Senior Backend Web Developer Resume Example
The bar for senior backend web developers: ownership of distributed systems measured by reliability. Resumes showing task execution without system ownership get filtered.
This resume is for senior backend web developers who own mission-critical system architecture and lead complex migrations, but aren't yet responsible for departmental headcount or multi-year engineering roadmaps.
- Ownership of high-traffic distributed systems and core architecture
- Measurable improvements in system performance, reliability, or infrastructure costs
- Evidence of technical leadership through mentorship or cross-team standards
- Technical skills categorized by language, database, and infrastructure
- Experience bullets lead with specific architectural outcomes
- Education section positioned at the bottom to prioritize professional tenure
Stephanie Collins
Summary
Experience
- Architected a distributed order-routing engine that handles 1.2M daily transactions, improving system reliability by 35% during peak traffic seasons.
- Led the migration of 4 legacy monolithic services to a Go-based microservices architecture, reducing deployment times from 45 minutes to under 8 minutes.
- Mentored 4 junior engineers on backend design patterns and testing strategies, resulting in a 25% reduction in production bug reports across the team.
- Scaled internal inventory tracking systems using Redis caching and Kafka event streams to support a 3.5x increase in SKU volume.
- Optimized PostgreSQL query execution plans for the merchant analytics dashboard, reducing average report generation latency from 1.4s to 420ms.
- Engineered a webhook notification system that delivers real-time order updates to 150K+ restaurant devices with 99.99% uptime.
- Refined cloud resource allocation for the payment processing layer, saving $120K in annual infrastructure costs through right-sizing AWS EC2 instances.
- Defined and implemented internal REST API standards adopted by 6 engineering teams to streamline service-to-service communication.
- Developed 12 core API endpoints for the feature flag management platform using Python and Django, supporting high-concurrency client requests.
- Improved automated test coverage from 65% to 88% for the billing integration service, eliminating recurring regression issues in the subscription pipeline.
- Streamlined the developer onboarding documentation and setup scripts, reducing the time-to-first-commit for new hires by 3 days.
Education
Skills
Python · SQL · Git · REST APIs · PostgreSQL · AWS · Redis · Kafka · Go · Java · Microservices · Kubernetes · System Design · Architecture · Docker
What makes this resume effective
- This resume meets the hiring bar for senior backend web developers by demonstrating distributed system design, significant latency reductions, and technical mentorship.
- Notice how Stephanie's work at Wayfair quantifies reliability improvements and deployment speed, proving she can manage high-stakes migrations to microservices.
- The resume shows clear career progression, moving from endpoint development at LaunchDarkly to defining org-wide API standards at Toast.
How to write better bullet points
Worked on the order routing system and made it more reliable.
Architected a distributed order-routing engine handling 1.2M daily transactions, improving system reliability by 35%.
It replaces a vague task description with a specific architectural role and a quantified reliability metric.
Helped move services from a monolith to microservices.
Led the migration of 4 legacy services to a Go-based microservices architecture, reducing deployment times from 45 to 8 minutes.
It demonstrates leadership of a complex project and provides a concrete efficiency gain.
Optimized database queries for better performance.
Optimized PostgreSQL query execution plans, reducing average report generation latency from 1.4s to 420ms.
It identifies the specific technical lever used and the exact performance improvement achieved.
Senior Backend Web Developer resume writing tips
- Highlight architectural shifts, like the Go-based microservices migration, to prove you can handle complex system evolutions.
- Use hard metrics like the 1.4s to 420ms latency drop to validate your technical optimization skills.
- Include specific mentorship outcomes, such as reduced bug reports, to demonstrate leadership without a management title.
Common mistakes
- Focusing only on ticket completion rather than system ownership, which fails to signal the strategic thinking required at this level.
- Omitting mentorship or code review impact, making it appear as though you are an individual contributor rather than a force multiplier.
- Listing too many tools without context, which obscures your expertise in core architectural patterns like event-driven design or caching.
Frequently asked questions
Is this resume right for someone with 5 years of experience? Yes if you have transitioned from feature delivery to system design and technical mentorship.
Yes if you have transitioned from feature delivery to system design and technical mentorship.
Yes, if you have moved beyond feature work into system design and mentoring. It is less suitable if your primary focus is still executing pre-defined tickets under heavy supervision.
What if my background isn't at high-growth tech companies like Wayfair? Yes, because scalability principles apply universally; emphasize technical complexity over the brand name of your employer.
Yes, because scalability principles apply universally; emphasize technical complexity over the brand name of your employer.
The principles of scalability and reliability apply regardless of company size or industry. Focus on the complexity of the problems you solved rather than the brand name of the employer.
What if I don't have exact latency numbers like the ones shown for Toast? Use proxy metrics like reduced support volume, improved build speeds, or successful delivery of complex projects against deadlines.
Use proxy metrics like reduced support volume, improved build speeds, or successful delivery of complex projects against deadlines.
Proxy metrics like reduced support tickets, faster build times, or successful project delivery against tight deadlines are acceptable alternatives. Stephanie uses a mix of percentage improvements and raw numbers to provide a clear picture of success.
How much of the technical stack should I change? Keep the bullet structure and architectural patterns but swap specific tools, like Kafka or Redis, for the ones you used.
Keep the bullet structure and architectural patterns but swap specific tools, like Kafka or Redis, for the ones you used.
The structure of the bullets should remain while you swap specific technologies, like Kafka or Redis, for the tools you actually used. The goal is to show how you applied those tools to solve high-level architectural problems.
What do hiring managers focus on for senior roles? They look for evidence that you can handle critical infrastructure and act as a force multiplier for the engineers around you.
They look for evidence that you can handle critical infrastructure and act as a force multiplier for the engineers around you.
They look for evidence that you can be trusted with critical infrastructure and that you make the engineers around you better. The emphasis on mentorship and internal standards in this example signals that you are a multiplier for the team.
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