecosystem inside and out—we’d love to hear from you.

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 Notes For Success:

• 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.

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

The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. The total compensation package for this position may also include other elements dependent on the position offered. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.

At EMPIRE, 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. We look forward to hearing from you.

Perks Playlist:

• 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

About EMPIRE: Founded in 2010 by Bay Area native Ghazi, EMPIRE is currently leading through its innovative and progressive approach to the digital music era across its label, distribution and publishing arms. 

With its focus on early stage artist development, the San Francisco based company has been instrumental in identifying future icons and launching the careers of both Multi-platinum and Grammy Award winning artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Fireboy DML, Yung Bleu, Migos, Asake, XXXtentacion, and Anderson .Paak to name a few. After this early success, EMPIRE was quickly regarded as a tastemaker in the industry and premier independent record label.  

More than a decade in, EMPIRE continues to grow – expanding the Publishing division with a partnership with superproducer Hit-Boy and his Surf Club collective and acquiring Dirtybird Records in 2022 to amplify the Dance arm. EMPIRE has expanded the team throughout the globe on the African continent, Europe, Asia, North America, and South America. With the company and roster excelling at a breakneck pace, EMPIRE has effectively disrupted a stale business model by bringing its energy, expertise, and acumen to its artists and labels. 

Through crafting bespoke deals that are always in favor of the artist, EMPIRE is able to form a true partnership with each artist and label on its roster. Coupled with their unique software for analytics, recoupment, and royalties, which is available to every partner, the company offers a level of transparency unprecedented in the music industry.

We use E-Verify to confirm the identity and employment eligibility of all new hires.