Senior PHP Backend Engineer— High‑Performance FinTech
Location: Full Remote
Employment: Permanent
Salary: £120,000
About the company:
Join a lean, venture‑backed product team building automation software that eliminates manual back‑office workflows in complex, traditional industries. The platform is scaling fast, and we’re looking for a Senior PHP Engineer to take ownership of core backend services and performance‑critical systems. You’ll work closely with product and leadership, shaping the roadmap and shipping features that reach thousands of business users.
What you’ll do
* Architect, build, and evolve robust backend services and APIs in PHP with a strong focus on performance, scalability, and reliability.
* Drive profiling and tuning for high‑concurrency/low‑latency environments; lead efforts on caching, queues, and database optimisation.
* Implement best practices in security (including payment flows) and compliance (e.g., PCI‑DSS), championing code quality across the codebase.
* Own API architecture & integrations, including resilient error handling, idempotency, and graceful retries; support two‑way sync with external systems.
* Collaborate cross‑functionally on the product roadmap; contribute to engineering standards, testing discipline, and code reviews.
Tech environment:
* PHP (modern) with async/event‑loop concepts (e.g., ReactPHP/FrameworkX), custom libraries, and clean, testable design.
* APIs: RESTful services, two‑way integrations, robust error handling & retry/backoff.
* Performance: high concurrency, low latency, Redis caching, queues/delayed processing, microservices.
* Data: MySQL with indexing and query optimisation; profiling for throughput. [
* Security & payments: network security, payment gateways (e.g., Stripe/PayPal/bank APIs), understanding of PCI‑DSS.
* Quality: unit/integration testing, reviews, and design patterns to ensure maintainable code.
What we’re looking for
* A strong track record delivering complex, production‑grade PHP backends.
* Comfort operating at a senior level, owning major technical decisions and trade‑offs.
* Evidence of high‑concurrency/scalability work and systematic performance optimisation.
* Hands‑on with Redis, queues (e.g., delayed jobs, Kafka/RabbitMQ‑style systems), and microservices.
* API craftsmanship: REST standards, two‑way sync, idempotency, error/compensation strategies.
* Security & payments: experience integrating payment rails and working with PCI‑DSS or similar.
* Bonus points for open‑source contributions or work on complex financial/latency‑sensitive systems.
If you’re excited by complex problems, high‑performance engineering, and real product impact, we’d love to hear from you