PHP & JavaScript Software Developer

Free-Work UK; West of England; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Holiday entitlement

Pension

Private medical insurance

Social events

Job summary

Free-Work UK is hiring a Software Engineer to own backend-heavy features for an internal platform and B2B portal at the heart of a fast-moving trading business. You’ll work in a small team, mostly backend with a modern JavaScript frontend, and collaborate closely with the Head of Development.

The role emphasizes ownership, pragmatic problem-solving, and delivering robust, maintainable solutions in Symfony/Laravel and Vue/React, with a Bristol-office day per week and remote work otherwise.

Qualifications

• Experience delivering backend features for business-critical systems.
• Strong understanding of API design and testing.
• Proficiency with PHP in modern frameworks (Symfony or Laravel) and modern JS frontend.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and maintain backend features powering internal platforms and B2B portal.
• Collaborate with Head of Development on architecture and direction.
• Write clean PHP (Symfony/Laravel) with unit/functional tests while advancing frontend with Vue/React.

Skills

Full stack development

API design

Unit testing

SOLID principles

Tools

PHP

Symfony

Laravel

Vue

React

PostgreSQL

Docker

AWS

Job description

Software Engineer (PHP & JavaScript)

Bristol, hybrid, typically 1 day a week in the office

£50,000 to £60,000 + 28 days holiday + bank holidays, PMI, pension, social events

If you like the idea of owning proper, business critical software rather than being one tiny cog in a huge engineering machine, this is one to look at. This role is all about building the internal systems that sit at the heart of a fast-moving international trading business, where every feature you ship shows up directly in how the company runs and makes money.

You will be joining a small, profitable B2B luxury fashion distribution business that partners with global brands to turn problematic wholesale into a controlled, profitable channel. It is a low ego, close knit team across sales, operations and IT, with in house development treated as a strategic function, not a support service. They care a lot more about team fit, attitude and communication than ticking every single box on a tech checklist. It is a friendly place where everyone gets on, with a grown up, flexible approach to work. The IT team is typically in the Bristol office one day a week, with the rest of the time spent working remotely.

The role sits in a small development team working on their own internal platform rather than off the shelf tools. You will spend most of your time on the backend, building and evolving the core systems that power operations, reporting, analytics and their B2B customer portal, while also being comfortable in a modern JavaScript front end. You will work closely with the Head of Development on solution design and architectural decisions, and with end users across the business to make sure what you build actually solves real problems in a pragmatic way.

The ideal candidate will be a Full Stack Software Developer with strong PHP (Symfony or Laravel) and JavaScript skills (Vue or React).

This is a fantastic opportunity for a Software Developer to join a small, flexible and talented team where your work is central to how the business runs, where you will have proper ownership without the politics of a huge organisation, and be treated well!

The Role

• Design, build and maintain backend heavy features across internal systems that support operations, reporting, analytics and the B2B portal
• Work closely with the Head of Development to shape solution design, architecture and technical direction
• Write clean, testable, SOLID compliant PHP using Symfony, with strong unit and functional test coverage as part of everyday development
• Contribute to and improve shared standards, code reviews, CI and deployment practices, including the growing use of AI tools in the workflow
• Work with business users across sales and operations to understand requirements, refine ideas and turn them into pragmatic, maintainable solutions
• Help evolve the platform and infrastructure, using technologies such as PostgreSQL, Clickhouse, Vue.js, AWS and Docker

The Person

• Strong commercial experience with PHP in a modern framework such as Symfony or Laravel in an enterprise or business critical environment
• Solid understanding of object oriented design, SOLID principles and how to structure systems for long term maintainability
• Experience building and testing API driven backend systems, with unit and functional tests as a normal part of your work
• Comfortable working with a modern JavaScript framework such as Vue or React as part of a full stack workflow
• Happy working in a small, collaborative team where you take real ownership, communicate clearly and enjoy being close to the commercial side of the business
• Nice to have experience with PostgreSQL or other relational databases, Dockerised applications, AWS hosted environments and using AI tools to improve productivity or code quality

We are an equal opportunities company and welcome applications from all suitable candidates.