Backend Team Lead (PHP/Node.js)

About Us:

Delasport is where technology meets the excitement of sports and gaming! As a proven innovator in iGaming software, we provide everything from platform development to player account management. Our platform is designed to make every player feel like the star of the show, with personalized experiences and cutting-edge technology at its heart.

Since our founding in 2010, we have won multiple international awards and have established a proven track record of excellence, stability, and overall success. This achievement only drives us to reach even greater heights. Currently, we are proud to have over 500 experts across various business fields and several offices in Bulgaria (Sofia and Plovdiv), Ukraine, and Malta.

About the Role:

We're hiring an Engineering Team Lead for one of the most consequential engineering teams at Delasport - the team that owns KYC, AML, anti-fraud, and regulatory compliance across the platform.

These aren't peripheral services. They're what make it legally possible for our operators to take a bet in every market we're licensed in. Every player who signs up, every withdrawal, every suspicious pattern, every regulator report - it flows through systems your team owns. When a new jurisdiction comes online, your team is on the critical path.

If you want a leadership role where the work is technically real, the stakes are visible, and the freedom is genuine - read on.

This role is based in Sofia, Bulgaria, and we welcome candidates who are open to relocating (relocation support provided).

What Your Team Owns:

You'll manage a team of 5 full-stack developers and 2 QAs responsible for:

KYC - identity verification pipelines, document checks, and third-party provider integrations
AML - transaction monitoring, sanctions and PEP screening, suspicious-activity detection
Anti-Fraud - behavioural review and fraud-pattern detection across player activity
Regulatory Compliance - jurisdiction-specific rules, reporting obligations, and operator configurations

The footprint is a mix of synchronous APIs, scheduled jobs, and real-time stream consumers processing events off Kafka and RabbitMQ.

What You'll Actually Work On:

Shaping the future stack. Today the team works across PHP/Laravel, Python, and TypeScript/Vue. All new services will be written in Node.js, and you'll be a key voice in shaping how that evolution unfolds - patterns, shared libraries, deployment standards.
Driving technical excellence. Setting and raising the bar on performance, reliability, and operational maturity across the team's services.
Real ownership of production. The team owns its services end to end - design, build, ship, observe, fix. You set the standard for how that ownership is exercised.
Growing the team. Seniors ready to push toward staff-level work; mids ready to grow into seniors. Your impact on them will be one of the most rewarding parts of this role.

What You’ll Do:

Manage the team. Set technical direction, code-quality bar, and architectural standards. Run code reviews that teach. Develop the engineers under you.
Stay hands-on. This is not a pure people-management role. You'll write code, design systems, and pair on hard problems.
Architect for the real world. Design services that handle real-time event streams reliably, fail safely under regulatory scrutiny, and integrate cleanly with the third-party providers we depend on.
Drive the technical roadmap. Make and defend the calls on what to refactor, what to rewrite, and where to invest the team's time.
Partner across the org. Work closely with Product, DevOps, Data, and the Compliance/Legal side of the business - the last of which is unusual for an engineering role and one of the more interesting parts of the job.

Employees may be required to participate in an on-call rotation, ensuring availability outside regular working hours to handle urgent issues as needed as per the On-call policy.

Why This Role Is Different:

High business impact. When KYC breaks, players can't deposit. When AML breaks, we have a regulatory problem. The work matters and people know it.
Polyglot by design, not by accident. PHP, Python, TypeScript today; Node.js for everything new. If you're tired of being pigeonholed in one language, this team doesn't do that.
Genuine ownership. Your team owns its services end to end. No throwing things over the wall.
Regulated-domain depth. You'll learn how iGaming compliance actually works at the engineering level - a specialisation that's genuinely valuable and surprisingly rare on the market.

Who You Are:

Experience: 7+ years building backend systems in PHP, including 2+ years supervising a team or operating as a senior technical lead.
Core technical strength:
Strong PHP and OOP fundamentals - design patterns, clean architecture, testability.
Production experience with Laravel (or strong Symfony experience and the willingness to ramp on Laravel).
Comfortable working with event-driven systems - Kafka, RabbitMQ, or equivalent. You've built and operated consumers, not just published a message once.
Solid grasp of relational databases (MySQL/PostgreSQL) - schema design, query performance, the things that bite at scale.
Working experience with NoSQL (MongoDB, Redis, Elasticsearch, or similar) - knowing when to reach for it and when not to.
Comfortable with Docker, containerised deployments, and at least one cloud (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
Architecture sense: You can reason about scalability, fault tolerance, and failure modes - and explain trade-offs to people who don't share your background.
Mentoring: You menage by setting direction and raising the bar of those around you, not by managing tickets. Strong written and spoken English.
Mindset: Pragmatic, bias toward shipping, comfortable with ambiguity, genuinely interested in the business problem and not just the technical one.

Nice to Have:

Experience in iGaming, fintech, or any regulated domain (banking, payments, healthcare).
Hands-on experience with KYC/AML/fraud-prevention systems or vendor integrations.
Working knowledge of Python and/or Node.js.
Exposure to TypeScript/Vue or another modern frontend stack.

What We Offer:

We’re not just about work, we are about creating a great place to grow, connect, and enjoy the journey. Here’s what you can expect when you join us:

Competitive Salary Package: We value your skills, dedication, and contributions
Time Off: Enjoy 21+ days of annual paid leave so you can rest, recharge, and come back inspired
Bonus & Rewards: Performance-based annual bonuses, special vouchers for birthdays and welcoming a newborn
Health & Wellness: Additional Health insurance including dental care; Co-funding a Multisport/Coolfit card to help you stay active
Extra Benefits: Employee discounts at various retailers and a monthly allowance for public transportation
Great Office Locations: Central office location in Sofia and Plovdiv
Relax & Recharge Zone: Take a break with colleagues in our PlayStation and Pool Table - perfect for recharging during the day

Wait, there’s more:

Happy Hour Fridays: Every Friday we host themed Happy Hours with snacks, fun activities, and plenty of opportunities to connect and unwind with colleagues
Multicultural Days: Celebrate diversity and experience the traditions, food, and cultures of teammates from around the world
Massages at the Office: Weekly Free Recreational Massages to help relax during the workday
Chess Lessons: Sharpen your strategic thinking and enjoy collaborative and fun chess sessions with colleagues
Sports & Football Team: We regularly participate in various sports events and have our own Delasport Football Team, taking part in the IT League
Bulgarian Language Lessons: Classes designed to facilitate smoother communication for non-native speakers.
Office Library: Enjoy access to technical literature to expand your knowledge

Ready to Be Part of Something Big?

If you’re excited to join a team that’s revolutionizing the iGaming world and want to make a real impact, apply today. We can’t wait to meet you!

#LI-HYBRID