Senior PHP Software Engineer

ByteHire; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

ByteHire is seeking a senior backend engineering leader to own and evolve a Symfony-based platform in a data-rich healthtech environment. You will drive architecture decisions, performance tuning, and scalable API design while mentoring engineers and collaborating with cross-functional teams.

This remote-first role emphasizes end-to-end ownership, distributed systems, and robust testing. You will work on high-impact platforms with strong leadership and equity-driven incentives.

Qualifications

• 10+ years backend engineering in production systems.
• Strong PHP and Symfony expertise.
• Experience with data-heavy ingestion pipelines and distributed systems.
• Experience mentoring engineers and setting technical direction.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve platform architecture in a Symfony-based system.
• Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and code reviews.
• Define and uphold engineering standards and best practices.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to deliver scalable solutions.
• Take end-to-end ownership of systems, including production support.
• Design and build backend services and internal APIs.
• Design and optimise relational databases with tuning and indexing.
• Build and scale data ingestion pipelines using Pub/Sub.
• Diagnose performance bottlenecks in PHP, MySQL, and data pipelines.
• Work with Elasticsearch for data serving and search optimisation.
• Contribute to frontend where possible or collaborate with frontend developers.
• Experience implementing automated testing strategies.
• Experience mentoring engineers and contributing to technical direction.

Skills

PHP & Symfony

Backend architecture

Distributed systems

Cloud Pub/Sub

GCP

Containerization

Testing strategies

Mentoring

Performance tuning

Elasticsearch

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Cloud SQL

Redis Memorystore

PHPUnit

PHPStan

Psalm

GrumPHP

Blackfire

XHProf

Job description

Our client is an innovative HealthTech organisation building scalable, high-performance platforms within a complex, data-rich environment.

Their systems process large volumes of data, integrate across distributed services, and enable efficient, reliable decision-making across critical clinical and operational workflows.

With strong backing and an experienced leadership team, they are continuing to invest heavily in platform scalability, performance, and long-term evolution.

Responsibilities:

• Own and evolve platform architecture within a Symfony-based system, making high-impact decisions across scalability, performance, and maintainability
• Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and code reviews
• Define and uphold engineering standards and best practices
• Collaborate cross-functionally to deliver scalable solutions
• Take end-to-end ownership of systems, including production support
• Strong communication skills and ability to work cross-functionally.
• Design and build backend services and internal APIs (service-to-service)
• Design and optimise relational databases, including query tuning, indexing, and performance debugging
• Build and scale data ingestion pipelines and event-driven workflows using GCP Pub/Sub
• Diagnose and resolve performance bottlenecks across PHP, MySQL, and data pipelines using tools like Blackfire / XHProf
• Work with Elasticsearch for data serving and fuzzy search, including indexing and data synchronisation
• Contribute to frontend where possible, or collaborate with frontend developers, ensuring smooth backend integration
• Experience implementing automated testing strategies
• Experience mentoring engineers and contributing to technical direction

Key Experience:

• 10+ years backend engineering (production systems)
• Strong PHP and Symfony expertise
• Build and maintain internal APIs
• Strong understanding of scalability, concurrency, and reliability
• Experience with data-heavy systems and ingestion pipelines
• Clear communication and cross-team collaboration
• Experience working with distributed systems and scalable architectures
• Experience with distributed and event-driven systems (Pub/Sub)
• Hands-on GCP (Cloud SQL, Pub/Sub, Redis/Memorystore), or equivalent on other cloud platforms
• Containerised environments (Docker, Kubernetes/GKE/EKS/AKS)
• Testing + quality tooling (PHPUnit, PHPStan, Psalm, GrumPHP)
• Performance tuning and profiling (e.g. Blackfire, XHProf)
• Experience with Elasticsearch, including indexing strategies and search optimisation
• Experience with PHP API Platform
• Familiarity with event-driven systems and asynchronous processing patterns.
• Experience with multi-tenant systems or rules-based configuration models.
• Exposure to frontend UI tooling (EasyAdmin, React, Next.js)
• Experience in improving or formalising load and performance testing practices.

Why Join?

• Highly competitive salary + equity designed to rival top-tier (FAANG-level) compensation
• High-impact Staff role with ownership of a core, data-intensive platform
• Work on complex, large-scale systems (ingestion, performance, distributed architecture)
• Strong engineering culture focused on quality, performance, and pragmatic decision-making
• Remote-first environment with flexibility and autonomy
• Generous Paid Time Off (PTO) to support work-life balance
• Comprehensive health, vision, and dental insurance for you and your family
• Life and disability insurance for financial security
• Simple IRA matching to support long-term financial goals
• Wellness programs supporting physical and mental health