Senior Developer

ADLIB; Bristol; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

An international distributor in central Bristol is seeking a Senior Developer to join their team. The role focuses on backend development for a bespoke platform and involves collaborating with a small engineering team. Candidates should have strong PHP experience with modern frameworks and a solid understanding of object-oriented design. Benefits include a competitive salary of up to £60,000, 28 days holiday plus bank holidays, and private health insurance. This is an excellent opportunity to impact an industry-leading company.

Benefits

28 days holiday plus bank holidays

Private health insurance

Company pension

Flexible working

Team socials

Qualifications

• Strong commercial experience with PHP.
• Solid understanding of object-oriented design principles.
• Experience building API-driven systems.

Responsibilities

• Develop backend features for operational workflows.
• Work on a bespoke backend platform and participate in architecture decisions.
• Maintain high test coverage with unit and functional tests.

Skills

PHP using a modern framework (Symfony or Laravel)

Object-oriented design

Building and testing API-driven backend systems

Modern JavaScript frameworks (Vue or React)

Writing unit and functional tests

Autonomous work and team collaboration

Tools

PostgreSQL

Docker

AWS

Job description

We’re looking for a Senior Developer to join an international distributor based in central Bristol who help solve supply chain issues for some of the world’s largest health and beauty manufacturers including Rimmel London, Schwarzkopf, Hugo Boss, and Calvin Klein. With over 30 years of experience, they specialise in identifying new markets and alternative distribution channels that give new life to brands. They have built a solid reputation and have trusted network of contacts around the world.

*1 day per week in central Bristol

What skills you’ll be needing

• Strong commercial experience with PHP using a modern framework (Symfony or Laravel) in an enterprise or business-critical environment
• Solid understanding of object-oriented design, SOLID principles, and maintainable architecture
• Experience building and testing API-driven backend systems
• Competence with modern JavaScript frameworks (Vue or React)
• Practical experience writing unit and functional tests
• Comfortable working autonomously while collaborating closely in a small team

Desirable Experience

• PostgreSQL or other relational databases in production systems
• Dockerised applications and AWS-hosted environments
• Experience helping shape development standards or technical direction
• Hands‑on use of AI tools to improve productivity, code quality, or system understanding

What you’ll be doing

Alongside the Head of Development and a small engineering team of 3, you’ll work in a collaborative and supportive environment where you’ll be able to share ideas, have influence, help shape the technical vision and be involved in decisions relating to architecture and future development. You will work primarily on their bespoke backend platform, which underpins operational workflows, reporting, analytics, and B2B customer portal. The role is backend‑focused but requires confidence working across the stack, including a modern JavaScript front end in a varied role that will include major project development, new features as well as maintenance and bug fixes.

They’re Agile and aim for a high level of test coverage with unit, pipeline, and functional tests which are executed pre‑release using their Jenkins‑based CI pipeline. You will design, build, and maintain backend‑heavy features across internal systems, write clean, testable, well‑structured SOLID‑compliant code with strong test coverage and participate in code reviews and contribute to shared coding standards.

What you’ll get in return for your skills

A starting salary of up to £60,000, 28 days holiday plus bank holidays, private health insurance including dental & optical cashback (with the option to add dependents), free eye tests, company pension. There’s also flexible working, time dedicated to R&D and fully expensed team socials. This is a great opportunity to join a small team in a thriving industry leading company where you can work on interesting projects and make a real impact.

What’s next?

Like the sound of this one? Send in your CV now for immediate consideration.