Senior Software Engineer

develop; Fareham; Hybrid; GBP 63,000 - 77,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Competitive benefits

Job summary

develop is seeking an experienced Senior PHP Developer to join our backend engineering team in Fareham. You will help modernise core systems, scale performance and deliver new features across high-traffic products.

You'll work in a cross-functional squad with backend, frontend and QA engineers, reporting to an Engineering Manager. The role offers hybrid work (4 days/week) and a competitive benefits package, including performance bonuses.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of commercial PHP development experience.
• Strong MySQL experience and messaging systems such as RabbitMQ/Redis.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS or GCP) and container orchestration (Kubernetes).
• Pragmatic, delivery-focused mindset and solid collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and optimise PHP-based APIs and backend services.
• Work with AWS, Kubernetes, MySQL, RabbitMQ, Redis, Cassandra in a scalable stack.
• Collaborate with frontend, QA and product teams in a Kanban workflow.
• Contribute ideas to improve scalability, performance and reliability.
• Take ownership from concept through deployment; production releases daily.

Skills

PHP

MySQL

RabbitMQ

Redis

Communication

Tools

AWS

GCP

Kubernetes

Job description

Location: Fareham | Hybrid (4 days per week) | On-site

Salary: Up to £70,000 + benefits

We’re working with a well-established, award-winning technology business that’s scaling rapidly and building a suite of market-leading products.

As they continue to expand, they’re looking for an experienced Senior PHP Developer to join their backend engineering team. You’ll play a key role in modernising core systems, improving scalability, and supporting the delivery of new features across a range of high-traffic products.

The Role

You’ll join a collaborative, cross-functional team of backend, frontend and QA engineers, reporting to an Engineering Manager who has grown through the ranks internally. This is an excellent opportunity to take ownership of impactful work in a fast-paced, large-scale environment.

Key responsibilities include:

• Designing, building and optimising PHP-based APIs and backend services.
• Working with a stack including AWS, Kubernetes, MySQL, RabbitMQ, Redis, and Cassandra.
• Collaborating closely with frontend, QA and product teams in a Kanban workflow.
• Contributing ideas to improve scalability, performance and reliability.
• Taking ownership from concept through to deployment- they deploy to production daily.

About You

To thrive in this role, you’ll bring a strong balance of hands‑on coding expertise, initiative and problem‑solving ability.

• 5+ years’ commercial experience with PHP.
• Strong understanding of MySQL and messaging systems such as RabbitMQ and Redis.
• Experience working with cloud platforms (AWS or GCP).
• Familiarity with Kubernetes is a plus.
• Pragmatic, delivery - focused mindset - “perfection is the enemy of success.”
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

You’ll enjoy working at pace, taking ownership of projects, and improving systems operating at global scale.

Additional Benefits:

• Annual bonus -10%
• Competitive benefits package