Lead PHP Developer (EU) (вакансія неактивна)

The company is a leading Digital-out-of-Home provider in Germany. It operates a growing network of digital screens at high-frequency retail locations and develops its own technology platform for campaign management, screen operations, monitoring and advertising delivery.

The internal platform supports business-critical processes across campaign management, inventory handling, screen operations, monitoring, advertising delivery and operational workflows. The technology landscape includes long-lived PHP-based applications with significant business logic and operational relevance.

Key responsibilities

Technical responsibilities

• Develop new features for existing PHP-based business applications
• Maintain and improve legacy PHP codebases
• Refactor existing components without disrupting production workflows
• Support stabilization and modernization of business-critical applications
• Build and improve APIs and system integrations
• Work with MySQL / relational databases
• Support performance, stability, maintainability and code quality improvements
• Understand and document complex business logic in existing systems
• Work directly in Jira, Git and established development processes
• Collaborate closely with internal developers and technical leadership in Germany
• Document relevant technical changes, architectural decisions and implementation details

Team lead responsibilities

• Act as the first technical lead for the nearshore development setup
• Support the selection, interviewing and onboarding of further nearshore developers
• Help evaluate technical skills, seniority, communication style and team fit of future candidates
• Serve as the main technical contact for nearshore developers
• Structure and coordinate development work within the nearshore team
• Translate technical requirements and business priorities into clear development tasks
• Support sprint planning, task refinement, estimation and delivery tracking
• Establish practical development standards, coding guidelines and review practices
• Conduct or support code reviews and ensure consistent quality standards
• Identify risks, blockers, dependencies and technical debt early and communicate them clearly
• Help build a reliable, pragmatic and productive nearshore development culture

Required experience

• Strong senior-level PHP development experience
• Experience with legacy PHP applications and long-lived codebases
• Strong MySQL / relational database experience
• Experience with API development and system integrations
• Experience working on business-critical internal applications
• Ability to work in existing codebases, not only greenfield projects
• Experience with refactoring, stabilization and incremental modernization
• Previous experience as a Team Lead, Tech Lead, Lead Developer or senior developer guiding other engineers
• Experience in mentoring developers and supporting technical decision-making
• Ability to structure development work and create clarity in complex environments
• Experience with Jira, Git and common development workflows
• Good English communication skills
• Ability to work independently in a remote setup
• Willingness and ability to travel to Cologne, Germany for an initial onboarding phase

Nice to have

• Experience with ad tech, media tech, digital signage, campaign management or inventory systems
• Experience with reporting, monitoring or operational business tools
• Experience with test automation
• Experience with refactoring monolithic systems
• Experience with cloud or hybrid infrastructure
• Experience setting up or scaling distributed / nearshore development teams
• Experience working with German or DACH-based companies
• Experience in defining coding standards, review processes and delivery routines
• Experience with platform modernization while maintaining existing production systems

Important profile characteristics

• Senior enough to understand complex existing systems and grown business logic
• Strong hands-on PHP developer, not only a people manager
• Comfortable with imperfect documentation and historically grown systems
• Able to quickly understand business processes, not only technical requirements
• Pragmatic, reliable and quality-oriented
• Structured in communication, documentation and task breakdown
• Able to lead by example and create trust with internal and external developers
• Strong at identifying technical risks, dependencies and trade-offs
• Able to communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Comfortable acting as a bridge between the internal team in Germany and nearshore developers
• Patient and persistent when working through legacy code, operational constraints and unclear requirements
  
  

Working conditions:

• Remote work;
• 5-day working week, 8-hour working day;
• All public holidays are days off;
• Vacation and sick leave are covered by the company;
• English language lessons with regular practice sessions led by a native speaker;
• Cooperation under an FOP / B2B contract.

Working model: Remote nearshore, with initial intensive onboarding in Cologne, Germany
Onboarding: Several weeks on-site in Cologne to understand the company’s systems, processes, team and business context