Lead PHP Developer

Role overview

This is a senior-level PHP engineering role on a team building backend services for white-label and SaaS products serving payment service providers, electronic money institutions, e-commerce platforms, and open banking clients. The position centers on designing secure, scalable systems within the financial technology space, with responsibility for architecture-level decisions and hands-on coding. The work is fully remote, with flexible hours and a requirement to operate within Central European Time.

Responsibilities

- Design, build, test, document, release, and support backend services end to end, including greenfield development - Evolve and refine existing APIs and backend infrastructure for performance and reliability - Integrate third-party providers such as acquirers, payment gateways, alternative payment methods, token platforms, KYC/scoring/monitoring tools, and reporting systems - Establish and maintain testing environments, run test suites, and validate new features - Diagnose and resolve defects, then provide ongoing production support for deployed software - Produce technical documentation and collaborate closely with front-end developers and cross-functional teammates

Requirements

- Advanced PHP skills, including optimization techniques, caching strategies, and asynchronous processing for large-scale projects - Deep grasp of object-oriented programming, SOLID, GRASP, and a broad range of design patterns - Strong expertise with the Symfony framework, RESTful API design, and Doctrine ORM - Solid PostgreSQL experience, including complex query optimization, indexing, and entity-relationship schema design - Working knowledge of Docker and Kubernetes components and orchestration - Familiarity with advanced architectural approaches such as Domain-Driven Design, CQRS, Event Sourcing, and microservices patterns

Nice to have

- Experience with PHP integration testing tools such as PHPUnit, Codeception, or Behat - Comfort configuring Jenkins, including plugins and parameterized pipelines - Background designing and documenting complex distributed system architectures

Benefits and work setup

- Fully remote position with flexible scheduling from any location, provided the candidate can work within CET - 19 business days of flexible paid time off - Values-driven culture with a supportive team environment and a matrix organizational structure - Opportunities to attend and contribute to industry conferences and community events - Competitive compensation aligned with experience level