Backend and API development in Perth
A Perth mining services firm usually sits between its client's systems and its own. Work orders arrive from the client's maintenance system, parts and labour are tracked in the contractor's own tools, timesheets go back for approval, and invoices depend on all three agreeing. When the systems do not talk, a team in an office in West Perth retypes it, and disputes at month end come from the gaps.
We build the backend that joins them: integrations with the client's maintenance and procurement systems through supported interfaces, a single record of each job from order to invoice, retries that do not duplicate a timesheet, and a log that settles a dispute in minutes. We work in Node and Python on PostgreSQL, and we leave documentation your team can maintain when the next client arrives with a different system.
Perth runs mines it cannot see. Rio Tinto controls trains, trucks and drills in the Pilbara from its operations centre in Perth, BHP runs much of its Western Australian iron ore logistics from a remote operations centre in the city, and Woodside, Fortescue and Chevron Australia keep their head offices here. Around them sits a large sector of engineering consultancies, contractors and mining equipment, technology and services firms. Most of the software work in the city exists to serve that industry, and it comes with that industry's habits: safety first, careful change control and very little tolerance for downtime.
The line that matters is between operational technology and everything else. Control systems, autonomous haulage and plant automation belong to specialists. The opportunity for outside engineers is on the business side of that line: maintenance and shutdown planning, historian data read out for analysis, contractor and workforce systems for a fly-in fly-out workforce, reporting, and the internal tools that stitch them together. Energy and utility businesses need the same kind of work, and beyond resources the state has its own buyers, from agencies and universities in the city to the wineries of Margaret River selling across the continent.
Hiring is shaped by the resources sector, which competes hard for experienced engineers and can pay for them. Indeed puts the average base salary for a software engineer in Perth at A$100,253, from 59 reported salaries, and a consultancy or scale-up bidding against a mining major for the same person often waits a long time. That is where we fit: senior engineers on a defined piece of work within days, with the code in your repositories from the first commit.
Our four hours of daily overlap land in your afternoon, moved to suit your team. Perth is the closest Australian capital to India's time zone, and neither Western Australia nor India uses daylight saving, so the window sits at the same point in your day all year. Your morning is for your own team and the site calls; the afternoon is for stand-ups, reviews and decisions with the engineer who writes your code.
We are the right fit for defined work on the business side of the operation: data, reporting, maintenance and workforce tools, and contractor systems. Senior engineers start within days, the first piece is a fixed-price two weeks, and we can carry the roadmap through the months before your own hire starts. Agencies can put the work under their own name.
Four ways this arrives.
We read the code, write down what it does versus what everyone believes it does, and give you the list of the five things most likely to page someone at night. Then we fix those first.
Usually queries, not architecture. We profile under real traffic, fix the plans and the indexes, and only then discuss whether anything needs splitting apart.
A mobile client, a partner integration, a public API. We design the contract first, version it properly, and write the docs your consumers will read.
Jobs that silently vanish, retries that duplicate charges, a queue nobody monitors. We make it idempotent, observable, and boring.
A moderated messaging backend where sends acknowledge in-band and the review runs behind them.
Read the write-up →Asked by Perth teams.
How do you work with teams in Perth?+
We are in Bengaluru, and four hours of every working day overlap with your afternoon, moved to suit your team. Perth is the closest Australian capital to India's time, and neither side changes its clocks, so the window stays put all year. Stand-ups, code reviews and design calls happen live in it. We work in your tools, whether that is Slack, GitHub or Linear, and every call is with the engineer who writes the code.
Do you build for mining and energy companies?+
Yes, on the business side of the operation. We build pipelines that read historian data out for analysis, maintenance and shutdown planning tools, contractor management platforms, apps that put a FIFO worker's roster, flights and documents in one place, and dense planning views for remote operations teams. We integrate with the maintenance, HR and procurement systems you already run, and start with the problem that costs you most on site.
How does your rate compare to hiring in Perth?+
Indeed puts the average base salary for a software engineer in Perth at around A$100,000, and the resources sector often pays more to win experienced people. Our published rate is $35/hour with a $5,000 minimum, or $5,400 a month for one embedded engineer. There is no recruiting time and no employment overhead, and work can start within days. The first piece is a fixed-price two-week engagement at $2,800, so you judge us on what ships.
What do the first two weeks look like?+
You share the context, with an NDA signed before anything specific. Within two days you are on a 30-minute call with the engineer who would do the work, and within a week you have a written plan. Then comes a fixed-price two-week piece for $2,800: one real thing, such as a maintenance report, a contractor portal screen or a data feed, built in your repositories and reviewed with you in your afternoons.
Can you work in our existing codebase?+
Yes, and it is most of what we do. We do not require a rewrite as a condition of working with you. If we think a rewrite is genuinely the right call we will say so, with the reasoning and the cost, and you can decide.
What if the backend is in a language you do not list?+
Then we will tell you. We are useful in Node, Python and TypeScript. We can read Go and PHP well enough to migrate off them. We would not take a Rust or Elixir project and learn it on your budget.
Do you write tests?+
For anything with money, permissions or data loss in it, yes. We do not chase a coverage number. We will tell you which parts are covered and which are not in the handover notes.
Who owns the code?+
You do, from the first commit. Repositories live in your organisation. If we set them up, we transfer them before the first invoice.
What happens when the engagement ends?+
You get runbooks, architecture notes and a recorded walkthrough. We stay available for questions for a month at no cost, because a handover that needs us on retainer is not a handover.