Backend development - what is it all about

Let's be honest. If you’ve managed a software project, you probably have a certain picture of your backend engineers. You might suspect their job is 50% being blocked by other people and 40% insisting that your entire project needs a complete rewrite because the technology is now, suddenly, "deprecated." And you know what? Sometimes you’re not far off the mark.

But there’s still that most essential part of the job – the part you’re actually paying for. That's the part that determines whether your business can grow, whether your customer data is safe, and whether your app crashes during your biggest sales event of the year. That's what we’re going to talk about in this article.

The term "backend" is so broad that even after five years in this field, finding a simple explanation is tough. Does that mean I’m in the wrong line of work? Maybe. Or it could just mean the concept is genuinely complicated.

When my family asks me what a backend developer does for the fifth year in a row, I have a simple line I trot out. A backend engineer works on all the stuff you can't see at first glance.

If a button on a webpage is misaligned or the color palette looks slightly off, that's not us. That’s a job for a designer or a frontend developer. But if you need to make a process run by itself, that’s when you call us.

Think about the real-world business problems you face, not about the interface that you are using to solve them:

These are the problems backend engineers exist to solve. We build the systems that automate processes, store information securely, and make your business more efficient.

The exact definitions can vary depending on the company, but some general distinctions usually apply. The Product Owner (PO) is responsible for the product itself — gathering requirements, defining changes, and maintaining the product vision. Once those requirements are approved, the Project Manager (PM) takes over execution: working with the development team to plan tasks, create a schedule, and monitor progress to ensure everything stays on track.

If backend developers build the engine, DevOps makes sure it runs smoothly in the real world. They handle deployments, monitoring, and infrastructure so our code doesn’t collapse under real traffic. Think of them as the pit crew that keeps our race car on the track.

There are some folks who like to make decisions. The folks who also own the outcome of those decisions – that's who we call architects. They give the team a clear, high-level map of the software. When a project needs to settle on technologies and strategies for solving a problem, the team looks to them.

QA is there to prove us wrong – and that’s a good thing. They break what we build, so customers don’t have to. The better the QA team, the fewer angry phone calls your company gets at midnight.

The front end is what your users actually see. The backend is the hidden machinery that makes it work. We provide the data, rules, and processes that feed into the frontend’s beautiful design. When backend and frontend work in sync, the result feels seamless to the end user.

If you’ll ever hear that the requirements for your project are unclear to a programmer, it might mean you need a business analyst. They help to clarify the problem that your software is trying to solve.

Read also: How to implement DevOps automation in your business?

The role of a backend engineer goes far beyond just typing code into a computer. Let's look at a practical backend developer job description based on my own experience.

This is the obvious part. It’s still the main thing about my job. This could mean building a new payment processing feature from scratch or performing delicate surgery on a ten-year-old system to keep it running.

Clients often see a problem and have a solution already in mind. A huge part of my job is to (gently) adjust their dreams by showing them what's actually possible and what's financially sensible. An engineer spending a day researching a new technology or digging through old code is de-risking your idea. That one day of research can save the company six months and hundreds of thousands of dollars building the wrong thing.

If I don't complain, who will? This "complaining" is actually one of the key backend developer responsibilities focused on revenue impact, even if it doesn't look like it. When an engineer complains that "the code is a mess" or "we need to update this library," they are flagging technical debt, security risks, and performance bottlenecks before they become front-page news. It's our job to worry about the cracks in the foundation so you – and your business – don't have to.

These are the business problems that are actually technical problems in disguise. If you see these, your engine room is on fire.

This brings me to my final point. After all this talk about failing engines, grumpy maintainers, and technical debt, why should you trust us with your engine room?

Because we’re good. We understand that you don't need more buzzwords, but a system that works. You need an engine room that is secure, scalable, and won't give you a headache every time you want to add a new feature. That means building systems with the security and precision required for NATO’s submarine rescue platform and the global scale needed to help UNICEF deliver humanitarian aid.

If you’re tired of fighting a broken system, or you’re ready to build a new one right from the start, then let’s talk about web development. See how our approach to web development can build the dependable engine your business needs!