** No recruiters please **
Location: Coventry, UK (Hybrid candidates considered with weekly mandatory office days).
Salary: £60,000-£70,000 PA
Reports to: Lead Developer
About the role
We are an established e-commerce business with a growing estate of backend PHP services. We take code quality seriously: strict static analysis and test suites run on every change, and we are steadily modernising older code into well-tested Symfony services.
We are looking for a fluent PHP developer. Framework expertise is welcome, but your experience must go beyond a single framework: if your PHP has only ever been WordPress or Laravel shaped, this role is not the right fit. You should be at home in the language itself, at Zend Certified Engineer level whether or not you hold the certificate. You will use AI-assisted development tooling daily and are expected to use it well: staying in comprehension and control of what it produces, pushing back and guiding it towards the right outcome rather than accepting output on trust.
What you will do
- Design and build backend services in modern PHP using Symfony and Symfony components.
- Work directly with MySQL: schema design, hand-written SQL and query tuning, alongside Doctrine ORM where it fits.
- Build REST APIs whose OpenAPI specifications are generated from the code, and keep them accurate.
- Work test-first. Every fix ships with a test that proves it, and recurring classes of bug get a static-analysis rule that prevents their return.
- Keep static analysis at the strictest level with no suppressions.
- Modernise legacy PHP code without breaking production.
- Integrate third-party systems such as payment, accounting, CRM and supplier platforms.
- Review pull requests and raise the bar on design, naming and testing.
Our stack
- Modern PHP with strict types, Symfony and Symfony components, Doctrine ORM and direct SQL on MySQL.
- PHPStan at level max, PHP CS Fixer, Rector, PHPUnit.
- Git and GitHub. Linux on the server and the desktop, with Docker or Podman containers and LXC.
- AI-assisted code review, triage and development tooling.
What we are looking for
- Essential:
- 8+ years of commercial PHP, the majority on PHP 8. Fluent in the language: types, generics via static analysis, closures, iterators, attributes, enums, readonly, the standard library. ZCE certified or demonstrably at that level.
- TDD as a habit, not an aspiration. You write the failing test first and can explain why.
- Strong object-oriented design and SOLID principles, applied with judgement rather than as slogans.
- Maximum type safety: strict types everywhere, no mixed, no suppressions, and PHPStan at level max. Able to write a custom PHPStan rule when the codebase needs one.
- Strong MySQL: schema design, writing and tuning raw SQL, reading execution plans, indexing. Not just ORM-mediated access.
- Solid Symfony and Doctrine experience, with judgement on when to bypass the ORM.
- Linux on both server and desktop as your daily environment. You are fluent in the shell.
- Able to work with legacy PHP code when the occasion demands: reading it, fixing it safely and bringing it under test.
- Git with branch and pull-request discipline.
- Fail-fast and YAGNI applied with judgement.
- Able to use AI-assisted development tooling while maintaining full comprehension and control of the code, and able to push back on and guide the tooling for optimal outcomes.
- Clear written communication.
- Honest about what you do not know. We test for this.
- Some familiarity required:
- Bash scripting.
- JavaScript, TypeScript and React.
- CSS.
- Ansible.
- Docker or Podman, and LXC.
- Prompt engineering and agentic development with AI coding tools.
- Desirable:
- Migrating legacy PHP applications to modern Symfony.
- Message-driven architecture or DDD.
- Mutation testing, Rector, architecture rules.
- Payment gateway, accounting, CRM or supplier-feed integrations, including SOAP.
- Structured logging and observability.
Pay: £60,000.00-£70,000.00 per year
Benefits:
Ability to commute/relocate:
- Coventry CV6 5SF: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Application question(s):
- In a couple of sentences, tell us why you are applying for this role?
- How many years of PHP Experience do you have?
Education:
Language:
- Fluent English (required)
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Coventry CV6 5SF
