enior Backend Developer (PHP / Laravel)

E Technologies, a forward-thinking technology and media company, is seeking a skilled Senior Backend Developer with expertise in PHP and Laravel to join our innovative team. This role focuses on designing, developing, maintaining, and optimizing secure, scalable, and high-performance backend applications, APIs, and services that power our diverse product offerings. The ideal candidate will possess strong technical skills, exceptional problem-solving abilities, and the capacity to independently deliver complex backend solutions while adhering to best practices in code quality, security, and maintainability.

Key Responsibilities
Design, develop, maintain, and optimize backend applications and APIs using PHP 8+ and Laravel. Take full ownership of backend development, including technical planning, architecture, implementation, testing, and deployment. Create secure, scalable, and maintainable backend architectures. Develop RESTful APIs to support web, mobile, and third-party integrations. Build complex features such as authentication, authorization, user management, business workflows, and administrative systems. Design and optimize MySQL databases, focusing on relationships, indexing, complex queries, and transactions. Utilize Laravel Eloquent ORM, Query Builder, migrations, and database transactions for efficient backend logic. Implement Laravel queues, jobs, events, listeners, notifications, scheduled tasks, and background processing. Develop caching solutions using Redis and Laravel Cache. Ensure secure authentication and authorization with Laravel Sanctum, policies, gates, and role-based access control. Integrate third-party APIs, payment gateways, authentication providers, email services, and external platforms. Manage secure file uploads and storage, including AWS S3 or compatible services. Handle validation, exceptions, API responses, logging, and error reporting effectively. Apply security best practices to prevent SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, and other vulnerabilities. Optimize application performance, database queries, memory usage, and API response times. Identify and resolve slow queries, N+1 problems, and backend bottlenecks. Develop and maintain Laravel Filament administration panels when required. Build reliable scheduled processes, asynchronous workflows, and system integrations. Write clean, maintainable code following SOLID principles and modern development standards. Create and maintain automated tests for backend functionality and APIs. Investigate and resolve production defects and complex backend issues. Conduct code reviews and contribute to improving coding standards and architecture. Collaborate closely with frontend developers, mobile developers, QA engineers, and product teams. Participate in technical planning, architecture decisions, task estimation, and solution design. Support deployments, database migrations, releases, and ongoing production maintenance. Mentor junior developers and enhance backend development processes.

Required Qualifications
Minimum of 5 years of professional backend development experience with strong hands-on expertise in PHP and Laravel. Proven experience developing and maintaining production-level Laravel applications. Advanced knowledge of PHP 8+, including OOP, interfaces, traits, namespaces, and modern PHP practices. Deep understanding of Laravel architecture, service containers, dependency injection, service providers, middleware, and application lifecycle. Extensive experience with Laravel Eloquent ORM, Query Builder, migrations, relationships, and transactions. Strong skills in designing and developing RESTful APIs for web and mobile platforms. Solid grasp of API architecture, HTTP methods, status codes, JSON, validation, authentication, and error handling. Advanced MySQL skills covering database design, query optimization, indexing, complex queries, transactions, and execution analysis. Expertise in implementing authentication, authorization, permissions, and role-based access control using Laravel Sanctum, policies, and gates. Experience with Laravel queues, jobs, events, listeners, scheduled tasks, and background processing. Proficiency with Redis for caching, queues, and performance optimization. Strong command of SOLID principles, design patterns, clean architecture, and maintainable code structures. Experience integrating third-party APIs, payment gateways, and external services. Comprehensive understanding of web application security, OWASP principles, secure API development, and data protection. Skilled in exception handling, logging, monitoring, and debugging. Proficient with Git, branching strategies, pull requests, and collaborative workflows. Experience writing automated tests using PHPUnit, Pest, or similar frameworks. Familiarity with Composer, dependency management, and Laravel package integration. Good knowledge of Linux, Apache/Nginx, PHP-FPM, and backend deployment processes. Experience managing background processes with Supervisor, cron jobs, and queue workers. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to troubleshoot production issues. Ability to translate complex business requirements into reliable backend solutions. Professional English communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications and Benefits
Experience with Laravel 11, 12, or newer versions. Familiarity with Laravel Filament, including custom resources, forms, tables, actions, and dashboards. Background in developing multi-tenant SaaS applications, admin platforms, or complex business systems. Knowledge of microservices, modular architectures, and service-oriented applications. Experience with Laravel Horizon, Redis queues, and advanced background processing. Exposure to WebSockets, Laravel Reverb, and real-time applications. Integration experience with Stripe, PayPal, GoCardless, subscription billing, or marketplace payment systems. Familiarity with AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, or other cloud storage services. Experience with Docker, CI/CD pipelines, and GitHub Actions. Managing applications on Ubuntu, AlmaLinux, cPanel/WHM, or cloud VPS environments. Hosting experience with AWS, Hetzner, DigitalOcean, or similar providers. Knowledge of Nginx, Apache, PHP-FPM tuning, caching, and server optimization. Experience with API versioning, rate limiting, Swagger/OpenAPI, and API documentation. Working knowledge of webhooks, asynchronous processing, and reliable external integrations. Understanding of database replication, backup strategies, and high-availability systems. Familiarity with Vue.js, Nuxt.js, JavaScript, and frontend/backend integration. Experience with Firebase, Mailgun, push notifications, or messaging services. Background in systems handling high traffic, large datasets, or intensive background processing. Experience in media, streaming, publishing, charity, e-commerce, subscription, or membership platforms. Proven ability to mentor developers, review code, and improve backend development standards.

Important Application Requirement – Previous Work
Candidates must include at least two complete backend applications, API platforms, or Laravel-based systems they have personally developed or significantly contributed to in their CV or portfolio. For each project, provide the application name, a brief description, live URL or repository link if available, technologies used (especially PHP and Laravel), and a clear explanation of individual roles and technical contributions. Confidential projects can be described without sharing proprietary code but must clearly outline the candidate’s involvement. Examples should demonstrate complete, functional, production-level backend systems, not tutorials or basic CRUD apps. Applications lacking two qualifying backend project examples will not be considered.