Location: This position is located in Southern England (Wiltshire, Somerset, Bath & NES, Bristol, Dorset, Hampshire) with mostly remote working and a few days per month in our office in Wilton (near Salisbury). Overseas travel may be possible from time to time.
Salary: up to £45,000
Contract: Full Time, Perm
Role Summary
We are seeking a Full Stack PHP Developer to work on our web-based internal operations management system, to help increase the functionality and efficiency of HALO’s operations. Built in-house in 2020 using Laravel, Bootstrap and PostgreSQL, and hosted in AWS, the system is the largest database of mine clearance, explosive ordnance disposal, and weapons and ammunition management operations in the world, spanning 30 countries, over 20,000 minefields and data on the daily productivity of 10,000 staff. The role is a fantastic opportunity to work with meaningful data, whose purpose is to improve the lives of communities affected by conflict.
In 2025, HALO published its to increase the use of technology throughout our mine-clearance operations. This role is a critical element of delivering the roadmap to ensure cutting edge technology can be used to increase efficiency and to ensure data flows into the hands of users in remote areas.
Reporting to the Head of Information Management and GIS, we are looking for a developer with a self-starter mentality, who is comfortable working across the entire software development stack. The system is mission-critical; used by hundreds of users every day around the world and needs to work reliably in conflict-affected countries with poor internet connections.
The role would suit a person who is motivated to deliver tailored interfaces to help their colleagues to improve digital processes. The role requires attention to detail and pragmatic attitude; HALO is an organisation that focusses on solutions instead of problems – sometimes in rapidly changing environments; recent events in Syria, Gaza and Sudan have required us to react to new requirements. The successful candidate will be working with a large Postgres database, NoSQL JSON data, writing PHP in Laravel, designing interfaces with the Bootstrap framework and Blade views, writing native JavaScript, deploying code on servers, communicating with stakeholders and collaborating with colleagues that work in explosive ordnance disposal, weapons and ammunition management and landmine clearance.
Role Responsibilities
1. Creating new functionality and interfaces with Laravel, Bootstrap and JavaScript, to ensure flexibility for future requirements and scalability
2. Scripting database changes using Data Definition Language and rolling them out to ensure minimal downtime and integrity of existing data
3. Storing all changes in Git with descriptive commit messages
4. Tracking progress of work using Jira and Github issues
5. Writing unit tests to ensure coverage of key functionality
6. Reviewing pull requests of other developers
7. Selecting third-party packages that are well-supported and future-proof
8. Upgrading backend and frontend software as appropriate to ensure our systems are as secure and performant has possible
9. Testing all changes before releasing to production
10. Collaborating with other colleagues to design solutions based on stakeholder requirements
11. Documenting new features and system architecture in a concise way
12. Providing training sessions to system users on new features
13. Isolating and fixing bugs, making sure that existing functionality does not change
14. Responding to incoming questions from programmes
Requirements
Person specification
15. Resilient, with the ability to adapt in a complex, fast-paced, changing environment
16. Self-motivated with the ability to work with minimal supervision
17. Experience of delivering priority work within strict timelines
Required experience
18. Experience with recent Laravel versions and PHP8
19. Frontend CSS/HTML frameworks such as Bootstrap
20. Ability to write native SQL: PostgreSQL, MySQL or SQL Server
21. Using JSON within SQL databases
22. Setting up webservers
23. Managing native JavaScript or jQuery with modules and NPM
24. Vite or Webpack
25. Git
Desirable experience
26. Multi-tenanted codebases
27. Managing large Postgres databases with hundreds of tables and millions of rows
28. Working with PostGIS data
29. Leaflet Maps / Google Maps API
30. Docker
31. Experience working with RESTful APIs
32. Linux, Ubuntu, Apache/NGINX
33. AWS or Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
34. Writing tests, TDD/BDD
35. Working Charities or NGOs
Benefits
Benefits
36. 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
37. Non-contributory Life Assurance (3 x salary)
38. Private medical health cover
39. Emergency medical insurance when travelling overseas
40. Workplace Pension with up to 5% contributions matched by HALO
41. Occupational Health services including physiotherapy support and counselling support
42. Flexible working policy