Full Stack PHP Developer

The HALO Trust; Bath; Hybrid; GBP 38,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A dedicated charitable organization is looking for a Full Stack PHP Developer located in Southern England. The successful candidate will enhance a web-based internal operations system, crucial for managing crucial mine-clearance information across various countries. This role offers the opportunity to work with meaningful data, designing tailored interfaces, collaborating with various stakeholders, and ensuring efficient data flow in challenging environments. Ideal for self-motivated developers looking for impactful work.

Benefits

25 days annual leave plus bank holidays

Non-contributory Life Assurance (3 x salary)

Private medical health cover

Flexible working policy

Qualifications

• Ability to deliver high-quality work within strict timelines.
• Experience with recent Laravel versions and PHP8.

Responsibilities

• Create new functionality and interfaces using Laravel and Bootstrap.
• Collaborate with colleagues to design solutions based on stakeholder requirements.
• Write unit tests to ensure coverage of key functionality.
• Document new features and system architecture.

Skills

Resilience

Self-motivation

Adapting in fast-paced environments

Tools

Laravel

Bootstrap

PostgreSQL

JavaScript

Git

Job description

Location: This position is located in Southern England (Wiltshire, Somerset, Bath & NES, Bristol, Dorset, Hampshire) with mostly remote working and a few days per month in our office in Wilton (near Salisbury). Overseas travel may be possible from time to time.

Salary: up to £45,000

Contract: Full Time, Perm

Role Summary

We are seeking a Full Stack PHP Developer to work on our web-based internal operations management system, to help increase the functionality and efficiency of HALO’s operations. Built in-house in 2020 using Laravel, Bootstrap and PostgreSQL, and hosted in AWS, the system is the largest database of mine clearance, explosive ordnance disposal, and weapons and ammunition management operations in the world, spanning 30 countries, over 20,000 minefields and data on the daily productivity of 10,000 staff. The role is a fantastic opportunity to work with meaningful data, whose purpose is to improve the lives of communities affected by conflict.

In 2025, HALO published its to increase the use of technology throughout our mine-clearance operations. This role is a critical element of delivering the roadmap to ensure cutting edge technology can be used to increase efficiency and to ensure data flows into the hands of users in remote areas.

Reporting to the Head of Information Management and GIS, we are looking for a developer with a self-starter mentality, who is comfortable working across the entire software development stack. The system is mission-critical; used by hundreds of users every day around the world and needs to work reliably in conflict-affected countries with poor internet connections.

The role would suit a person who is motivated to deliver tailored interfaces to help their colleagues to improve digital processes. The role requires attention to detail and pragmatic attitude; HALO is an organisation that focusses on solutions instead of problems – sometimes in rapidly changing environments; recent events in Syria, Gaza and Sudan have required us to react to new requirements. The successful candidate will be working with a large Postgres database, NoSQL JSON data, writing PHP in Laravel, designing interfaces with the Bootstrap framework and Blade views, writing native JavaScript, deploying code on servers, communicating with stakeholders and collaborating with colleagues that work in explosive ordnance disposal, weapons and ammunition management and landmine clearance.

Role Responsibilities

• Creating new functionality and interfaces with Laravel, Bootstrap and JavaScript, to ensure flexibility for future requirements and scalability
• Scripting database changes using Data Definition Language and rolling them out to ensure minimal downtime and integrity of existing data
• Storing all changes in Git with descriptive commit messages
• Tracking progress of work using Jira and Github issues
• Writing unit tests to ensure coverage of key functionality
• Reviewing pull requests of other developers
• Selecting third-party packages that are well-supported and future-proof
• Upgrading backend and frontend software as appropriate to ensure our systems are as secure and performant has possible
• Testing all changes before releasing to production
• Collaborating with other colleagues to design solutions based on stakeholder requirements
• Documenting new features and system architecture in a concise way
• Providing training sessions to system users on new features
• Isolating and fixing bugs, ensuring existing functionality does not change
• Responding to incoming questions from programmes

Requirements

• Resilient, with the ability to adapt in a complex, fast-paced, changing environment
• Self-motivated with the ability to work with minimal supervision
• Experience of delivering priority work within strict timelines

Required experience

• Experience with recent Laravel versions and PHP8
• Frontend CSS / HTML frameworks such as Bootstrap
• Ability to write native SQL: PostgreSQL, MySQL or SQL Server
• Using JSON within SQL databases
• Setting up webservers
• Managing native JavaScript or jQuery with modules and NPM
• Vite or Webpack
• Git

Desirable experience

• Multi-tenanted codebases
• Managing large Postgres databases with hundreds of tables and millions of rows
• Working with PostGIS data
• Leaflet Maps / Google Maps API
• Docker
• Experience working with RESTful APIs
• Linux, Ubuntu, Apache / NGINX
• AWS or Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Writing tests, TDD / BDD
• Working Charities or NGOs

Benefits

• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Non-contributory Life Assurance (3 x salary)
• Private medical health cover
• Emergency medical insurance when travelling overseas
• Workplace Pension with up to 5% contributions matched by HALO
• Occupational Health services including physiotherapy support and counselling support
• Flexible working policy