Senior PHP Backend Engineer - Remote Microservices

Smart Working; Lahore; Remote; PKR 33,241,000 - 55,402,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-first culture

Job summary

Smart Working is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to own large-scale production systems handling GPS, telemetry, DVR video, and event data. You will migrate Yii2 to Laravel, migrate MariaDB to PostgreSQL, and decompose monoliths into microservices.

Collaboration with an AI/computer vision lead is expected, with security and GDPR focus for public sector customers. The role is fully backend-focused in a small team, offering a remote-first environment and long-term, full-time employment with a

Qualifications

• 8+ years of commercial PHP backend development at Expert level.
• 5+ years of large-scale SaaS or complex production systems at Expert level.
• 3+ years of PostgreSQL experience at Advanced level.
• 5+ years of API design and third-party integration experience at Advanced level.
• 3+ years of Laravel and/or Yii2 experience at Advanced level.
• 3+ years of PHPUnit experience at Advanced level; Pest/Codeception may substitute.
• 2+ years of microservices or monolith-decompression experience at Intermediate level.
• 2+ years of AWS experience at Intermediate level.
• Experience in telematics, fleet or logistics domain at Intermediate level.
• Experience with large media file handling at Intermediate level.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the PHP backend that ingests GPS and telematics data, safety hardware events and DVR video, and sends real-time alerts
• Build and maintain APIs used by the web platform, mobile application and integration partners
• Deliver the Yii2-to-Laravel migration
• Deliver the MariaDB-to-PostgreSQL migration
• Support the decomposition of the existing monolith into microservices
• Take over systems from a retiring contractor and become productive quickly
• Support the backend for the AI product line, collaborating with the computer vision lead
• Take end-to-end ownership of production systems
• Work independently within a small senior team
• Apply architectural judgement to microservices and migrations with data integrity focus
• Work within Bitbucket Pipelines and PHPUnit
• Contribute as a problem-solver for production engineering decisions
• Work on production systems used by local authorities; ramp up for start date November 2026

Skills

PHP backend

SaaS systems

PostgreSQL

API design

Laravel/Yii2

AWS

Microservices

CI/CD

Tools

Bitbucket Pipelines

PHPUnit

Laravel

Yii2

GitHub Actions

Job description

Smart Working is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer to own large-scale production systems handling GPS, telemetry, DVR video, and event data. You will migrate Yii2 to Laravel, migrate MariaDB to PostgreSQL, and decompose monoliths into microservices.

Collaboration with an AI/computer vision lead is expected, with security and GDPR focus for public sector customers. The role is fully backend-focused in a small team, offering a remote-first environment and long-term, full-time employment with a