Senior Software Engineer (PHP)

Vultr; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 135,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

100% company-paid insurance premiums

401(k) plan with 100% match up to 4%

Professional Development Reimbursement

11 Holidays + PTO + rollover

Sabbatical & Anniversary bonuses

Remote office stipend

Internet reimbursement

Gym membership reimbursement

Wellable subscription

Job summary

Vultr is seeking a highly skilled Senior Software Engineer to design, build, and scale backend systems powering Vultr's cloud platform. You will optimize PHP applications and MySQL schemas to support millions of API requests daily.

The role emphasizes RESTful API design, async workflows, and collaboration with distributed teams. Experience with PHP 8+, Laravel or Symfony, Redis, Docker, Kubernetes, and observability tools is essential.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software development experience with strong proficiency in modern PHP (PHP 8+) and common frameworks such as Laravel, Symfony, or Slim
• Deep expertise in MySQL including query optimization and schema design for high-traffic applications
• Strong experience designing and implementing RESTful APIs using modern standards

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain high-performance PHP applications serving millions of API requests daily
• Architect and optimize MySQL database schemas, queries, and indexing strategies for low-latency access
• Implement and maintain RESTful APIs following modern API design standards, including OpenAPI specifications and versioning best practices
• Design and implement asynchronous workflows, background jobs, queues, and event-driven integrations where appropriate
• Participate in architecture discussions, incident response, and root-cause analysis for production issues
• Collaborate with product and engineering teams to define technical requirements and deliver scalable solutions
• Conduct code reviews, mentor junior engineers, and champion engineering best practices
• Write clean, well-tested code with comprehensive unit and integration test coverage

Skills

PHP 8+

MySQL optimization

RESTful APIs

Redis caching

Docker / Kubernetes

Tools

Laravel

Symfony

Slim

OpenAPI

RabbitMQ / Kafka

Job description

Who We Are
Vultr is on a mission to make high-performance cloud infrastructure easy to use, affordable, and locally accessible for enterprises and AI innovators around the world. With 33 global cloud data center locations, Vultr is trusted by hundreds of thousands of active customers across 185 countries for its flexible, scalable, global Cloud Compute, Cloud GPU, Bare Metal, and Cloud Storage solutions. In December 2024 Vultr announced an equity financing at a $3.5 billion valuation. Founded by David Aninowsky and self-funded for over a decade, Vultr has grown to become the world’s largest privately-held cloud infrastructure company.

Vultr Cares

• 100% company-paid insurance premiums for employee medical, dental and vision plans.
• 401(k) plan that matches 100% up to 4%, with immediate vesting
• Professional Development Reimbursement of $2,500 each year
• 11 Holidays + Paid Time Off Accrual + Rollover Plan
• Commitment matters to Vultr! Increased PTO at 3 year and 10 year anniversary + 1 month paid sabbatical every 5 years + Anniversary Bonus each year
• $500 stipend for remote office setup in first year + $400 each following year
• Internet reimbursement up to $75 per month
• Gym membership reimbursement up to $50 per month
• Company paid Wellable subscription

Join Vultr
Vultr is seeking a highly skilled and experienced Senior Software Engineer to design, build, and scale the backend systems powering Vultr's cloud platform. The ideal candidate is a seasoned engineer with deep expertise in PHP and MySQL, strong experience with modern API design, and a passion for building resilient, high-availability systems at scale. This is a highly visible role in a high-growth technology company, which will require a blend of backend mastery, database optimization skills, and collaborative engineering practices. This is your opportunity to join our fast growing team and leave your mark on Vultr and the future of Cloud Infrastructure.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain high-performance PHP applications serving millions of API requests daily
• Architect and optimize MySQL database schemas, queries, and indexing strategies for low-latency access
• Implement and maintain RESTful APIs following modern API design standards, including OpenAPI specifications and versioning best practices
• Design and implement asynchronous workflows, background jobs, queues, and event-driven integrations where appropriate
• Participate in architecture discussions, incident response, and root-cause analysis for production issues
• Collaborate with product and engineering teams to define technical requirements and deliver scalable solutions
• Conduct code reviews, mentor junior engineers, and champion engineering best practices
• Write clean, well-tested code with comprehensive unit and integration test coverage

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software development experience with strong proficiency in modern PHP (PHP 8+) and common frameworks such as Laravel, Symfony, or Slim
• Deep expertise in MySQL including query optimization and schema design for high-traffic applications
• Strong experience designing and implementing RESTful APIs using modern standards
• Experience with Redis for caching, distributed locking, queues, and performance optimization
• Familiarity with message queues and asynchronous processing systems such as RabbitMQ, Kafka, SQS, or Redis Streams
• Proficiency with containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes
• Experience with logging, monitoring, tracing, and observability tooling (Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, etc.)
• Understanding of API security best practices including OAuth2, JWT, RBAC, rate limiting, and OWASP principles
• Experience with cloud infrastructure platforms (Vultr, AWS, GCP, or Azure) and infrastructure-as-code tooling
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing frameworks, and Git-based development workflows
• Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate effectively across distributed teams

Compensation
$120,000 - $135,000

Inclusion & Privacy
We are an equal opportunity employer and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds and experiences, and we prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable laws. Vultr will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records in accordance with applicable laws and will not conduct a background check until after an offer of employment has been extended and accepted.

We also take your privacy seriously. We handle personal information responsibly and follow applicable laws, including U.S. privacy rules and India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. Your data is used only for legitimate business purposes and is protected with proper security measures.

Where allowed by law, applicants may request details about the data we collect, access or delete their information, withdraw consent for its use, and opt out of nonessential communications. For more details, please see our Privacy Policy.