Company overview
Photonic Universe is a growing UK supplier of solar, battery, electrical and off-grid power products. We sell a wide catalogue of technical products to both retail and trade customers, with an increasingly strong B2B customer base.
We are undertaking an important redevelopment of our main e-commerce website, photonicuniverse.com. Our existing website is based on Zend Framework, PHP and MySQL. It has a substantial product catalogue, customer accounts, ordering functionality and card payments, but requires a complete modernisation in both design and functionality.
We are looking for an experienced, commercially minded developer to lead the practical delivery of a new WordPress and WooCommerce website. This is a hands-on role for someone who combines strong PHP and WooCommerce development skills with excellent UX/UI judgement and a genuine understanding of how an e-commerce business works.
The initial role is a three-month fixed-term, full-time project based at our Bromley office. There may be an opportunity to extend the position into an ongoing or permanent role for the right person.
The project
You will help us design, build and launch a modern, fast and mobile-first WooCommerce website which will serve both retail and B2B customers, with a particularly strong B2B focus.
The work will include:
- Reviewing the existing Zend Framework / PHP / MySQL website, product database and customer journeys.
- Migrating products with their data, images, descriptions, categories and other relevant information into WordPress and WooCommerce.
- Creating and implementing the new website structure, customer journeys and product-data requirements.
- Creating or adapting a high-quality modern design, using a suitable premium theme or a bespoke solution where appropriate.
- Building a responsive website that works properly across desktop, tablet and smartphone devices.
- Developing a robust B2B customer portal, including account-specific functionality, trade pricing and other agreed B2B features.
- Implementing advanced product search and filtering based on meaningful technical parameters.
- Developing bespoke WooCommerce functionality where standard plugins are unsuitable, including potentially complex delivery and postage calculations.
- Integrating payment systems, including reviewing the most suitable route for continuing card payments currently processed through the existing acquirer.
- Improving product specifications and helping establish a clear, scalable product-data structure.
- Ensuring strong performance, security, backups, testing, GDPR-aware practices and a reliable launch process.
- Working closely with our management, sales and product teams to translate commercial requirements into practical website functionality.
- Documenting the build so that the website can be maintained and developed further after launch.
About you
You will be an experienced developer who can take ownership of a substantial e-commerce project.
You must have:
- Strong PHP and MySQL experience.
- Extensive hands-on WordPress and WooCommerce development experience.
- Experience developing custom WooCommerce functionality, plugins, themes, hooks, APIs and integrations.
- Strong HTML, CSS and JavaScript skills.
- Proven experience migrating e-commerce product data from legacy databases or platforms.
- Experience building responsive, mobile-first websites.
- A strong understanding of e-commerce UX, conversion, checkout journeys and product discovery.
- Experience with advanced product filtering, faceted search and structured product attributes.
- Experience integrating payment gateways, shipping logic, third-party APIs or business systems.
- A portfolio demonstrating websites that you have personally developed, particularly WooCommerce or other technically complex e-commerce projects.
- Good visual judgement and the ability to create, select or adapt a modern, commercially effective website design.
- Strong problem-solving ability, attention to detail and the confidence to challenge unclear requirements constructively.
- The ability to communicate clearly with non-technical colleagues and understand the commercial impact of development decisions.
It would be an advantage to have:
- Experience building B2B portals, trade pricing, customer-specific pricing, quotation workflows, credit accounts or customer approval processes.
- Experience with Elavon or other card-payment gateway integrations.
- Experience with ERP, WMS, stock-control, CRM, marketplace or partner-website integrations.
- Knowledge of technical SEO, Core Web Vitals, accessibility and website performance optimisation.
- Experience with Git, staging environments, deployment processes and automated testing.
- Experience applying AI tools or AI-enabled functionality to e-commerce, customer support, product data or internal processes.
- Experience working in a small or medium-sized commercial business where development decisions need to be practical and cost-conscious.
- An interest in solar, batteries, electrical products or technical product catalogues.
What we offer
- An opportunity to lead a highly visible, commercially important e-commerce redevelopment project.
- Direct involvement in business decisions rather than working through layers of account management.
- A varied role combining development, UX/UI, e-commerce strategy and systems thinking.
- The possibility of an extended contract or permanent role after the initial project, including work on a warehouse management system, integrations with partner websites, automation and AI-related projects.
- Office-based collaboration with a practical and commercially focused team in Bromley.
Application process
Please apply with:
- Your CV.
- A short covering note explaining why you are suitable for this role.
- Links to at least three e-commerce websites or comparable projects that you personally developed or substantially contributed to.
- A brief explanation of your role on each project, including the technical work you completed.
- Your availability and preferred employment or contract arrangement.
- Your salary expectations or day rate.
Applications without a relevant portfolio may not be considered.
Pay: £60,000.00-£75,000.00 per year
Application question(s):
- Do you have at least five years of professional PHP development experience?
- Do you have substantial commercial WooCommerce development experience beyond configuring themes and standard plugins?
- Have you migrated products, images and structured product data from a legacy database or e-commerce system into WooCommerce?
- Please provide links to three e-commerce websites you personally built or substantially developed, and describe your contribution to each.
- Have you developed custom WooCommerce functionality involving pricing, shipping, checkout, product configuration, APIs or business-system integration? Please give examples.
- Have you built a B2B customer portal, trade-pricing system, quotation function, customer approval workflow or account-specific pricing system?
- Are you able to work primarily from our Bromley office for the initial three-month project?
- What are your salary expectations or contractor day rate?
- What is your earliest available start date?
Work Location: In person
