Deputy Lead Engineer PHP / React

Motor Platform; Sydney; On-site; AUD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

MotorPlatform in Sydney is hiring a Senior Full-Stack Engineer to act as Deputy Lead / 2IC in engineering. You’ll be a hands‑on builder who can own major initiatives, lead projects end‑to‑end, and keep delivery moving with clarity and discipline.

This is an onsite role in Sydney (Lane Cove). You’ll scale performance, strengthen security and observability, and mentor engineers while shaping how we embed AI into the platform and marketplace.

Qualifications

• Min 6+ years full‑stack engineering experience in production.
• Strong PHP/Laravel (non‑negotiable).
• Strong React; React Native strongly valued.
• Strong Postgres fundamentals (schema, migrations, optimisation).
• AWS experience (EC2/RDS/S3/Lambda).
• Track record leading delivery end‑to‑end and operating as a senior owner.
• Highly organised, proactive, and quick to absorb product + industry context.

Responsibilities

• Scale system performance, reliability, and developer velocity as usage expands.
• Harden security, privacy, observability, and operational runbooks.
• Build new marketplace capabilities that unlock liquidity, speed, and better dealer outcomes.
• Reduce friction in critical workflows and improve conversion through product‑led engineering.
• Lead projects that cross web, mobile, backend, and infrastructure.
• Improve delivery predictability through planning, coordination, and risk management.
• Mentor engineers and set the bar for pragmatic, high‑quality execution.

Skills

Full-stack engineering

Delivery leadership

Organised / proactive

Product context

Tools

PHP/Laravel

React

React Native

PostgreSQL

AWS

Terraform

CloudFormation

Testing frameworks

Job description

MotorPlatform is Australia’s fastest-growing B2B automotive marketplace and SaaS platform.

MotorPlatform is Australia’s fastest-growing B2B automotive marketplace and SaaS platform.

About MotorPlatform

MotorPlatform is Australia’s fastest-growing B2B automotive marketplace and SaaS platform.

The core platform is built. The next phase is the hard, high-leverage work: scaling product, scaling engineering, and scaling operational excellence, while we shift to being AI-first in how we build and how the platform creates value.

The role

We’re hiring a Senior Full-Stack Engineer to act as Deputy Lead / 2IC in engineering. You’ll be a hands‑on builder who can take ownership of major initiatives, lead projects end‑to‑end, and keep delivery moving with clarity and discipline.

Onsite in Sydney.

We want fast feedback loops, high collaboration, and strong product‑engineering alignment.

What you’ll be doing (this is a scale role, not a “greenfield” role)

You’ll work on the problems that show up when something is already working and growing fast:

• Scale system performance, reliability, and developer velocity as usage expands

• Harden security, privacy, observability, and operational runbooks

• Build new marketplace capabilities that unlock liquidity, speed, and better dealer outcomes

• Reduce friction in critical workflows and improve conversion through product‑led engineering

• Lead projects that cut across web, mobile, backend, and infrastructure

• Improve delivery predictability through planning, coordination, and proactive risk management

• Mentor engineers and set the bar for pragmatic, high‑quality execution

AI‑first: what we expect from you

We’re becoming an AI‑first business. That means AI isn’t an experiment on the side—it’s part of the operating system.

You’ll help embed AI into:

• Product: smarter workflows, better matching, better quality control, dealer‑facing efficiency

• Operations: internal tools, automation, knowledge capture, faster support and triage

• Engineering: AI‑assisted development, testing acceleration, improved reviews, quicker iteration

You’ll partner with our AI/BI team to embed intelligence into the platform and marketplace, including:

• Integrating valuation engines into core workflows (pricing, buying, selling, approvals)

• Shipping analytics and insights (vehicle acquisition and disposal performance, liquidity signals, margin drivers)

• Productionising data/AI services: API contracts, monitoring, quality checks, fallbacks, latency and cost controls

• Building internal tools for faster decisions (dashboards, alerts, workflow automation)

You don’t need an ML background. You do need to be comfortable shipping AI‑enabled features responsibly and using AI to increase leverage.

Tech stack

• Web: React

• Mobile: React Native

• Backend: PHP (Laravel & Vapor) + Node/TypeScript where it fits

• Database: Postgres

• sCloud: AWS (EC2, RDS, S3, Lambda)

• Delivery: CI/CD, testing, modern development practices

What we’re looking for

Must-haves

• Min 6+ years full‑stack engineering experience in production

• Strong PHP/Laravel (non‑negotiable)

• Strong React; React Native strongly valued

• Strong Postgres fundamentals (schema, migrations, optimisation)

• AWS experience (EC2/RDS/S3/Lambda)

• Track record leading delivery end‑to‑end and operating as a senior owner

• Highly organised, proactive, and quick to absorb product + industry context

Wants to work onsite in Sydney (Lane Cove)

Nice-to-haves

• Marketplace / high‑growth SaaS scaling experience

• AI‑enabled feature delivery (LLM APIs, retrieval/search, automation)

• IaC (Terraform/CloudFormation)

• Testing frameworks (PHPUnit/Pest, Jest/Mocha)

Why this is a strong next step

• The platform is real and growing and your work immediately compounds

• You’ll have leadership scope without being removed from building

• You’ll help shape how we scale and how we embed AI into the business

• You’ll work closely with Product and influence what gets built and why