Fullstack Team Leader - PHP & Node.js

About The Company

At Smartness, we are building the future of hospitality tech. Our SaaS helps lodging providers boost revenues by 30%+ and get more direct bookings.

We are the fastest-growing B2B SaaS in the industry, trusted by 4,000+ clients across 40+ countries, with billions of euros in bookings processed. Backed by top international investors and named one of Italy's Top 10 LinkedIn Startups, we are on a mission to scale globally.

Want to grow with us? Let's go!

About The Role

Our technology team is developing a range of innovative solutions to help accommodation providers optimize the management of their businesses. As Smartness continues to grow, we are investing heavily in our products, platform, and engineering organization to support an increasingly international customer base.

As a Team Leader within the SmartPMS Engineering team, you will combine technical leadership with hands-on software development. This is not a purely managerial role: you will remain actively involved in coding, architecture discussions, code reviews, and technical decision-making while supporting a team of engineers in delivering high-quality solutions.

You will work across multiple projects and stakeholders, helping the team navigate complex business requirements, competing priorities, and evolving product needs. You will also play a key role in fostering engineering excellence and driving technical improvements across the team.

You Will Be Responsible For

• Leading a team of engineers while remaining actively involved in software development and technical delivery.
• Writing production-level code and contributing directly to the evolution of the SmartPMS platform.
• Performing code reviews and promoting high engineering standards across the team.
• Supporting engineers in solving complex technical challenges and making sound architectural decisions.
• Collaborating closely with Product Managers, QA, DevOps, and other stakeholders to deliver business-critical initiatives.
• Managing projects involving multiple stakeholders, changing priorities, and cross-functional dependencies.
• Driving improvements in software quality, scalability, reliability, and maintainability.
• Supporting hiring, onboarding, mentoring, and professional growth of team members.
  
  

What are we looking for?

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience in product-driven or SaaS environments.
• At least 3-5 years of experience in a Team Lead, Tech Lead, Engineering Lead, or similar leadership role.
• Proven experience leading engineers while remaining hands-on in software development.
• Strong experience with PHP and Laravel (mandatory).
• Experience developing and maintaining cloud-based products and distributed systems.
• Experience with modern frontend frameworks such as Vue.js, React, or Angular.
• Strong knowledge of Node.js is considered a significant plus.
• Exposure to additional backend technologies such as .NET, C#, Java, or Spring is appreciated.
• Experience working closely with DevOps teams and CI/CD practices.
• Strong code review mindset and commitment to engineering best practices.
• Ability to manage complex projects involving multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
• Strong communication, mentoring, and problem-solving skills.
  
  

AI Adoption

At Smartness, we believe AI is transforming the way software is built and delivered. We are looking for leaders who actively embrace AI as part of their daily workflow and can help their teams do the same.

• Demonstrated use of AI tools in day-to-day software development activities.
• Experience leveraging AI for coding, debugging, testing, documentation, triage, and refactoring.
• Ability to critically evaluate, validate, and test AI-generated code before production deployment.
• Pragmatic approach to balancing AI-assisted development with strong engineering judgment and software quality standards.
• Curiosity and openness toward adopting new AI-powered tools and workflows to improve productivity and delivery outcomes.
  
  

What Do We Offer? 👌

• Work in a small and top-performing team that moves extremely fast where you are extremely important.
• Work without having to deal with jerks and ego-maniacs.
• The opportunity to join one of the best travel-tech teams in Europe.
• A place where your talent can blossom.
• An environment where mistakes are allowed – we make bold choices to achieve ambitious goals, learn from mistakes, and move forward.
• A place where your voice matters – meetings provide space for new ideas and projects, regardless of your role or seniority.
• Continuous growth – we challenge the status quo, renewing our processes and approaches to meet challenging goals.
• We have fun while working! We are easygoing people.
• Work with the best software out there to automate repetitive tasks and let you focus on what matters.
• Remote working.
• Remote working.
• We offer competitive compensation and the opportunity to participate in the company’s long-term growth through equity access. Candidates with solid professional experience but limited exposure to this specific role typically join with an annual OTE starting from €45,000 across Europe, while candidates with significant relevant experience may receive compensation of up to €75,000, depending on their expertise, scope of responsibilities, and expected impact - also, you have the opportunity to receive equity, aligning your success with the long-term growth of the company. Our compensation philosophy is designed to reward growth, ownership, and meaningful contributions. As you develop your skills and increase your impact within the company, your compensation can progress rapidly to reflect your achievements and responsibilities. For exceptional candidates demonstrating outstanding potential or experience, we may consider offers beyond the standard compensation ranges.
  
  

Before you apply

If you're reading this, it means you're genuinely interested, and that excites us! Here's what you need to know:

• We're highly driven and set our goals higher than most, pushing boundaries others may deem impossible.
• We work much harder than most companies out there.
• Every day, we step out of our comfort zones, fueling rapid growth and learning, even though it might come with its stress.
• We hold ourselves and our team to the highest standards of excellence and culture.
• Should we feel that this role isn't the right match for you, for the benefit of both parties, we may need to part ways.
  
  

We hope this sheds light on whether this could be your next adventure. If you believe it is, we warmly invite you to apply. Discover your full potential with us!

A quick heads-up: we reply to every candidate. If you're waiting for an update, please check your spam/junk folder too - sometimes our emails end up there. We wouldn't want you to miss a message from us!

By submitting this application, I agree that my personal data will be collected, processed, and retained by the company solely for the purposes of managing and assessing my candidacy.