Backend engineer (PHP/Symfony) – mid/senior

Textmagic AS; United States; Remote; USD 50,000 - 63,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Flexible hours

Paid time off

Health stipend

Company MacBook

Job summary

Textmagic is seeking an experienced PHP/Symfony backend engineer to join our team. You’ll work on a live SaaS product, build and maintain REST APIs, and optimize performance with a focus on reliability. We value ownership, clear communication, and initiative, and support remote cooperation from Estonia or Tallinn office.

The role is open to skilled mid-level and senior developers who can solve problems and collaborate with product managers, QA, DevOps, and peers to deliver robust solutions.

Qualifications

• Proven PHP/Symfony production experience.
• Good understanding of relational databases (PostgreSQL).
• Experience developing REST APIs and integrating with external services.
• Solid OOP, design, and clean coding practices.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain backend features, REST APIs, and third‑party integrations.
• Improve existing PHP/Symfony code for maintainability and extensibility.
• Investigate performance issues and optimize database queries.
• Build and improve background jobs, message processing, and error handling.
• Write clean, testable code and participate in code reviews.
• Collaborate with engineers, QA, DevOps and product managers to deliver reliable solutions.

Skills

PHP

Symfony

PostgreSQL

REST APIs

OOP

English

Tools

Docker

Redis

Codeception

PHPUnit

OpenAPI

Beanstalk

Job description

Company description

Textmagic is an Estonian SaaS company building business communication tools used by over 25,000 companies worldwide. Our platform brings SMS, email, and automation together, helping businesses connect with their customers every day.

We're a publicly listed company on Nasdaq First North Tallinn, with an established product, a global customer base, and a team that values initiative and new ideas. At Textmagic, you'll work on a product used by real customers, contribute to technical decisions, and see the direct impact of your work.

Role overview

We're looking for an experienced PHP/Symfony backend engineer to join our team.

We're open to both strong mid-level and senior engineers. What matters most to us is your ability to solve problems, take ownership of your work, and communicate well with others.

You'll work on a live SaaS product, develop new features, improve existing systems, and help keep our platform fast and reliable.

What you'll work on

• Develop and maintain backend features, REST APIs, and third-party integrations.

• Improve existing PHP/Symfony code to make it easier to maintain and extend.

• Investigate performance issues and optimize database queries.

• Build and improve background jobs, message processing, and error handling.

• Write clean, testable code and participate in code reviews.

• Work closely with other engineers, QA, DevOps, and product managers to deliver reliable solutions.

Required technical skills

• Strong hands-on experience with PHP and Symfony in production applications.

• Good understanding of PostgreSQL or other relational databases.

• Experience developing REST APIs and working with external services.

• Solid knowledge of OOP, application design, and clean coding practices.

• Ability to investigate problems, understand existing code, and find practical solutions.

• Good spoken and written English, plus either Estonian or Russian, are required.

How you work

• Proactive: You don't just wait for instructions. You identify problems, suggest improvements, and take initiative.

• Independent: You can organize your work, make sound technical decisions, and take responsibility for results.

• Team-oriented: You share knowledge, support colleagues, and value team success over individual achievements.

• AI-assisted: You're comfortable using AI coding tools and know how to review and verify what they produce.

• A strong communicator: You explain your ideas clearly, discuss different approaches, give and accept constructive feedback.

• Reliable: You follow through on commitments and care about delivering quality work.

Nice to have

• Experience with high-load systems and performance optimization.

• Knowledge of message queues and asynchronous processing.

• Experience optimizing SQL queries and working with large databases.

• Experience with automated testing, particularly Codeception or PHPUnit.

• Experience with Redis, Docker, or high-availability systems.

• Experience with Go.

• Experience with Temporal or other durable workflow engines.

• Experience with LLM APIs and the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

You don't need to know everything on this list. We value strong fundamentals, good problem-solving skills, and a willingness to learn.

Our tech stack

• Backend: PHP 8.4, Symfony 8.1

• Database: PostgreSQL 16

• Caching: Redis

• Message queues: Beanstalk

• Testing: Codeception, PHPUnit

• Other technologies: Docker, OpenAPI, Node.js, MongoDB, Go, Asterisk

Your main focus will be PHP and Symfony. Experience with all the other technologies is not required, but is an advantage.

What we offer

• Competitive compensation: €4,000–€5,000 gross per month for Estonian employment, depending on your skills and experience.

• Remote work: Work remotely from Estonia or from our Tallinn office.

• Flexible hours: Plan your working day around agreed team collaboration hours.

• Paid time off: 28 calendar days per year, including for B2B contractors.

• Health compensation: €400 per year for health-related expenses.

• Work equipment: A company-provided MacBook.

• Real product impact: Your work directly affects a platform used by thousands of businesses worldwide.

• Room to contribute: Share ideas, improve existing solutions, and influence technical decisions.

• Collaborative team: Work with experienced colleagues who value clear communication, code quality, and knowledge sharing.

Interested?

If you enjoy solving backend problems, taking responsibility for your work, and building reliable software with a team, we'd like to hear from you.