Backend Developer (Mid‑Senior Level) at Vellmont Advisory Ltd

Company Overview

• Vellmont Advisory Ltd is a Nairobi‑headquartered PropTech real‑estate & mortgage‑investment platform serving local Kenyan buyers and diaspora investors. Our small tech team currently consists of one frontend developer only. We are hiring a hands‑on mid‑senior backend engineer who will act as our de‑facto backend technical lead. We run an AI‑first rapid‑iteration culture: engineers leverage AI coding tools to multiply delivery speed, while you own architecture, database design, code review and production quality. AI is your efficiency multiplier, not your decision‑maker.

Job Summary

This is NOT a junior‑level role that only implements pre‑written API specifications. You independently own end‑to‑end backend delivery: database modelling → API design & implementation → frontend integration → testing → deployment & production maintenance. You will build our core real‑estate business entity relationships: Property → Unit → Listing → Landlord / Property Manager → Tenant → Lead → Viewing → Offer → Transaction

You collaborate closely with frontend, sales & CRM teams to deliver our Rental V1 module on tight iteration timelines.

Key Responsibilities

End‑to‑end backend module ownership

• Independently deliver full‑lifecycle business modules: schema design, REST API development, business logic, frontend joint debugging, unit/integration testing and production deployment.

Complex real‑estate data modelling (High Priority)

Design relational database（PostgreSQL / MySQL）for multi‑entity property business：

• One landlord owns many properties
• One property unit can generate multiple listings & rental transactions with different pricing
• Listings generate many leads, viewings and offers
• Calculate actual rental income and Days‑on‑Market metrics
• You must avoid flat simple tables (Property + Customer only); correctly decompose Listing / Lease‑Transaction / Viewing / Lead entities to prevent heavy future refactoring as data volume grows.

Backend development & infrastructure

• Master at least one mainstream stack：Node.js/NestJS｜Java Spring Boot｜Python FastAPI/Django
• Design & implement secure, standardized REST‑APIs; implement JWT/OAuth authentication & granular permission control
• Git/GitHub workflow: branch management, PR review, version control
• Hands‑on Linux server operation & troubleshooting; AWS or equivalent cloud platform experience
• Practical Redis caching, S3‑style object storage for image/file upload
• API security: input validation, access control, rate‑limiting, audit logging
• Write unit & integration tests; build lightweight CI/CD auto‑deployment pipelines
• AI‑first engineering (Mandatory requirement)
• Daily use AI coding assistants for: code generation, SQL & migration scripts, API documentation, test‑case writing, debugging, code refactoring & log analysis.
• Expect interview question：“If you need to launch Rental V1 within 7 days working with one frontend developer, how will you utilise AI tools?” Rule：You own all technical decisions; AI accelerates your execution.

Cross‑team collaboration

• Joint debugging with frontend; integrate backend system with existing CRM; iterate requirements from sales business stakeholders.

Clear on‑boarding milestone expectations

Phase1 — Week 1: Deliver NestVest Rental V1 Backend

• Property API｜Unit API｜Listing API
• Landlord / Property Manager API｜Tenant API｜Lead API
• Image & file upload｜Search & filtering｜Listing status management
• CRM integration
• Complete joint‑integration work with frontend developer

Phase2 — Subsequent iteration Build modules: Viewing, Offer, Rental Transaction, Actual rent calculation, Days‑on‑Market metric; conversion flows: Landlord → Sales Lead, Tenant → Buyer Lead, Mortgage Lead.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• 3+ years hands‑on backend development experience (exceptional candidates with strong practical results may be considered even without exact year count).
• Proven relational‑database modelling experience for complex multi‑relation business scenarios; you can decompose business entities instead of building oversimplified flat tables.
• Hands‑on experience: REST‑API design, Git workflow, Linux server administration, AWS or equivalent cloud services.
• Must use AI coding tools in daily development workflow for build, debug, refactor & test writing.
• Strong plus: past building CRM / Marketplace / SaaS / PropTech / Real‑estate platform / E‑commerce / Booking‑style systems.
• Startup‑minded independent engineer: interpret business requirements, break down tasks, make technical trade‑off decisions, self‑debug and push code to production, without waiting for fully‑detailed PRD documents.
• Good written & spoken English for cross‑functional team communication.

Note: We do not rigidly lock programming‑language stack. Outstanding architecture & database engineering capability weighs higher than exact stack match.