Senior PHP Engineer (Remote, Full-Time) [AR025] (PK)

Smart Working is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to take ownership of large-scale production backend systems that manage high volumes of data, connected devices, video, and location information. This full-time, long-term position offers a target start date of November 2026. You will join a small, experienced team of around 10 in-house developers, where independent thinking and technical decision-making are highly valued. The role focuses exclusively on backend development, supporting systems related to DVR cameras, event reconstruction, tracking, vehicle telematics, fuel, and EV data. Given that most clients are in the public sector, security, GDPR compliance, and video footage retention are critical priorities. You will work with existing systems that have limited documentation, contribute to platform modernization, and collaborate closely with the developer leading computer vision initiatives.

Key Responsibilities
- Own and enhance the PHP backend responsible for ingesting GPS and telematics data, safety hardware events, and DVR video, while delivering real-time alerts.
- Build and maintain APIs utilized by the web platform, mobile applications, and integration partners.
- Lead the ongoing migration from Yii2 to Laravel, completing this transition within approximately one year as Yii2 reaches end-of-life.
- Manage the migration from MariaDB to PostgreSQL databases.
- Support the decomposition of the existing monolithic architecture into microservices.
- Take over systems from a retiring contractor and quickly become productive despite limited documentation.
- Support backend development for the AI product line, working alongside the computer vision lead; the exact scope is to be defined.
- Take full end-to-end ownership of production systems without requiring prior people-management or project leadership experience.
- Work independently within a small senior team, collaborating closely on AI-related projects.
- Apply architectural judgment to microservices and database migrations, with a strong focus on data integrity during transitions.
- Operate flexibly within established practices, including Bitbucket Pipelines and PHPUnit, in a light-process environment.
- Contribute as a problem-solver by applying senior technical judgment to production engineering decisions.
- Work thoroughly on production systems used by local authorities while ramping up quickly for the required start date.

Required Qualifications
- Minimum of 8 years of commercial PHP backend development experience at an expert level.
- At least 5 years working with large-scale SaaS or complex production systems; experience with simple or low-traffic systems is insufficient.
- 3+ years of advanced PostgreSQL experience.
- 5+ years of advanced API design and third-party integration experience.
- 3+ years of advanced experience in high-volume data processing, including event-driven systems and ingestion pipelines; IoT or device data ingestion, streaming, or queue-based systems are acceptable substitutes.
- 3+ years of advanced experience with Laravel and/or Yii2 frameworks.
- 3+ years of advanced PHPUnit experience; other PHP testing frameworks such as Pest or Codeception are acceptable alternatives.
- 2+ years of intermediate experience with microservices or monolith decomposition; service-oriented or modular architecture experience may substitute.
- 2+ years of intermediate AWS experience; Azure or GCP experience may substitute.
- Intermediate experience in telematics, fleet, or logistics domains; IoT, GPS/location technology, or connected-device experience may also qualify.
- Intermediate experience handling video, CCTV, or large media files, including storage, retrieval, and retention at scale.
- Proven ability to take end-to-end ownership of mature production systems, work independently with limited supervision, and apply strong technical judgment.
- Extensive exposure to complex systems is essential; candidates with experience limited to simple or basic applications will not be considered.

Preferred Qualifications and Benefits
- Experience with MariaDB/MySQL at scale, especially relevant given the current migration from MariaDB to PostgreSQL.
- Front-end development experience, although this is not required for this fully backend-focused role.
- Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines such as Bitbucket Pipelines; alternatives like GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins are also acceptable.
- Exposure to AI or computer vision technologies, including YOLO-type object detection; experience with ML or image-processing pipelines is a plus.
- Experience combining event-driven or IoT-style data ingestion with large media files at scale, ideally alongside machine learning pipelines.
- AI experience is considered a tiebreaker and is not mandatory.

Join Smart Working to be part of a highly rated remote-first workplace that values your growth and well-being while working on impactful, secure, and complex backend systems.