Our client is a cybersecurity company helping organisations protect sensitive information through large-scale data collection, correlation, and real-time alerting. Their platform supports enterprise and government clients operating in high-trust environments.
Overview
Our client is building a cloud-native cybersecurity platform for large-scale data collection, correlation, and real-time alerting. Their systems process high volumes of data to deliver actionable intelligence for enterprise and government clients.
They are looking for a Senior Software Engineer (PHP) to join a small, highly technical backend team working on performance-critical, data-driven services in a security-focused environment.
Key Responsibilities
* Take ownership of requirements discovery, scope definition, and delivery planning for key projects and initiatives.
* Work closely with Product Owners and business stakeholders to take ideas from concept through to clearly defined user stories, technical approaches, and delivery estimates.
* Contribute to and help shape roadmaps and delivery plans, balancing business priorities, technical constraints, and engineering effort.
* Design, develop, and maintain backend services and REST APIs using PHP (Laravel v10).
* Own and evolve Elasticsearch implementations, including index design, mappings, query optimisation, aggregations, and performance tuning.
* Design and optimise MySQL schemas and queries for high-volume workloads, including indexing strategies and query performance analysis.
* Build and maintain data ingestion and processing pipelines from multiple internal and external sources.
* Design microservices and distributed systems supporting search, analytics, and alerting use cases.
* Deploy, monitor, and scale services using Docker, CI/CD pipelines, and AWS.
* Ensure secure coding practices and compliance with data protection and security requirements.
* Implement automated testing and maintain high standards of code quality and reliability.
* Write clear technical documentation covering APIs, data models, and system behaviour.
* Mentor junior and mid-level engineers and contribute to architectural decision-making.
Tech Stack and Tools
* Primary Backend: PHP (Laravel) – core application and API development
* Supporting Services: Java and Golang (smaller services and components), Python where appropriate
* Messaging & Streaming: Kafka (or similar)
Requirements/experience
* 5+ years of backend development experience, with strong PHP and Laravel expertise.
* Deep, hands-on experience with Elasticsearch, including index design, query optimisation, and performance tuning in production.
* Strong MySQL knowledge, including schema design, indexing strategies, and query optimisation.
* Experience building data-heavy or search-driven systems.
* Solid understanding of API design, microservices, and cloud-native architecture.
* Practical experience with Docker, cloud deployments, and CI/CD workflows.
* Strong understanding of secure coding and system hardening practices.
* Experience writing automated tests (unit and functional).
* Strong problem-solving skills and ownership mindset.
* Experience with large-scale data ingestion or cross-referencing platforms.
* Knowledge of cybersecurity, threat intelligence, or data protection domains.
* Hands-on experience with monitoring, observability, and performance profiling.
* Experience integrating analytics, AI, or LLM-powered features.
* Working knowledge of Python or Java.
* Fully remote and flexible working
* Supportive, collaborative engineering culture
* Opportunity to work on data-intensive, mission-critical systems
* Exposure to modern backend, cloud, and search technologies
* Clear opportunities for technical growth and mentorship
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