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.

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