Summary
✨ AI‑Generated
A hands-on backend role for an engineer who enjoys API-first development and end-to-end ownership. You will design robust REST APIs with Laravel and build Python FastAPI services supporting AI capabilities such as document processing, retrieval, and LLM workflows, with your work consumed by web, mobile, and internal applications.
Highlights
Own backend features end to end in a small engineering team, from database schema and API design through testing, review, and deployment. Work directly with product stakeholders and build APIs and AI-powered services used by web, mobile, and internal applications.
Description
About us
We build and run B2B web platforms and AI-assisted business software for companies in Japan.
Our products are used every working day by real businesses, so the code you write ships, gets used, and has to hold up.
Small engineering team in Kathmandu, working directly with the product side in Tokyo — no handover layers, no ticket factory.
About the role
This is an API-first backend role.
Our platforms run on Laravel APIs, with Python FastAPI services powering the AI layer: document extraction, retrieval, and LLM pipelines.
Web clients, mobile clients, and internal tools all consume what you build, so the contracts you design are the product for everyone downstream.
You own features end to end — schema, endpoint, tests, review, deploy.
What you will do
Design and build REST APIs in Laravel: authentication, authorization, versioning, pagination, and error contracts that survive real growthBuild and maintain Python FastAPI services for AI features, and the integration between them and the Laravel sideDesign database schema and migrations, and keep queries fast as data scalesWrite tests and API documentation your teammates and client-side developers rely onReview pull requests, and take production issues down to the root cause
What we are looking for
2 to 4 years building production backend APIsLaravel and PHP as your primary working stackWorking Python — enough to build and debug a FastAPI service, not only read oneStrong SQL: you can look at a slow query and say why it is slowGit branching and pull-request review as a daily habitWritten English clear enough to explain a technical decision to a colleague in Tokyo
Bonus points for
LLM, RAG, vector search, or document-processing experienceOpenAPI or Swagger, contract testing, API gatewaysDocker, CI pipelines, Linux server basicsMulti-tenant application experienceJapanese at any level — not required, genuinely useful here
Where this role goes
You work across two backend stacks and on AI features that are in production for paying customers, not proof-of-concept demos.
That combination is rare in Kathmandu right now, and it is the fastest route here into technical lead and architecture ownership as the products grow.
How to apply
Send your CV to recruit@smartcontents.com.np, subject line Backend API Developer [Laravel or FastAPI].
If you have a GitHub profile or an API you built and can talk about, include it — that gets read first.
