PHP Engineer

As a PHP Engineer, you will work remotely on an hourly paid basis, focusing on reviewing AI-generated PHP code, backend designs, and technical explanations. Your role involves producing high-quality reference implementations and providing detailed step-by-step reasoning for complex engineering challenges. You will evaluate solutions for correctness, clarity, security, performance, and adherence to given prompts. Additionally, you will identify issues related to application architecture, data modeling, API design, security, caching, and database usage. Fact-checking technical information, writing clear explanations, and modeling best practice solutions are key aspects of this position. You will also assess and compare multiple AI-generated responses based on their accuracy and quality of reasoning.

This position is a fully remote, hourly paid contractor role with SME Careers, a rapidly growing AI data services company and subsidiary of SuperAnnotate. SME Careers supports many of the world’s leading AI companies and foundation model labs by providing high-quality AI training data. Your expertise in PHP and backend development will contribute directly to enhancing premier AI models used by millions of developers worldwide.

Key Responsibilities

- Develop AI Training Content: Create detailed prompts covering PHP and backend topics, and write comprehensive reference answers to guide AI learning effectively.
- Optimize AI Performance: Evaluate, rank, and provide constructive feedback on AI-generated responses to improve their correctness, security, readability, and contextual relevance.
- Ensure Model Integrity: Test AI outputs for inaccuracies, unsafe coding practices, and potential biases. Validate the reliability of AI-generated solutions across real-world scenarios.

Required Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a closely related technical field, or equivalent professional experience.
- Minimum of 4 years of professional experience developing production backend systems using PHP.
- Expert-level proficiency in modern PHP versions (7.4/8.x+), including object-oriented programming, strict typing, namespaces, Composer, and common design patterns.
- Strong understanding of backend fundamentals such as HTTP, RESTful API design, authentication and authorization mechanisms, sessions, caching, and message queues.
- Extensive experience with relational databases like MySQL or PostgreSQL, including schema design, indexing, query optimization, and transaction management.
- Hands-on experience with at least one major PHP framework (e.g., Laravel, Symfony), along with knowledge of dependency injection, middleware, and ORM tradeoffs.
- Security-focused mindset with practical knowledge of secure coding practices, including OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities, input validation, SQL injection prevention, cross-site scripting (XSS), cross-site request forgery (CSRF), and secrets management.
- Familiarity with version control systems, CI/CD workflows, and automated testing frameworks such as PHPUnit, including integration testing and mocking strategies.
- Proficient in English at a minimum C1 level (both written and spoken), capable of producing clear technical documentation and following detailed English-language guidelines.
- Highly detail-oriented and systematic, with a methodical approach to evaluating reasoning quality and detecting subtle bugs in complex PHP and backend systems.

Preferred Qualifications and Benefits

- Prior experience working with AI data training, annotation, or evaluating AI-generated technical content is highly desirable.
- Although there is no immediate project available, qualified candidates will be among the first contacted for upcoming opportunities. This role offers access to future projects through SME Careers’ expert network, providing ongoing engagement with cutting-edge AI development initiatives.

This opportunity is ideal for PHP engineers who want to leverage their backend expertise to influence the development of advanced AI systems while working flexibly from any location.