Summary
Property Finder is hiring a Senior Backend Software Engineer in Dubai to build and operate backend services for high-traffic search, property and location content, and related consumer platforms. The role includes end-to-end service ownership, development in TypeScript and Node.js, maintaining Go services, and improving caching, content delivery, reliability, latency, and infrastructure cost. The engineer will work with product, SEO, data, and web and mobile teams, and mentor colleagues. Applicants should have 5+ years of backend engineering experience, including work on high-traffic consumer systems, and experience with distributed services, databases, AWS, and observability.
The posting
As published on propertyfinder.com. Pulled from the employer's site and shown as they wrote it.
Property Finder is the leading property portal in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, dedicated to shaping an inclusive future for real estate while spearheading the region’s growing tech ecosystem. At its core is a clear and powerful purpose: To change living for good in the region.
Founded on the value of great ambitions, Property Finder connects millions of property seekers with thousands of real estate professionals every day. The platform offers a seamless and enriching experience, empowering both buyers and renters to make informed decisions. Since its inception in 2007, Property Finder has evolved into a trusted partner for developers, brokers, and home seekers. As a lighthouse tech company, it continues to create an environment where people can thrive and contribute meaningfully to the transformation of real estate in MENA.
Role Summary
We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join the team behind the surfaces that bring millions of people to Property Finder every month — search, property and location content, and the platforms that serve them across multiple countries and languages.
This is high-traffic, consumer-facing, and unusually unforgiving: page latency, cache behaviour, and data correctness are not just engineering quality metrics here, they directly move organic acquisition and revenue. You'll work close to the numbers and see the impact of your decisions in production within days.
It's a hands-on senior role. You'll design and own services end to end, influence architecture beyond your squad, and raise the bar for the engineers around you.
Key Responsibilities
Design, build, and operate the backend services powering our highest-traffic consumer surfaces.
Own your work end to end: design, implementation, testing, deployment, observability, and the follow-up iteration based on what production actually tells you.
Build new services and features in TypeScript (Node.js), and maintain and evolve our existing Go services.
Work at the edges of the system — caching, CDN behaviour, content delivery, and rendering paths — where small changes have outsized effects on cost and performance.
Build for multiple countries and languages from day one: content, localisation, and market-specific behaviour are the default, not an afterthought.
Partner with product, SEO, data, and web/mobile engineers to turn requirements into systems that stay maintainable after the first release.
Drive operational excellence: monitoring, alerting, incident response, and continuous improvement of reliability, latency, and infrastructure cost.
Mentor engineers, review designs and PRs properly, and shape our backend standards.
Desired Qualifications
Must have 5+ years of backend engineering, with significant time on high-traffic, consumer-facing systems.
Strong TypeScript (Node.js) — the primary language for all new work.
Go, or a track record that says you'll pick it up fast. Our existing production services are in Go and you'll own them alongside new development.
Experience designing and operating services in a distributed environment: API design, service boundaries, versioning, and inter-service communication — plus the judgement to know when not to split something.
Hands-on with relational databases (MySQL/PostgreSQL), caching (Redis), and search (OpenSearch/Elasticsearch), including schema design, indexing, and query performance tuning under real load.
Production experience on AWS with containerised workloads, and genuine fluency in observability: metrics, structured logging, distributed tracing, SLOs, and being on the hook when something breaks.
Additional Capabilities
Event-driven and asynchronous processing (Kafka, SQS, or similar).
Edge computing and CDN-level logic (Lambda@Edge, CloudFront), and multi-region considerations.
Experience building for SEO-driven or organic-traffic-dependent products — you understand why crawlability, page performance, and structured data matter to a business.
Content platforms or headless CMS at scale.
AI/LLM features in production (AWS Bedrock or similar), including the latency and cost trade-offs of model calls on a user-facing path.
Marketplace, classifieds, or other two-sided platform products.
How you work
You take ownership beyond your ticket — you notice problems, propose solutions, and follow through.
You explain technical trade-offs clearly to engineers and non-technical stakeholders, and you back your argument with data rather than preference.
You hold a high bar in code and design review, and the engineers around you get better for having worked with you.
You're pragmatic: you know when to build for scale and when to ship the simple thing, and you can quantify the cost of both.
Our promise to talent
At Property Finder, we believe talent thrives in an environment where you can be your best self. Where you are empowered to create, elevate, grow, and care. Our team is made up of the best and brightest, united by a shared ambition to change living for good in the region. We attract top talent who want to make an impact. We firmly believe that when our people grow, we all succeed.
Property Finder Guiding Principles
Think Future First
Data Beats Opinions, Speed Beats Perfection
Optimise for Impact
Act Like An Owner
The Biggest Risk is Taking no Risk at All