BACKEND DEVELOPMENT
The product underneath the product.
APIs, databases, business logic, and integrations. Users rarely see this layer, and every reliable experience depends on it.
WHAT BACKEND WORK COVERS
The backend holds the rules together.
It stores the data, enforces the rules, and connects the systems around the product. When software loses data, becomes slow under load, or behaves inconsistently between the web and mobile experience, the cause is often here.
A messy interface is unpleasant. A messy data model turns every future change into a migration project. That is why backend work rewards deliberate decisions and punishes rushed ones.
“The work nobody sees is what makes the product trustworthy.”
The operating principle
WHAT I BUILD
The systems behind the screen.
A complete backend can serve a new product, an existing web front end, or a mobile application that needs a dependable API.
APIs
Versioned, documented REST APIs for web products, mobile apps, and third parties.
Database design
Schema, relationships, indexing, and migrations. These decisions are hardest to reverse after real data arrives.
Business logic
The product rules behind pricing, permissions, workflow states, calculations, and validation.
Authentication & authorisation
Sign-in, sessions, tokens, roles, and checks enforced where they matter: on the server.
Third-party integrations
Payments, CRM, email, storage, and the systems a product depends on outside its own codebase.
Background jobs
Queues, scheduled tasks, reports, notifications, and slow operations that should not block a user request.
Mobile backends
The API and data layer behind a mobile product, including sync and offline considerations.
TECHNOLOGIES
A focused backend stack.
Production tools chosen for structured, maintainable application work rather than novelty.
Application
A structured service layer for product rules and APIs.
- Node.js
- NestJS
- TypeScript
- REST APIs
- Validation
- Error handling
Data
Models and queries designed around real product behaviour.
- PostgreSQL
- MongoDB
- Schema design
- Migrations
- Indexes
- Query analysis
Identity
Access control that lives in dependable server-side rules.
- JWT
- OAuth
- Sessions
- Role permissions
- Token refresh
- Audit trails
Operations
The delivery and reliability baseline an application needs.
- Queues
- Caching
- CI/CD
- Monitoring
- Logging
- Automated tests
If a specialist infrastructure decision is needed beyond this scope, I will say so early and bring the right expertise into the conversation.
PERFORMANCE & RELIABILITY
Built to hold up when conditions change.
Real data volumes, concurrent users, and third-party outages create the problems a clean demo never reveals. The right work is defensive: indexed queries, pagination, caching where allowed, retries, and useful failure handling.
These are standard delivery decisions, not an expensive upgrade that appears after customers have already felt the problem.
“A backend should tell you what failed before a customer has to.”
EXISTING SYSTEMS
Read first. Change carefully.
A lot of backend work lives inside code another team wrote: new features, performance fixes, integrations, or a system that grew without a plan.
I start by understanding the data and conventions already in place. If another layer of patches is not the right answer, I will say so before adding one.
THE APPROACH
Preserve what works, fix what matters, and avoid turning a repair into a rewrite by accident.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Backend work, clearly scoped.
The practical answers before the data model, API, or integration work begins.
Can you build a backend for an existing front end?
Yes. It is a common request when a mobile app or web interface needs a proper API and data layer behind it.
PostgreSQL or MongoDB?
PostgreSQL unless there is a specific reason otherwise. Most product data is relational, and treating it as though it is not creates trouble later.
Can you work on our existing backend?
Yes. I read it first, follow the conventions that make sense, and explain if a rebuild is genuinely the better answer.
Do you handle infrastructure?
To a practical level: deployment, environments, CI/CD, and monitoring. Large-scale infrastructure architecture deserves a specialist.
Can you fix performance problems?
Usually. Most backend problems are query patterns, missing indexes, or unreliable third-party calls rather than anything exotic.
Who owns the code?
You do, entirely, on final payment.
Need backend development?
Describe what the system has to do and what it connects to. You will get a fixed price and an honest view of the technical risks.