Franco Ghazaleh
Senior Backend Engineer (PHP/Golang)

Franco Ghazaleh

Highly skilled software development professional with more than 10 years of experience in software design, development and integration. A self-directed and motivated software engineer who works effectively in a dynamic environment. Fluent in PHP OOP, Golang and JavaScript. Uses AI tools daily and builds retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) solutions.

Berlin, GermanyItalianfranco.ghazaleh@gmail.comgithub.com/fghazalehlinkedin.com/in/fghazaleh
Franco Ghazaleh profile

Experience

March 2022 – present · Berlin, Germany

Senior Backend Engineer (PHP/Golang)

Nord Security (NordVPN) · VPN (B2B)
  • Leading new features and projects by writing tech-spec documents, creating POCs and suggesting solutions to the team (e.g. invoice downloads, payment migration).
  • Sharing knowledge with the team and ensuring the team follows our code standards and processes.
  • Continuously improving and maintaining the existing codebase, code quality and automated testing.

Projects

  • NordLayer B2B platform: A PHP platform managing VPN accounts and servers for organizations.
  • New upsell payment: A PHP service responsible for processing orders and handling the checkout process asynchronously.
LinuxPHPGolangRabbitMQMySQLNginxDockerGitLabELK
February 2021 – February 2022 · Berlin, Germany

Senior Backend Engineer (PHP/Golang)

Auto1 Group · e-commerce (B2B, B2C)
  • Built a service layer to process inbound merchant payments and support the Cash Management Team.
  • Built an integration layer with Oracle Application ERP, using a Golang Lambda service to sync customer details.
  • Maintained existing services and improved code quality and automated testing.

Projects

  • Finance-AR-invoice service: A PHP service handling invoice/proforma generation and auto-booking of cars, packages and transportation.
  • Inbound-Payment-tool: A PHP service handling inbound payments from different sources and displaying all merchant payment transactions to the Cash Management Team.
  • Exchange lambda service: A Golang Lambda service handling the exchange between the cash collector and a third-party payment service.
LinuxPHPGolangMySQL/PostgresNginx/ApacheAWSLambdaAWS SQS/SNSELK
April 2020 – present · Berlin, Germany

Co-Founder / Developer

WahahStore · e-commerce
  • Managing and running the online OpenCart 3.x shop on servers.
  • Building new features for the back office and shop.

Projects

  • Wahahstore.com: An online shop with an Arabic/English interface.
LinuxPHPOpenCartMySQLNginxHTML/CSSDigitalOcean
October 2018 – April 2020 · Berlin, Germany

Senior Backend Engineer

Productsup · SaaS (data feed)
  • Developed an efficient, fast and reliable backend solution for real-time feed processing.
  • Refactored legacy backend code, improving performance, code quality and testing.
  • Developed new executables on top of Docker to run independently of our infrastructure.

Projects

  • New Monitoring: A backend solution for a real-time notification and alert system, using queues for certain actions.
  • Async Processing Manager: A package for controlling multiple Symfony Processes.
  • IceCat Open Catalog: A microservice that allows clients to integrate their data feed with IceCat Open Catalog to enrich their products.
LinuxPHPSymfony 4MySQL/RedisNginxApache Solr/LuceneJenkinsHTML/CSS
July 2015 – August 2018 · Rome, Italy

Senior Software Engineer

Qettaf · e-commerce platform (B2C, B2B)
  • Developed new features in PHP using the Laravel framework.
  • Worked effectively with design teams to ensure software solutions were delivered to a high standard of quality and user experience.
  • Directed software design and development while remaining focused on client needs.
  • Developed a Lucene search indexer using Java 7 and MySQL.
  • Owned solution architecture and database design.

Projects

  • DDL.ae: A web-based PHP English/Arabic e-commerce platform.
  • Mrqoom.net: A web-based PHP English/Arabic portal for digital content.
  • Mrqoom API: A RESTful API built on the Lumen PHP framework.
  • DDL Catalog: A Node.js/MongoDB service using RESTful APIs to communicate with the e-commerce platform for the DDL catalog.
LinuxPHPJavaLaravel/LumenMySQL/RedisNginxApache Solr/LuceneHTML/CSS
January 2015 – May 2015 · Amman, Jordan

Senior Software Engineer (PHP)

Souq.com (An Amazon Company) · e-commerce marketplace
  • Wrote maintainable and extensible PHP code for the backend Order Management System (OMS).
  • Worked closely with other team members to plan, design and develop robust solutions in a timely manner.

Projects

  • Souq.com: A web-based English/Arabic e-commerce platform.
Linux/AWSPHPJavaZend FrameworkMySQL/RedisApache ActiveMQNginxApache Solr/LuceneHTML/CSS
Show 6 earlier roles
October 2013 – December 2014 · Amman, Jordan

Senior PHP Developer

Kindi.com · Mobile applications
July 2010 – June 2013 · Amman, Jordan

Senior Software Developer

ikitab.com · SaaS (content provider)
November 2008 – September 2009 · Amman, Jordan

Senior Developer

Ketab Technology · Interactive educational content
April 2004 – June 2008 · Amman, Jordan

Senior Programmer

Rubicon (RGH) · E-learning and multimedia production
October 2002 – March 2004 · Amman, Jordan

Senior Developer

Mercury Techs · Accounting software
July 2001 – September 2002 · Amman, Jordan

Programmer

Turath Center for Computer Research · Accounting software