Senior Outsourced PHP Developer

About this job

Why this role exists We’re building and evolving a custom PHP web application that powers real-world operations. No hand-holding frameworks here — just clean, object‑oriented PHP, RESTful services, and a stack that rewards engineers who love understanding how things actually work. If you enjoy getting close to the metal with Core/Vanilla PHP, care about performance, and can comfortably move between data layers, UI, and cloud infrastructure, you’ll feel right at home. What you’ll do (the work) • Ship features end‑to‑end in a framework‑free, OOP PHP codebase (namespaces, interfaces, traits, SOLID principles). • Design and implement RESTful endpoints (JSON), including request validation, pagination, error handling, and versioning. • Write robust SQL (DDL/DML), optimise queries and indexes, and integrate via PDO with prepared statements. • Work with MongoDB for document‑oriented use cases; design efficient schemas and aggregation pipelines where relevant. • Build and enhance front‑end interactions with jQuery, HTML/CSS, and Tailwind CSS for fast, clean UI work. • Integrate external APIs (REST/Webhooks), handle oauth/token flows, retries, idempotency, and rate‑limit strategy. • Operate in AWS: deploy apps on Elastic Beanstalk, manage assets in S3, use DynamoDB where appropriate, and keep environments healthy (logs, scaling, env vars). • Handle SSL/TLS certificate management and DNS via Cloudflare; ensure zero‑downtime renewals and sane caching rules. • Work with WordPress CMS where needed (content ingestion/integration, headless endpoints, custom fields/templates). • Pair closely with another Senior Developer who knows the platform inside‑out; take part in code reviews and architecture discussions. • Own quality: write pragmatic tests, instrument metrics, document decisions, and leave the codebase tidier than you found it. The environment (important context) • No modern PHP frameworks. We use Core/Vanilla PHP with strong OOP. If your superpower is Laravel or Symfony only, this role isn’t the right fit. • We follow OOP and RESTful design practices, emphasising clarity, testability, and performance. • We value speed with discipline: small PRs, sensible testing, continuous improvement. Must‑have skills & experience • Core/Vanilla PHP (7.x/8.x) with OOP: interfaces, traits, namespaces, dependency injection, SOLID. • RESTful API design & implementation (JSON), auth patterns, and versioning. • SQL mastery (query optimisation, indexing, transactions) and PDO best practices. • MongoDB fundamentals (schema design, aggregations, performance basics). • Front‑end: jQuery, semantic HTML, modern CSS, and Tailwind CSS utility workflows. • External API integrations (OAuth, webhooks, retries, idempotency, error/bounce handling). • AWS: Elastic Beanstalk deployments, S3 lifecycle, DynamoDB usage, environment configuration, logging/monitoring basics. • Security: input validation, CSRF/XSS/SQL injection prevention, secrets management, and safe file handling. • SSL/TLS & DNS via Cloudflare (including HSTS, redirects, caching/CDN rulesets, cert renewals). • WordPress CMS experience (admin/config, theme/plugin interaction, or headless/REST usage). • Git and collaborative workflows (feature branches, code reviews, CI basics). • Comfortable with Linux/CLI for diagnostics and automation. Nice to have (bonus points) • Experience with queues/workers for background jobs. • Testing: PHPUnit or similar; integration test mindset. • Performance profiling (Xdebug/Blackfire) and caching strategies (OPcache/application‑level caching). • Observability basics (structured logging, alerts, dashboards). What success looks like 30 days • Onboarded, local/dev environments humming, shipping small improvements and fixes. • Demonstrates understanding of domain models and core modules. 60 days • Independently delivering medium‑sized features end‑to‑end. • Improving SQL queries and indexes, reducing response times and error rates. 90 days • Co‑owning a roadmap area; proposing architecture improvements. • Raising overall code quality with patterns, guardrails, and clear documentation. How we work • Remote first. Clear written communication is king. • Ticketed workflow with lightweight specs and acceptance criteria. • Code reviews for every PR; pair programming with the platform owner for complex changes. • Pragmatic documentation (readmes/ADR notes) close to the code.