Senior Backend Developer (PHP / Laravel)

E Technologies, a forward-thinking technology and media company, is seeking a highly 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 support various company products. The ideal candidate will possess strong technical knowledge, exceptional problem-solving abilities, and the capacity to independently deliver complex backend solutions while upholding high standards of 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 that 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 with efficient relationships, indexes, queries, and transactions. Utilize Laravel Eloquent ORM, Query Builder, migrations, and database transactions to develop backend logic. Implement Laravel queues, jobs, events, listeners, notifications, scheduled tasks, and background processing. Develop caching strategies using Redis and Laravel Cache to improve performance. Ensure secure authentication and authorization through Laravel Sanctum, policies, gates, and role-based access control. Integrate third-party APIs, payment gateways, email services, and external platforms. Manage secure file uploads and storage with AWS S3 or compatible services. Handle validation, exceptions, API responses, logging, and error reporting with best security practices to prevent vulnerabilities like SQL injection, XSS, and CSRF. Optimize application performance, identify slow queries, and resolve backend bottlenecks. Develop and maintain Laravel Filament administration panels when required. Build reliable scheduled processes and asynchronous workflows. Write clean, reusable code following SOLID principles and modern development practices. Create and maintain automated tests for backend functionality and APIs. Investigate and resolve production defects and complex issues. Conduct code reviews and collaborate with frontend developers, QA engineers, and product teams. Participate in technical planning, architecture decisions, and solution design. Support deployments, database migrations, and production maintenance. Mentor junior developers and contribute to process improvements.

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+, object-oriented programming, interfaces, traits, namespaces, and modern PHP standards. Deep understanding of Laravel architecture, including 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 with a solid grasp of HTTP methods, status codes, JSON, validation, authentication, and error handling. Advanced MySQL skills covering database design, query optimization, complex SQL, transactions, and data integrity. Experience implementing authentication, authorization, permissions, and role-based access control using Laravel Sanctum, policies, and gates. Proficiency with Laravel queues, jobs, events, listeners, scheduled tasks, and background processing. Experience using Redis for caching and performance optimization. Strong grasp of SOLID principles, design patterns, clean architecture, and maintainable code. Experience integrating third-party APIs, payment gateways, and external services. Solid understanding of web application security, OWASP principles, secure API development, and data protection. Skilled in exception handling, logging, monitoring, and debugging. Proficient with Git workflows, branching strategies, and collaborative development. Experience writing automated tests using PHPUnit, Pest, or similar frameworks. Familiarity with Composer, dependency management, and Laravel package integration. Basic knowledge of Linux, Apache/Nginx, PHP-FPM, and backend deployment processes. Experience managing Supervisor, cron jobs, queue workers, and background processes. Strong analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills. Ability to work independently, manage priorities, and deliver quality solutions on time. Professional English communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications and Additional Information
Experience with Laravel 11, 12, or newer versions is advantageous. Familiarity with Laravel Filament, including custom resources, forms, tables, and dashboards, is a plus. Experience developing multi-tenant SaaS applications, admin platforms, or complex business systems. Knowledge of microservices, modular architectures, and service-oriented applications. Exposure to Laravel Horizon, Redis queues, WebSockets, and real-time applications. Experience integrating payment systems such as Stripe, PayPal, or GoCardless. Familiarity with cloud storage services like AWS S3 or Cloudflare R2. Experience with Docker, CI/CD pipelines, and GitHub Actions. Managing applications on Ubuntu, AlmaLinux, cPanel/WHM, or cloud VPS environments is beneficial. Knowledge of AWS, Hetzner, DigitalOcean, or similar hosting providers. Understanding of Nginx, Apache, PHP-FPM tuning, caching, and server optimization. Experience with API versioning, rate limiting, Swagger/OpenAPI, and API documentation. Familiarity with webhooks, asynchronous processing, and reliable external integrations. Knowledge of database replication, backup strategies, and high-availability systems. Exposure to frontend/backend integration using Vue.js, Nuxt.js, or JavaScript frameworks. Experience with Firebase, Mailgun, push notifications, or messaging services. Background in developing 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 standards.

Important Application Requirement
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 URLs or repositories if available, technologies used (especially PHP and Laravel), and a clear explanation of individual roles and technical contributions. Descriptions should highlight backend architecture, APIs, database design, or complex functionality implemented. Confidential projects may be described without sharing proprietary code, but technical contributions must be clearly explained. Applications should demonstrate complete, functional, production-level backend systems rather than tutorials or basic CRUD projects. Applications lacking two qualifying examples will not be considered.