Job Description

About the role

We are seeking a highly motivated and passionate mid/senior Backend Engineer to spearhead the enhancement of our technology framework and drive change. The ideal candidate should have a minimum of 5 years of commercial PHP development experience.

This role is crucial for driving our technology strategy forward, focusing on bolstering a robust cloud-based property and content management platform with 11 integrations already in place, and more integrations planned for the future. In addition, this position involves developing a Booking & Request Management Platform that incorporates real-time data & analytics and predictive data intelligence features. This role offers the opportunity to come into a growing business and have immediate impact.

In this role you should be an excellent communicator who is able to translate complex requirements into functional architecture. You will have hands-on experience on software development and be able to manage and understand our current applications and architecture, challenging the status quo and having a strong vision for the future of our technology stack.

We’re looking for a team member who will be committed to the cause, flexible, reliable and responsible. Keeping the team informed, being an active listener and always at hand to support and respect others.

Key Responsibilities

• Technology Evaluation and Enhancement: Conduct thorough assessments of our current PHP (Symfony) & NodeJS based backend applications and infrastructure to pinpoint improvement opportunities. Challenge and evolve our platform technologies to enhance system performance and scalability. Set the standards high for the level of quality we deliver, the quality we build and our performance metrics. The role will primarily backend but frontend experience with React is also desirable - but not essential

• Code Development and Integration: Maintain and enhance existing codebases while also developing new features for our next-generation platforms. Ensure high compatibility and seamless integration across systems. Peer reviewing other backend engineers code to help build the highest quality solution.

• Lead, contribute and develop coding and technological standards.

• Testing and Quality Assurance: Design and implement comprehensive testing frameworks, including unit, contract, and end-to-end tests, to ensure functionality, reliability, and quality of backend applications.

• Collaboration and Leadership: Work closely with product teams, front-end developers, DevOps, and QA engineers to align technologies with business objectives, improve user experiences, and bolster development capabilities.

• DevSecOps Practices: Follow Agile Methodologies and Enhance CI/CD pipelines and embed security practices throughout the development lifecycle to optimise deployments and bolster system security.

• Performance Optimisation: Focus on optimising application performance through strategic database and application architecture enhancements, prioritising user experience, scalability, and speed.

Requirements

Required Skills

• Backend Development: 4+ years of experience in backend development, ideally with expertise in both PHP (Symfony) and JavaScript (Node.js/TypeScript). PHP Being Primary

• API Design: Demonstrable experience in designing and managing scalable and secure APIs.

• Strong communication to technical and non-technical team members.

• Automated Testing: Extensive experience with automated testing practices.

• Database Management: Strong understanding of MySQL and NoSQL databases.

• CI/CD: Proven ability in utilising automated pipelines for fast build, deployment, security checks, and quality assurance.

• Strong communication skills (English, B2+)

Desirable Skills

• DevOps and Security: Experience with AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, and secure coding practices. Familiarity with modern security protocols and measures.

• Creating APIs from Scratch: Experiencing taking requirements or already developed applications and migrating or building new services from idea to production.

• Demonstrated ability to integrate AI-assisted tools into the development workflow to accelerate delivery, enhance code quality, and reduce manual effort.