Senior Outsourced PHP Developer

Why this role exists We’re building and evolving a custom PHP web application that powers real-world operations. No hand-holding frameworks here — just clean, object‑oriented PHP, RESTful services, and a stack that rewards engineers who love understanding how things actually work. If you enjoy getting close to the metal with Core/Vanilla PHP, care about performance, and can comfortably move between data layers, UI, and cloud infrastructure, you’ll feel right at home. What you’ll do (the work) - Ship features end‑to‑end in a framework‑free, OOP PHP codebase (namespaces, interfaces, traits, SOLID principles). - Design and implement RESTful endpoints (JSON), including request validation, pagination, error handling, and versioning. - Write robust SQL (DDL/DML), optimise queries and indexes, and integrate via PDO with prepared statements. - Work with MongoDB for document‑oriented use cases; design efficient schemas and aggregation pipelines where relevant. - Build and enhance front‑end interactions with jQuery, HTML/CSS, and Tailwind CSS for fast, clean UI work. - Integrate external APIs (REST/Webhooks), handle oauth/token flows, retries, idempotency, and rate‑limit strategy. - Operate in AWS: deploy apps on Elastic Beanstalk, manage assets in S3, use DynamoDB where appropriate, and keep environments healthy (logs, scaling, env vars). - Handle SSL/TLS certificate management and DNS via Cloudflare; ensure zero‑downtime renewals and sane caching rules. - Work with WordPress CMS where needed (content ingestion/integration, headless endpoints, custom fields/templates). - Pair closely with another Senior Developer who knows the platform inside‑out; take part in code reviews and architecture discussions. - Own quality: write pragmatic tests, instrument metrics, document decisions, and leave the codebase tidier than you found it. The environment (important context) - No modern PHP frameworks. We use Core/Vanilla PHP with strong OOP. If your superpower is Laravel or Symfony only, this role isn’t the right fit. - We follow OOP and RESTful design practices, emphasising clarity, testability, and performance. - We value speed with discipline: small PRs, sensible testing, continuous improvement. Must‑have skills & experience - Core/Vanilla PHP (7.x/8.x) with OOP: interfaces, traits, namespaces, dependency injection, SOLID. - RESTful API design & implementation (JSON), auth patterns, and versioning. - SQL mastery (query optimisation, indexing, transactions) and PDO best practices. - MongoDB fundamentals (schema design, aggregations, performance basics). - Front‑end: jQuery, semantic HTML, modern CSS, and Tailwind CSS utility workflows. - External API integrations (OAuth, webhooks, retries, idempotency, error/bounce handling). - AWS: Elastic Beanstalk deployments, S3 lifecycle, DynamoDB usage, environment configuration, logging/monitoring basics. - Security: input validation, CSRF/XSS/SQL injection prevention, secrets management, and safe file handling. - SSL/TLS & DNS via Cloudflare (including HSTS, redirects, caching/CDN rulesets, cert renewals). - WordPress CMS experience (admin/config, theme/plugin interaction, or headless/REST usage). - Git and collaborative workflows (feature branches, code reviews, CI basics). - Comfortable with Linux/CLI for diagnostics and automation. Nice to have (bonus points) - Experience with queues/workers for background jobs. - Testing: PHPUnit or similar; integration test mindset. - Performance profiling (Xdebug/Blackfire) and caching strategies (OPcache/application‑level caching). - Observability basics (structured logging, alerts, dashboards). What success looks like 30 days - Onboarded, local/dev environments humming, shipping small improvements and fixes. - Demonstrates understanding of domain models and core modules. 60 days - Independently delivering medium‑sized features end‑to‑end. - Improving SQL queries and indexes, reducing response times and error rates. 90 days - Co‑owning a roadmap area; proposing architecture improvements. - Raising overall code quality with patterns, guardrails, and clear documentation. How we work - Remote first. Clear written communication is king. - Ticketed workflow with lightweight specs and acceptance criteria. - Code reviews for every PR; pair programming with the platform owner for complex changes. - Pragmatic documentation (readmes/ADR notes) close to the code.