Senior PHP Developer

Senior PHP Developer Hybrid Working | Hertfordshire (2 days per week in office) | Permanent We're working with an established software company looking to add a Senior PHP Developer to their engineering team. You'll join a collaborative team of experienced developers, taking ownership of backend feature development, technical improvements and complex problem solving across a large-scale web platform. The role would suit someone who enjoys working with vanilla PHP, thrives in a hands-on environment and can quickly get to grips with an established codebase whilst contributing new ideas and technical improvements. The Role You'll be responsible for designing, developing and maintaining business critical web applications, delivering new features from concept through to deployment. Working closely with developers, testers and support teams, you'll help shape technical solutions, reduce technical debt and ensure the platform continues to scale effectively. This is a predominantly backend role, around 70/80% on the backend and 20/30% frontend. Key responsibilities include: Developing new platform features and enhancementsWriting clean, scalable and maintainable PHP codeOwning technical solutions from design through to productionRefactoring and improving existing functionalityDesigning and consuming APIsPerformance tuning and database optimisationContributing to code reviews and engineering best practicesSupporting complex third line technical issues when requiredCollaborating with testers, developers and business stakeholdersIdentifying opportunities to improve tooling, processes and platform performance About the Environment This organisation has embraced an AI-first engineering culture, actively encouraging developers to use AI assisted tools to improve productivity, troubleshooting, documentation and delivery. You'll have access to modern AI tooling and will be encouraged to contribute ideas around how AI can be used effectively across engineering teams, whilst maintaining high standards of code quality, security and ownership. The development team operates with a high degree of autonomy, so this role is best suited to someone who is comfortable managing their own workload and working independently. What We're Looking For Strong commercial PHP development experience - full-stack with a backend focusExperience working with vanilla PHP (7 & 8) rather than solely framework-based developmentStrong backend development backgroundSolid experience with MySQL or MariaDBExperience designing and consuming APIsStrong understanding of web application performance, scalability and securityExperience working with JavaScript, HTML and CSSExperience working with version control systemsAbility to work independently and quickly become productive within an established environmentStrong communication and problem solving skillsExperience using AI assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude or similar Nice to Have Experience with Redis, Memcached or similar caching technologiesExposure to infrastructure, server management or DevOps practicesExperience working with large, complex codebases