Becky Keyworth - Back-end Developer
Backend architecture, complex systems design, cross-stack collaboration (PHP + Next.js)
As a Backend Developer at SoBold, I design and build the systems that power Kapow behind the scenes - subscription and membership logic, search infrastructure, cloud storage integrations, and the secure sharing features that connect teachers and parents. I like taking a messy set of business rules and turning it into a system that's clean, secure, and easy to reason about, whether that's on the PHP side or coordinating with the Next.js frontend that consumes it.
Biography
I studied English Literature at university and spent six years teaching English in a secondary school before making the switch into development. It wasn't the career path I expected, but I'm proud of that background - explaining a text to a room of teenagers and unpicking a complex subscription flow require more of the same skills than people expect, and I think it gives me a slightly different lens on this job. I joined SoBold as a developer four years ago and quickly moved into backend work, which is where I've stayed ever since.
Thoughts
I'm interested in how much of backend work is really about designing the right abstractions for messy, evolving business rules - like handling legacy subscribers alongside a new tier structure without the codebase collapsing under its own edge cases. AI-assisted tooling is changing how fast that kind of untangling can happen, which frees up more time for getting the architecture right rather than just keeping up with the backlog.
