
Backend Engineer (PHP/Laravel)
Job Description
You’ll own backend behind revenue-critical systems spanning multiple product lines: lead and property marketplaces, alerts, payments, and more: an API-only Laravel 12 / PHP 8.2 back end on PostgreSQL, serving a web app, in-house services, and external partners. The platform is mid-way through a shift from classic Laravel structure to Domain-Driven Design - old and new patterns coexist, so you’re not just maintaining legacy, you’re actively shaping the architecture. You own each change end to end, from requirements to production.
What you’ll do:
Design, build and maintain REST API endpoints for several consumers, keeping contracts backward compatible.
Implement and evolve core business logic: matching, pricing and workflow rules that change as the product does.
Integrate third-party services: payments, messaging, partner APIs, inbound and outbound webhooks.
Build reliable background processing on Redis queues: idempotent jobs, retries, monitoring.
Keep data-heavy features fast: reports, exports and searches over large PostgreSQL tables.
Migrate legacy code into the domain-first structure as you touch it, behavior intact and tested.
Requirements:
3+ years of professional PHP and 3+ years of production Laravel.
You read and write code proficiently, including unfamiliar legacy code: trace behavior first, keep it working while improving it.
PHP/Laravel best practices by default: strict types, SOLID, static analysis and formatters.
Familiarity with Domain-Driven Design and refactoring: domain boundaries, incremental migration, small safe steps.
Solid database skills (PostgreSQL), including query optimization, indexing and schema migrations on live data.
Experience building REST APIs consumed by third parties: authentication, validation, backward-compatible changes, clear error contracts.
Testing discipline: HTTP feature tests, factories, faked external calls, written before or alongside the code.
Comfort with Docker-based local environments and Redis-backed queued jobs.
Active use of AI coding tools across the development lifecycle, always improving how you use them.
English: intermediate level or higher.
Nice to have:
Geospatial queries (PostGIS or similar).
Payment provider integrations.
Upgrading a Laravel application across major versions.
AI in your daily work
We run an agent-based AI development workflow: planning, implementation and quality gates are all assisted by specialized coding agents with project rules. You will:
Use an AI coding tool (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot or similar) daily for code, tests and refactors.
Work inside that workflow: brief the agents, review every generated line, act on quality-gate findings.
Keep improving how you work with AI: project rules, prompts, tests first.
Help extend the workflow itself: agents, rules, quality gates.
Code written by AI is still your code: you are responsible for it and must understand and verify every detail before it ships.
We offer:
Full remote work.
Flexible schedule, for some roles with some overlap with US hours.
Direct communication with Leadership.
24 paid vacation days per year.