PHP Engineer

AI Trainer Jobs; United States; Remote; USD 69,000 - 96,000; Part time

Job summary

SME Careers is seeking a PHP Engineer to review AI-generated PHP code, assess backend designs, and write high-quality reference implementations. You will explain reasoning and produce step-by-step solutions for complex engineering problems, focusing on correctness, security, and performance.

This fully remote, hourly contractor role lets you contribute to future AI training projects while working with modern PHP frameworks and best practices.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of professional PHP backend development experience.
• Expert-level PHP 7.4/8.x+ with OOP, typing, namespaces and Composer.
• Experience with MySQL/PostgreSQL and ORM patterns.
• Knowledge of secure coding practices and OWASP Top 10.

Responsibilities

• Develop AI training content and reference PHP/backend solutions.
• Evaluate AI outputs for correctness, security, performance and clarity.
• Test architectures, API design, caching strategies, and data usage.

Skills

Caching

Debugging

PHP 8+

Security (OWASP)

Backend Engineering

Low‑Latency Development

Performance Optimization

Code review

Concurrency/Async Processing

Database Optimization

Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science/related field

Job description

Pay: up to $60/hour

As a PHP Engineer, you will work remotely on an hourly paid basis to review AI-generated PHP code, backend designs, and technical explanations, as well as produce high-quality reference implementations and step-by-step reasoning for complex engineering problems. You will assess solutions for correctness, clarity, security, performance, and adherence to the prompt; identify issues in application architecture, data modeling, API design, security, caching, and database usage; fact-check technical information; write strong explanations and model solutions that demonstrate best practices; and rate and compare multiple AI responses based on correctness and reasoning quality.

This fully remote, hourly paid contractor role is with SME Careers, a fast-growing AI data services company and subsidiary of SuperAnnotate that provides AI training data to many of the world’s largest AI companies and foundation model labs—where your PHP and backend expertise will directly help improve the world’s premier AI models used by millions of developers worldwide.

Important:

There is no immediate project for this role; however, if qualified, you will be among the first experts we reach out to when relevant opportunities arise. This will also provide you with access to future projects available through our expert network.

Responsibilities

• Develop AI Training Content: Create detailed prompts across PHP/backend topics and write high-quality reference answers to guide AI learning.


• Optimize AI Performance: Evaluate, rank, and provide feedback on AI responses to improve correctness, security, readability, and contextual fit.


• Ensure Model Integrity: Test AI outputs for inaccuracies, unsafe practices, and potential biases; validate reliability across real-world use cases.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a closely related technical field (or equivalent professional experience).


• 4+ years of professional experience developing production backend systems in PHP.


• Expert-level proficiency in modern PHP (7.4/8.x+), including OOP, strict typing, namespaces, Composer, and common design patterns.


• Strong backend fundamentals: HTTP, REST, authentication/authorization, sessions, caching, queues, and API design.


• Deep experience with databases (e.g., MySQL/PostgreSQL), including schema design, indexing, query optimization, and transactions.


• Experience with at least one major PHP framework (e.g., Laravel, Symfony) and knowledge of dependency injection, middleware, and ORM tradeoffs.


• Security mindset with hands‑on knowledge of secure coding practices (e.g., OWASP Top 10, input validation, SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, secrets handling).


• Comfort with version control, CI/CD workflows, and automated testing (e.g., PHPUnit, integration tests, mocking strategies).


• Prior experience with AI data training, annotation, or evaluating AI-generated technical content is a strong plus.


• Minimum C1 English proficiency (written and spoken), with the ability to write clear technical explanations and follow detailed English-language guidelines.


• Highly detail-oriented and systematic, with a methodical approach to evaluating reasoning quality and identifying subtle bugs in complex PHP/backend systems.

Skills: Caching (Redis/Memcached), Debugging, PHP 8+, Security (OWASP), Backend Engineering, Low‑Latency Development, Performance Optimization, Code review, Concurrency/Async Processing (Queues & Workers), Database Optimization (MySQL/PostgreSQL)

Open to candidates in: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Cambodia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, The Philippines, The United States, Timor Leste, Vietnam

Interview language: English