Senior PHP Software Developer

Job Title: Senior PHP Software Developer

Work Schedule: US Pacific Time business hours

SALARY: b/w INR 125,000 - INR 160,000 (depending on experience)

OVERVIEW

Seeking a seasoned Senior PHP Software Developer for a hands-on senior engineering role with technical leadership responsibilities.

Will design, build, optimize, and lead - not just write code.

Works on both web-based and headless, command-linedriven PHP applications, help modernize development practices, and elevate overall engineering standards across the organization.

ATTRIBUTES FOR SUCCESS

• Produces high-quality, secure, maintainable PHP code.
• Improves existing systems through refactoring and optimization.
• Raises development standards across the team.
• Contributes to architectural and tooling decisions.
• Demonstrates ownership, accountability, and strong engineering judgment.

TEAM STRUCTURE / REPORTING:

• 1 US-based PHP Software Developer.
• IT Director (functions primarily as product owner, project manager, business process SME, occasional PHP development work).
• This person reports to IT Director and works closely with US based Developer.

TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT

Current Stack: Windows-based environment

• IIS
• PHP
• MySQL on Windows Server

Ability and interest in guiding a transition toward a modern, widely adopted technology stack.

REQUIREMENTS - EXPERIENCE + QUALIFICATIONS

Professional Background

• 7+ years of professional PHP development experience
• Strong background in object-oriented programming (OOP) and design patterns
• Proven experience delivering production-grade systems (NOT prototypes)

Leadership & Ownership

• Prior experience leading software projects / small teams
• Ability to:
• Define coding standards
• Set technical direction
• Review and approve code
• Enforce quality and security standards
• Comfortable mentoring developers and elevating team capability

REQUIREMENTS - TECHNICAL

PHP & Frameworks

• Expert-level PHP knowledge
• Strong experience with a modern PHP framework (Laravel preferred)
• Deep understanding of:
• Application structure
• Dependency injection
• Middleware
• Queues, jobs, and background processing

Development Tooling

• Strong working knowledge of Composer
• Expert-level use of Git, including:
• Branching strategies
• Merging and conflict resolution
• Code review and approval workflows
• Daily use of an IDE (JetBrains PhpStorm strongly preferred)

Databases & SQL

• Strong experience with MySQL
• Expert-level ability to:
• Write complex SQL queries
• Optimize queries for performance
• Design scalable, high-performance schemas
• Clear understanding of:
• Indexing
• Query plans
• Transaction behavior

Security

• Strong experience writing secure, defensive code
• Working knowledge of OWASP Top 10 or similar secure coding standards
• Experience mitigating vulnerabilities such as:
• Input validation flaws
• SQL injection
• XSS
• CSRF
• Authentication/authorization flaws

Code Quality

• Writes clean, well-organized, readable, and well-documented code
• Follows and enforces coding standards
• Understands maintainability and long-term system health

Performance & Optimization

• Experience optimizing applications to minimize resource usage (CPU and RAM utilization)
• Comfortable working with headless PHP applications, CLI scripts, and scheduled/background tasks
• Understands real-world performance tradeoffs

REQUIREMENTS COMMUNICATION

• Strong English written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to communicate clearly with technical peers and non-technical stakeholders
• Comfortable working with a US based team during US Pacific Time business hours

AI USAGE EXPECTATIONS

• Strong experience using AI as a professional development tool.
• Understands where and how AI adds value (design review, refactoring, test generation, research, debugging).
• Does NOT rely on AI for uncontrolled vibe coding.
• Demonstrates judgment, verification, and ownership of all produced code.

DESIRED / NICE TO HAVE

Role prioritizes Software engineering excellence first. Infrastructure and cloud experience are a bonus, not a requirement.

• Modernization / Cloud - Experience with cloud platforms - Azure preferred
• Familiarity with:
• Managed services
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
• CI / CD pipelines
• Secure publishing workflows
• Exposure to:
• NGINX
• Containerization
• Identity integration (SSO, Entra ID, conditional access)
• Ability to advise on cost-effective, low-maintenance hosting models