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

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the PHP backend that ingests GPS and telematics data, safety hardware events and DVR video, and sends real-time alerts.
• Build and maintain APIs used by the web platform, mobile application and integration partners.
• Deliver the ongoing Yii2-to-Laravel migration, with Yii2 at end of life and approximately a year remaining to complete the migration.
• Deliver the ongoing MariaDB-to-PostgreSQL migration.
• Support the decomposition of the existing monolith into microservices.
• Take over systems from a retiring contractor and become productive quickly despite limited documentation.
• Support the backend for the AI product line, working alongside the developer currently leading computer vision work; the exact scope is still to be confirmed.
• Take end-to-end ownership of production systems rather than requiring prior people-management or project-lead experience.
• Work independently within a small senior team while collaborating closely on AI-related work.
• Apply architectural judgement to microservices and database migrations, with particular attention to data integrity during migration.
• Work flexibly within established practices, including Bitbucket Pipelines and PHPUnit, in a small team with light process.
• Contribute as a problem-solver, applying senior technical judgement to production engineering decisions.
• Work thoroughly on production systems used by local authorities while ramping up quickly for the required start date.

Requirements

• 8+ years of commercial PHP backend development at Expert level.
• 5+ years of experience with large-scale SaaS or complex production systems at Expert level; simple or low-traffic systems will not meet the required standard.
• 3+ years of PostgreSQL experience at Advanced level.
• 5+ years of API design and third-party integration experience at Advanced level.
• 3+ years of high-volume data processing experience at Advanced level, including event-driven systems and ingestion pipelines; IoT or device data ingestion, streaming or queue-based systems are acceptable substitutes.
• 3+ years of Laravel and/or Yii2 experience at Advanced level.
• 3+ years of PHPUnit experience at Advanced level; other PHP testing frameworks such as Pest or Codeception may substitute.
• 2+ years of microservices or monolith-decomposition experience at Intermediate level; service-oriented or modular architecture work may substitute.
• 2+ years of AWS experience at Intermediate level; Azure or GCP may substitute.
• Experience in the telematics, fleet or logistics domain at Intermediate level; IoT, GPS/location technology or connected-device experience may substitute.
• Experience with video, CCTV or large media file handling at Intermediate level; large-file storage, retrieval and retention at scale may substitute.
• Ability to take end-to-end ownership of mature production systems, work independently with limited hand-holding and apply strong technical judgement.
• Strong complex-system exposure is essential. Experience with complex systems matters more than years alone, and backgrounds limited to simple or basic applications are not suitable.

Nice to Have

• Experience with MariaDB/MySQL at scale, particularly relevant to an environment currently migrating from MariaDB to PostgreSQL.
• Front-end experience, although this is not required for this 100% backend role.
• Familiarity with CI/CD using Bitbucket Pipelines; GitHub Actions, GitLab CI or Jenkins are suitable alternatives.
• Familiarity with AI or computer vision, including YOLO-type object detection; ML or image-processing pipeline exposure may substitute.
• Experience combining event-driven or IoT-style data ingestion with large media files at scale, ideally alongside an ML pipeline.
• AI experience is a tiebreaker only and candidates should not be excluded for lacking it.