Senior PHP/Symfony Architect — Remote Backend

Smart Working Solutions; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Smart Working Solutions is seeking a Senior PHP/Symfony Engineer to take hands-on ownership of backend development within a mature Symfony platform. The role involves upgrading to Symfony 7, working with an Angular front end and Python AI microservices, all in a remote, cross-functional squad.

This senior position requires architecture mindset, independence, and the ability to review both human-written and AI-generated code, while adhering to SOC 2 and PII security requirements in a distributed

Qualifications

• 8+ years of commercial software engineering experience, including at least 5 years working with PHP.
• 3+ years of recent commercial experience with Symfony 6.x/7 at Advanced level.
• 4+ years of Advanced experience in backend architecture, system design and scalability.
• 2+ years of Advanced experience using AI development tools critically, including reviewing, validating and challenging AI-generated code.
• 5+ years of Advanced MySQL experience, including database schema design and query optimisation.
• At least 1 year of experience with Angular/TypeScript; React or Vue with TypeScript is a plus.
• 2+ years of Intermediate CI/CD experience with GitHub Actions; GitLab CI, Jenkins or Azure DevOps acceptable.
• 2+ years of Intermediate AWS experience; Azure or GCP also relevant.
• Fluent written and spoken English; strong remote communication skills.
• Ability to work UK hours and maintain security/compliance (PII, SOC 2).

Responsibilities

• Take ownership of backend development within the core Symfony application.
• Review and challenge code from the team and AI tools.
• Support the migration from Symfony 6.1 to Symfony 7 by resolving issues.
• Improve performance, scalability and maintainability of the application.
• Collaborate with Angular front end, TypeScript and Python-based AI services.
• Follow SOC 2, PII and security requirements consistently.
• Work autonomously in a remote, cross-functional squad.

Skills

PHP

Symfony

Backend architecture

MySQL

PostgreSQL

CI/CD

AWS

Azure / GCP

Angular/TypeScript

English (fluid)

Tools

GitHub Actions

GitLab CI

Jenkins

Azure DevOps

Job description

Smart Working Solutions is seeking a Senior PHP/Symfony Engineer to take hands-on ownership of backend development within a mature Symfony platform. The role involves upgrading to Symfony 7, working with an Angular front end and Python AI microservices, all in a remote, cross-functional squad.

This senior position requires architecture mindset, independence, and the ability to review both human-written and AI-generated code, while adhering to SOC 2 and PII security requirements in a distributed