Lead Backend Engineer (Laravel + React Native), Part-Time, Remote

About Via

Via is an all-in-one group travel app! Travelers use it to plan trips with friends or join trips run by hosts. Hosts use it to sell paid trips, collect deposits and installments, and get paid out. The app is live on the App Store and Google Play, with real users and real payments.

We’re a small founding team.

Until now, Via was built by an outside development agency. We’re moving away from that model and hiring our own developers, so we can build a strong internal team that understands the app deeply, both as it is today and as it grows. We’re redesigning Via from scratch and rebuilding the mobile app in React Native, and we’re looking for someone to lead the technical side with us!

About the role

You’ll own our backend and be the technical lead for the team. We handle product and design and do most of the front-end work ourselves. Your job is to make sure the API is built properly for the new app, keep production stable and secure, and review the code we write so it holds up.

The role is part-time, around 10 hours a week, and it grows as Via grows.

What you’ll do

• Own our Laravel API and production backend (MySQL, AWS EC2 and S3)
• Upgrade the backend to a currently supported Laravel version and finish what was left half done
• Design and build the endpoints the new React Native app needs, working closely with us
• Maintain our Stripe Connect integration: traveler payments, deposits, refunds and host payouts
• Look after the real-time group chat server and push notifications
• Review our front-end code, and work in React Native yourself when needed
• Communicate progress proactively and flag questions, risks or delays early

What you bring

• At least 3 years of professional Laravel experience on apps running in production
• Hands-on Stripe experience, ideally Stripe Connect or another marketplace payout setup
• You’ve run a production app on AWS yourself, including servers, storage and backups
• You’ve upgraded a Laravel app across major versions before
• Enough React Native experience to review code and build features when needed
• Good written and spoken English, since you’ll work directly with the founders
• You work well on your own and tell us plainly when something is a bad idea
• Confidence taking over an existing codebase, understanding its structure and improving it without disrupting working functionality

Nice to have

• Socket.IO or other real-time experience
• Firebase Cloud Messaging and Apple push notifications
• Experience in travel technology, group travel, booking platforms or marketplaces
• Native iOS or Android development, or experience transitioning an app to React Native
• Experience with early-stage products or establishing engineering practices for a growing team
• A love of travel and an interest in solving the challenges people face when planning trips together

How we work

• Part-time contract of about 40 to 50 hours a month. Hours are flexible week to week, and the first month will be busier than later ones.
• Fully remote and async, with no fixed working hours.
• If something critical breaks, such as payments failing or the app going down, we need a response within 4 hours during your daytime, weekends included. Anything else can wait up to 2 working days. Emergency work counts toward your monthly hours.
• Paid hourly and invoiced monthly.
• We start with a short paid trial task
• All code lives in our GitHub organization. You’ll sign an IP assignment and a confidentiality agreement.

How to apply

Apply here and answer the screening questions. Shortlisted candidates get a few short written questions, then a small paid task.