Lead Backend Engineer; Budgets, Expense & Payments, PHP​/Laravel

Lead Backend Engineer (Budgets, Expenses & Payments, PHP/Laravel)

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.

EMPIRE is looking for a Lead Backend Engineer (Budgets, Expenses & Payments) 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 track and manage finances associated with music projects. This role includes building and maintaining integrations with third‑party financial systems such as BREX, Net Suite, and  that tie into our internal workflows.

You’ll partner closely with finance, product managers, and engineering peers to deliver secure, compliant, and efficient solutions. The ideal candidate has deep expertise in PHP (vanilla + Laravel), strong experience with ERP systems, and a track record of delivering backend platforms that support complex approval and payment flows. If you’ve led backend teams in high‑growth or SaaS environments—and thrive at the intersection of engineering and financial operations—we’d love to hear from you.

• Own the architecture, design, and implementation of backend services and APIs for financial features of our proprietary ERP systems that serve musicians, record labels, and publishers.
• Build scalable, secure, and maintainable backend code using PHP (vanilla + Laravel).
• Develop and maintain integrations with third‑party financial systems (e.g., BREX, Net Suite, ).
• Implement workflows to tie expenses, invoices, and payments to project budgets with role‑based approvals.
• Drive backend performance, reliability, and compliance across financial data 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 finance, product, and engineering teams to deliver features aligned with operational and compliance needs.
• Contribute to technical strategy and long‑term planning for backend architecture to support financial workflows and company growth.

• 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/Postgre
  
  SQL), and API design.
• Proven ability to lead and mentor backend engineering teams.
• Experience building and integrating with third‑party financial platforms (e.g., ERP, expense management, payments).
• Strong understanding of budgeting, expenses, approval workflows, and payment processing.
• Knowledge of standard terminology, deal structures, and royalty collection and payment flows within the music industry.
• Proficiency in automated testing frameworks (PHPUnit, Pest) and backend QA practices.
• Knowledge of financial data security, auditing requirements, and compliance (e.g., SOC 2, SOX, GDPR/CCPA).
• 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.

• Direct experience with integrations for BREX, Net Suite,  or similar financial…