Lead PHP Developer

EPAM Systems Inc; United States; Remote; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

EPAM Systems is seeking an experienced Lead PHP Developer to own end-to-end projects in the Platform Feed Management team. You will drive architectural direction, define technical patterns, and own the release process while collaborating with Product and Engineering leadership.

You will mentor engineers, ensure scalable PHP APIs and services, and coordinate releases, while applying AI-powered capabilities where applicable. This role blends hands-on coding with technical leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• At least 1 year of relevant leadership experience.
• Expertise in PHP, building scalable, production-grade APIs and services.
• Familiarity with MySQL or similar relational data stores.
• Ability to own delivery for medium to large, ambiguous technical problems.
• Demonstrated mentoring of engineers with visible growth over time.

Responsibilities

• Act as the named Project Owner for the projects demanding the deepest technical judgment and highest release risk on the team
• Define and evolve architectural direction and technical patterns for owned projects, setting standards that other engineers follow
• Review and approve solution descriptions and sizing for owned projects
• Validate technical approach for owned projects, either personally or by bringing in another Lead or Staff Engineer when required
• Collaborate with Product on refinement, decomposition, and keeping owned projects current in Jira
• Design and develop scalable PHP APIs, services, and solutions from concept to production as a hands-on contributor on owned work
• Own the release process and CI pipeline health for the team, act as the point of escalation during releases, and coordinate rollbacks when needed
• Lead planned improvements to the release pipeline itself, and help build a bench of additional releasers so release execution isn't a single point of failure
• Mentor other engineers on the team, with visible growth over time, not just ad hoc help when asked
• Provide a pull-based escalation path for other Project Owners on the team when they need it
• Incorporate AI-powered capabilities, built and maintained by the FDX AI team, into merchant-facing feed features where a project calls for it
• Exemplify the team's technical and cultural practices, and set the standard for how to engage in healthy technical disagreement

Skills

PHP

APIs

Mentoring

Leadership

MySQL

CI/CD

Release management

Cross-functional collaboration

Technical architecture

Git

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Jira

Git

Job description

We are seeking a highly accountable, hands-on Lead PHP Developer to join the Platform Feed Management team. This position owns end-to-end the projects that demand the deepest technical judgment and carry the highest release risk on the team, while acting as the team's release manager and designated technical escalation path. You will collaborate closely with Product and Engineering leadership to convert business objectives into scalable, well-architected solutions, setting patterns and technical direction for your owned projects. This position offers real ownership and real accountability, blending hands-on engineering with technical leadership, while fostering the technical capability of the team around you.

Responsibilities

• Act as the named Project Owner for the projects demanding the deepest technical judgment and highest release risk on the team
• Define and evolve architectural direction and technical patterns for owned projects, setting standards that other engineers follow
• Review and approve solution descriptions and sizing for owned projects
• Validate technical approach for owned projects, either personally or by bringing in another Lead or Staff Engineer when required
• Collaborate with Product on refinement, decomposition, and keeping owned projects current in Jira
• Design and develop scalable PHP APIs, services, and solutions from concept to production as a hands‑on contributor on owned work
• Own the release process and CI pipeline health for the team, act as the point of escalation during releases, and coordinate rollbacks when needed
• Lead planned improvements to the release pipeline itself, and help build a bench of additional releasers so release execution isn't a single point of failure
• Mentor other engineers on the team, with visible growth over time, not just ad hoc help when asked
• Provide a pull-based escalation path for other Project Owners on the team when they need it
• Incorporate AI-powered capabilities, built and maintained by the FDX AI team, into merchant-facing feed features where a project calls for it
• Exemplify the team's technical and cultural practices, and set the standard for how to engage in healthy technical disagreement

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience
• At least 1 year of relevant leadership experience
• Expertise in PHP, building scalable, production-grade APIs and services
• Familiarity with MySQL or similar relational data stores
• Capability to own delivery for medium to large, ambiguous technical problems, not just well-defined tasks or stories
• Showcase of mentoring engineers with visible, named growth over time
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, comfortable representing the team in cross-functional conversations

Nice to have

• Familiarity with modern JS/TS frameworks (Angular, React)
• Knowledge of caching technologies (e.g., Redis)
• Background in e-commerce, product catalogs, or sales channel/marketplace data models
• Proficiency in integrating with AI or LLM-powered services in a production application (not building the underlying AI infrastructure)