Senior Backend Engineer

About Nexus Mods

If you’ve ever downloaded a Skyrim texture pack, turned Stardew Valley into a co-op farm sim, or pushed Cyberpunk to its limits with mods, chances are, you’ve already used Nexus Mods. Established in 2001, Nexus Mods is the world’s largest video game modding platform and a household name in PC gaming.

• 65M+ registered members
• 750K+ mods for 3,500+ games
• 18B+ downloads

We’re modernising our platform and building for the next decade of community-powered modding.

Our mission is to make modding accessible, safe, and rewarding for players and creators everywhere.

How We Work

At Nexus Mods, engineers don’t disappear into silos. You’ll join a cross-functional product pod. An autonomous, outcome-focused team with everything needed to ship real impact: Product Manager, Tech Lead, Backend/Frontend engineers, App Developers, Designers, QA, Community, and Content.

Pods own strategy, discovery, delivery, and results. That means you’re not just handed tickets, you help shape what gets built, test ideas with users, and see your work reach millions of gamers worldwide.

About the Role

We’re seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to design, build, and scale the APIs and systems that power the Nexus Mods ecosystem. This is a chance to work on problems most companies never see: massive scale, complex compatibility, and passionate user communities.

From discovery and experimentation to delivery and scale, you’ll be hands-on in shaping features that directly impact the modding ecosystem:

• Helping millions of gamers discover, download, and manage mods effortlessly.
• Empowering creators to publish, distribute, and manage their work with confidence.
• Building high-traffic APIs that serve millions of requests per hour.
• Designing backend systems that support both web and desktop applications.
• Improving performance, scalability, and reliability of critical services.
• Creating tools that make modding safer, more accessible, easier and more fun.
• Experimenting with new features and quickly validating ideas with real users.
• Tackling complex challenges around dependencies, versioning, and compatibility.
• Ensuring our platform evolves to handle the next decade of growth in gaming.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain backend services and APIs that power mod discovery, installs, publishing, and creator dashboards.
• Ensure services are performant, reliable, and secure at scale (tens of millions of users).
• Collaborate with Frontend, App, and DevOps Engineers in your pod to deliver end-to-end features.
• Contribute to product discovery by prototyping APIs, validating technical feasibility, and surfacing trade-offs early.
• Write clean, maintainable, and well-tested code.
• Set and maintain high standards and process: tests, CI/CD, documentation
• Help mentor other engineers and contribute to shared standards across pods.

Requirements

• Deep experience with at least one backend language (Ruby, PHP, Java, Go, Node.js, etc.) and curiosity to learn others.
• Experience designing and building APIs (REST and/or GraphQL).
• Solid experience with relational databases (Postgres, MySQL) and familiarity with NoSQL stores (Redis, ElasticSearch).
• Experience with distributed systems, queues, and event-driven architectures.
• Production experience with performance optimisation, caching, and scalability.
• Hands-on experience deploying services with CI/CD pipelines and container orchestration (Docker/K8s).
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work in a cross-functional team.
• Ability to balance speed, quality, and pragmatism in delivery.

Bonus Skills

• Familiarity with Ruby on Rails or Symfony.
• Knowledge of authentication, identity management, and payments.
• Experience with search systems (ElasticSearch, Meilisearch).
• Understanding of gaming ecosystems (e.g. multiplayer services, content distribution, or digital marketplaces)
• Experience building tools for creators, modding communities, or user-generated content platforms.
• Passion for games and mods. Whether that’s tweaking Skyrim load orders, building Minecraft servers, or diving into Baldur’s Gate 3 mods.

Why Join Us?

• Join a company loved by millions of gamers, where your work has a visible impact.
• Work in a 4-day week (32h, no reduction in pay).
• Remote-first, or join us in Exeter, UK (relocation assistance available).
• 25 Euros per month games allowance. Play anything you like.
• Private BUPA healthcare (you + your family).
• Flexible training budget for conferences, courses, or coaching.
• A culture of autonomy, discovery, and learning, not just shipping features.

This is more than another backend job. It’s a chance to shape the future of modding, empower millions of creators and players, and build something the gaming world truly relies on.