Lead PHP Developer (only EU)

Our Customer:
Our client is a fast-growing digital advertising technology company operating a network of digital screens across high-traffic retail locations. They develop their own ad tech platform for campaign management, screen operations, monitoring, and advertising delivery.

About the role:

You will join the team responsible for developing and maintaining the company’s internal ad tech platform and business-critical applications. In addition to hands-on development, you will provide technical leadership, drive architectural decisions, mentor engineers, and ensure the successful delivery of high-quality solutions. The role involves enhancing existing PHP solutions, modernizing legacy systems, and building reliable integrations to support a scalable advertising ecosystem.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the design, development, and maintenance of PHP-based business applications.
• Drive the modernization and refactoring of legacy PHP codebases.
• Design and implement scalable REST APIs and system integrations.
• Make architectural decisions and define technical standards and best practices.
• Lead code reviews, ensuring code quality, maintainability, and security.
• Mentor and support developers, fostering professional growth within the team.
• Collaborate with Product Managers, QA, DevOps, and other stakeholders to deliver business value.
• Estimate development efforts, identify technical risks, and propose mitigation strategies.
• Troubleshoot, optimize, and improve application performance and reliability.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of the company’s internal ad tech platform.
• Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, and technical roadmap discussions.
• Promote engineering excellence, process improvements, and knowledge sharing within the team.

Required experience and skills:

• 5+ years of commercial PHP development experience.
• 1–2+ years of experience in a Lead or Senior-level technical leadership role.
• Strong experience working with legacy codebases and leading refactoring initiatives.
• Solid understanding of software architecture and design patterns.
• Strong knowledge of MySQL or other relational databases.
• Experience building and consuming REST APIs.
• Experience designing scalable and maintainable backend systems.
• Experience conducting code reviews and mentoring engineers.
• Familiarity with Git, pull request workflows, and CI/CD practices.
• Experience using Jira or similar project management tools.
• Strong communication, leadership, and decision-making skills.
• Ability to balance technical excellence with business priorities.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work in a collaborative environment.
• English level: Upper-Intermediate+

Would be a plus:

• Experience with high-load or business-critical applications.
• Knowledge of modern PHP frameworks (Laravel, Symfony, or similar).
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, or cloud platforms.
• Experience with message brokers (RabbitMQ, Kafka, etc.).
• Experience in AdTech, Digital Media, or SaaS products.
• Experience leading distributed or remote engineering teams

Working conditions:

• Remote work;
• 5-day working week, 8-hour working day, flexible schedule;
• All public holidays are days off;
• Vacation and sick leave are covered by the company.