Backend Development
Freelance Backend Developer in the Netherlands
I'm Michiel van Alphen, a freelance backend developer based in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, working remotely across Europe. For over 20 years I've designed and shipped the server-side systems behind products people rely on every day — from national news platforms serving millions of readers to order and fulfillment systems for large-scale retail.
As a hands-on Node.js consultant I don't just advise — I write, review and ship production code. Whether you need a new API built from scratch, an existing service hardened for scale, or senior reinforcement for your backend team, I bring the experience to deliver from first commit to production traffic.
Amersfoort, The Netherlands — remote across Europe · Available for new projects
When to bring in a freelance backend developer
- Your product is growing faster than your backend can keep up with
- You need a production-grade REST or GraphQL API — designed, built and documented
- Your team is strong on frontend but needs senior backend depth
- Performance, reliability or test coverage is slipping and nobody has time to fix it
- You want a senior engineer who is productive in week one, not month three
What the engagement covers
API design & delivery
REST and GraphQL APIs in Node.js, TypeScript or Java — designed contract-first, documented, versioned and built to survive real-world traffic.
Node.js consulting
Audits and hands-on improvement of existing Node.js services: performance profiling, memory issues, dependency health, security and upgrade paths.
Production engineering
Testing strategy, CI/CD pipelines, observability and deployment on AWS and Kubernetes — so shipping stays fast as the system grows.
What you get
- Production-ready services in Node.js / TypeScript / Java
- OpenAPI or GraphQL schemas your frontend team can build against
- Automated test suites and CI/CD pipelines
- Monitoring, alerting and runbooks for on-call confidence
- Clean handover with documentation and knowledge sessions
Tools & technologies
- Node.js
- TypeScript
- NestJS
- Java
- GraphQL
- PostgreSQL
- AWS
- Kubernetes
- Docker
The value senior backend delivery brings
A backend is invisible when it works and existential when it doesn't. Senior, hands-on delivery pays for itself in what doesn't happen: outages, rewrites, and roadmaps stuck behind technical debt.
Ship features faster
Well-designed APIs, solid tests and automated pipelines remove the friction that slows every release — so product work keeps moving instead of queueing behind infrastructure fixes.
Stay up under real traffic
Systems designed for peak load, with monitoring and alerting in place, keep working on your busiest day — which is exactly when failure costs the most.
Reduce key-person risk
Everything I build comes with documentation, tests and handover sessions, so your team owns the system long after the engagement ends.
Raise the bar for the team
Code reviews, pairing and pragmatic standards leave your existing developers stronger — the improvement compounds after I'm gone.
Frequently asked questions
Do you work remotely or on-site?
I work remotely across Europe from Amersfoort, the Netherlands, and am happy to come on-site in the Randstad region for kick-offs, workshops and key sessions.
Which backend technologies do you specialise in?
My core stack is Node.js and TypeScript (including NestJS), with solid production experience in Java and Kotlin. On the infrastructure side I work daily with AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, PostgreSQL and Kafka.
Can you join an existing team, or do you only build solo?
Both. I regularly embed in existing product teams as a senior backend developer — picking up tickets, reviewing code and mentoring — and I also deliver complete services end-to-end when a team doesn't exist yet.
How do engagements typically start?
With a short discovery: we map your goals, constraints and current system, and you get a concrete proposal with scope, trade-offs and estimates. From there I ship in short iterations with demos, so you always know exactly where things stand.
Need a senior backend developer who ships?
Tell me about your product and where the backend hurts. I'll respond within one business day with an honest take on whether — and how — I can help.
Get in touch