Backend Engineer (Internal Systems & Restaurant Platform)

Backend Engineer –
Internal Systems & Restaurant Tools

About First Table

First Table helps diners discover great restaurants while helping restaurants fill their quietest tables.

We’re operating across New Zealand, Australia and the UK, with ambitious growth plans and a mission to become the first place people think of when booking a restaurant.

As we continue to grow, we’re investing heavily in the systems, tools and data that power both our internal teams and our restaurant partners.

The Role

We’re looking for a Backend Engineer who enjoys solving business problems through technology.

This role is focused on building internal systems, automations, integrations and restaurant-facing tools that help the business operate more effectively and create more value for our restaurant partners.

You’ll work closely with teams across Sales, Marketing, Customer Support, Operations, Product and Engineering to understand challenges, identify opportunities and build practical solutions.

Some days you might be creating a new data workflow in Braze. Other days you could be building an internal reporting tool, automating a manual support process, integrating a third-party platform or developing new restaurant-facing functionality.

This is a highly varied role with significant autonomy and direct impact across the business.

What You’ll Be Working On

Internal Systems & Automation

• Building tools that improve productivity across the business


• Creating workflows and automations that remove manual processes


• Developing integrations between internal and third-party systems


• Supporting and extending our customer engagement platform (Braze)


• Building reporting and operational dashboards


• Improving data accessibility for non-technical teams

Data & Insights

• Creating data pipelines and reporting tools


• Supporting experimentation and customer engagement initiatives


• Building systems that help teams make better decisions


• Working with product and commercial teams to unlock new insights

Restaurant Tools & Partner Value

• Building tools that help restaurants get more value from First Table


• Creating operational features for restaurant partners


• Improving restaurant onboarding, reporting and management workflows


• Exploring new opportunities to support restaurant growth and retention

Platform Development

• Developing and maintaining backend services and APIs


• Working within our PHP and AWS-based platform


• Ensuring systems are scalable, reliable and maintainable


• Contributing to architecture and technical design decisions

What We’re Looking For

Technical Skills

• Strong backend development experience


• Commercial PHP experience


• Experience working with APIs and integrations


• Good understanding of relational databases and SQL


• Experience designing maintainable systems and services


• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS preferred)

Nice To Have

• Experience with customer engagement platforms such as Braze


• Experience with data engineering or analytics workflows


• GraphQL experience


• Experience building internal tooling


• Experience with automation platforms and event-driven systems

Personal Attributes

• Curious and proactive


• Comfortable working with ambiguity


• Enjoys solving business problems, not just technical problems


• Strong communication skills


• Able to work directly with stakeholders across multiple departments


• Pragmatic and outcome-focused


• Comfortable owning projects from idea through to delivery

Why This Role Matters

The demand for engineering support across the business continues to grow.

Marketing, Sales, Support and Operations teams all have opportunities that could deliver significant value with the right technical support. At the same time, we have exciting opportunities to build new tools and experiences for our restaurant partners.

This role exists to unlock that value.

You’ll have the opportunity to influence how teams work, improve business efficiency and create products that directly impact both our customers and restaurant partners.

Tech Stack

• PHP


• MySQL


• GraphQL


• AWS


• Docker


• Braze


• React (where appropriate)


• GitHub & CI/CD tooling

Location

Queenstown HQ (Hybrid) - Auckland (Hybrid/Remote)

What Success Looks Like

• Internal teams can move faster because manual work has been automated


• Valuable data is easier to access and act upon


• Restaurant partners receive more value from our platform


• New business opportunities can be tested and delivered quickly


• Engineering becomes an accelerator for the wider company

If you’re excited by solving real business problems, building useful tools and having a visible impact across an entire company, we’d love to hear from you.