Senior Backend Developer

Rentman is a B2B SaaS scaleup where we build the leading operations management platform to support event and media production teams.

Our product is our main and only focus. So if you want to work on, and improve, a long-term codebase, and think about the larger technical and product picture, then Rentman can be an interesting match for you.

Remember the last event you attended? Remember the lights, speakers, decorations, bars and everything there is to see there? All those resources need to be planned up front, tracked and transported. That’s where Rentman comes into place.

Our users plan everything from small shoots to massive festivals in 70+ countries, and they all rely on Rentman to keep their gear, people, and timing perfectly in sync.

We’re based in Utrecht (NL) with a second office in Toronto (CA), and our 100+ team members work in a culture that’s open and flat, where curiosity drives us, ownership matters, and everyone has the freedom to challenge ideas and make an impact.

About the role

Rentman currently has 5 self-sufficient development teams, with plans to expand to 7 in the near future to realise all of our product goals.

The teams we currently have are:

• Team equipment
• Team financials
• Team project management - Responsible for our soon-to-be-released Organize product
• Team crew - Responsible for all crew needs. Planning, budgets, and time tracking
• Team lifecycle - Responsible for everything related to onboarding and customer health

We strive to have all development teams self-sufficient and self-structured. A perfect development team consists of 2 frontend developers, 2 backend developers, a product owner, a QA engineer and a designer.

While every team is free to set their own structure and goals, currently all teams work in a traditional scrum way. 2 week sprints, with a retro to end the sprint.

Customer understanding is important at Rentman, so we facilitate visiting warehouses, interacting with customers at our “Rentman live” events, and joining various trade shows to hear first-hand from our customers how they experience our software.

Our tech stack in a nutshell

Our front-end is an Angular based SPA with over 3.500 components. It is based on a custom-made design system, and the main data-views are powered by AG-Grid. We strive to stay up-to-date with all latest developments, and we usually migrate to the latest Angular versions within 2 weeks of a new release.

We smartly process thousands of item records in the front-end caching layer, and actively keep client states in sync through a custom made websocket structure.

Our back-end is a custom-made PHP framework, with a queryable API interface similar to GraphQL (but we built ours before GraphQL existed 😉).

We take development-at-scale very seriously, and have fully typed our frontend, and even have a custom-made php-to-typescript system so that our frontend-to-backend communication is also properly typed.

What we’re looking for

• 5+ years of backend development experience, with product led companies
• Deep SQL expertise, including database design and performance optimisation
• Proven experience leading complex feature development end-to-end
• Strong problem-solving ability, balancing long-term quality with fast-paced delivery
• Collaborative communicator who can bring focus and structure to an enthusiastic team
• Positive mindset towards using AI in the development toolchain (The development landscape is changing rapidly, and at Rentman we’re open to exploring how this can benefit us in our day-to-day work)

For us, experience with PHP is a strong plus. Familiarity with AWS or infrastructure-as-code is also valuable, but not a requirement. At Rentman, we believe solid engineering fundamentals matter more than specific tools, and that a curious developer can grow into new technologies, including full-stack work, when the problem calls for it.

What you'll get

• An ambitious, inclusive, diverse international team
• A “13th month” annual bonus based on company results
• 25 days of paid vacation, plus one extra day off each year from your 2nd year onwards up to your 5-year anniversary
• A paid 4-week sabbatical after 5 years to go on an adventure
• Flexible WFH policy and work from anywhere for 4 weeks a year
• A shiny Windows, Linux or Mac of your choice
• An annual training budget to boost your skill
• A pension plan via BrightPensioen
• Access to OpenUp for mental well-being and personal growth
• Sports activities (Rentman football team, squash and padel) and an Urban Sports fitness subscription
• An OV Business card if you live further than 10km away from the office
• A flexible and engaging work environment with free lunches, office perks (PS5, Ping Pong, D&D), legendary karaoke parties, and various team activities
• An amazing office in the heart of Utrecht, Netherlands, at the historical Drift 17