Job Description

Posted 1 hour ago

Senior PHP Developer

Hybrid Working | Hertfordshire (2 days per week in office) | Permanent

We're working with an established software company looking to add a Senior PHP Developer to their engineering team.

You'll join a collaborative team of experienced developers, taking ownership of backend feature development, technical improvements and complex problem solving across a large-scale web platform.

The role would suit someone who enjoys working with vanilla PHP, thrives in a hands-on environment and can quickly get to grips with an established codebase whilst contributing new ideas and technical improvements.

The Role

You'll be responsible for designing, developing and maintaining business critical web applications, delivering new features from concept through to deployment.

Working closely with developers, testers and support teams, you'll help shape technical solutions, reduce technical debt and ensure the platform continues to scale effectively.

This is a predominantly backend role, around 70/80% on the backend and 20/30% frontend.

Key responsibilities include:

Developing new platform features and enhancements
Writing clean, scalable and maintainable PHP code
Owning technical solutions from design through to production
Refactoring and improving existing functionality
Designing and consuming APIs
Performance tuning and database optimisation
Contributing to code reviews and engineering best practices
Supporting complex third line technical issues when required
Collaborating with testers, developers and business stakeholders
Identifying opportunities to improve tooling, processes and platform performance

About the Environment

This organisation has embraced an AI-first engineering culture, actively encouraging developers to use AI assisted tools to improve productivity, troubleshooting, documentation and delivery.

You'll have access to modern AI tooling and will be encouraged to contribute ideas around how AI can be used effectively across engineering teams, whilst maintaining high standards of code quality, security and ownership.

The development team operates with a high degree of autonomy, so this role is best suited to someone who is comfortable managing their own workload and working independently.

What We're Looking For

Strong commercial PHP development experience – full-stack with a backend focus
Experience working with vanilla PHP (7 & 8) rather than solely framework-based development
Strong backend development background
Solid experience with MySQL or MariaDB
Experience designing and consuming APIs
Strong understanding of web application performance, scalability and security
Experience working with JavaScript, HTML and CSS
Experience working with version control systems
Ability to work independently and quickly become productive within an established environment
Strong communication and problem solving skills
Experience using AI assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude or similar

Nice to Have

Experience with Redis, Memcached or similar caching technologies
Exposure to infrastructure, server management or DevOps practices
Experience working with large, complex codebasesPlease be aware this advert will remain open until the vacancy has been filled. Interviews will take place throughout this period, therefore we encourage you to apply early to avoid disappointment.

Tate is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.

Tate is committed to promoting equal opportunities. To ensure that every candidate has the best experience with us, we encourage you to let us know if there are any adjustments we can make during the application or interview process. Your comfort and accessibility are our priority, and we are here to support you every step of the way. Additionally, we value and respect your individuality, and we invite you to share your preferred pronouns in your application