Senior Software Engineer PHP

Kforce Technology Staffing; West Palm Beach (FL); On-site; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

HSA/FSA options

401(k) plan

Life & disability insurance

Paid time off

Paid sick leave

Job summary

Kforce Technology Staffing in West Palm Beach, FL seeks a Senior Software Engineer with PHP expertise to design, build, and optimize scalable back-end services.

You will work on high-traffic RESTful APIs, MySQL schemas, and modern tech stacks including Docker and Kubernetes, with observability and security at the forefront. Strong collaboration across distributed teams and adherence to OpenAPI standards are essential.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software development experience.
• Strong hands-on PHP 8+ with Laravel, Symfony, or Slim.
• Deep MySQL knowledge including schema design and tuning.
• Experience building RESTful APIs.
• Familiarity with Redis for caching and distributed workloads.
• Familiarity with message queues such as RabbitMQ, Kafka, SQS, or Redis Streams.
• Proficiency with Docker and Kubernetes.
• Observability tools like Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, or OpenTelemetry.
• Knowledge of API security: OAuth2, JWT, RBAC, rate limiting, OWASP.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure, Vultr) and IaC tooling.
• CI/CD, automated testing, and Git workflows.
• Strong communication for distributed teams.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain high-performance PHP applications that handle millions of API requests daily.
• Architect and optimize MySQL schemas, queries, and indexing strategies.
• Build and maintain RESTful APIs aligned with OpenAPI and versioning best practices.
• Design asynchronous workflows, background jobs, queues, and event-driven integrations.
• Participate in architecture discussions, incident response, and root-cause analysis for production issues.
• Partner with product and engineering teams to define technical needs and deliver scalable solutions.
• Review code, mentor junior engineers, and promote strong engineering practices.
• Write clean, well-tested code with thorough unit and integration test coverage.

Skills

PHP 8+

Laravel

Symfony

Slim

MySQL

RESTful APIs

Redis

RabbitMQ

Kafka

SQS

Redis Streams

Docker

Kubernetes

OpenTelemetry

Datadog

Prometheus

Grafana

OAuth2

JWT

RBAC

Rate limiting

OWASP

AWS

GCP

Azure

Vultr

IaC tooling

CI/CD

Automated testing

Git workflows

Distributed teams communication

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Datadog

Prometheus

Grafana

OpenTelemetry

RabbitMQ

Kafka

SQS

Redis

MySQL

OpenAPI

Terraform

Git

Job description

We are Kforce, supporting a client seeking a Senior Software Engineer PHP in West Palm Beach, Florida. We offer comprehensive benefits to eligible employees, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, HSA and FSA options, a 401(k), and life, disability, and ADD coverage. Salaried team members receive paid time off, and eligible hourly employees may receive paid sick leave depending on the project. This role is not eligible for bonuses, incentives, or commissions. We are an equal opportunity employer and consider all qualified applicants without regard to protected characteristics.

Requirements

• We require 5+ years of professional software development experience, with strong hands‑on expertise in modern PHP 8+ and widely used frameworks such as Laravel, Symfony, or Slim.
• We need deep MySQL knowledge, including schema design and query tuning for high-traffic, low-latency applications.
• We expect solid experience building RESTful APIs using current design standards.
• We value experience with Redis for caching, distributed locking, queues, and performance improvements.
• We look for familiarity with message queues and asynchronous systems such as RabbitMQ, Kafka, SQS, or Redis Streams.
• We require proficiency with container technologies and orchestration tools such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• We want experience with observability tools, including logging, monitoring, tracing, and telemetry platforms such as Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, or OpenTelemetry.
• We expect understanding of API security practices, including OAuth2, JWT, RBAC, rate limiting, and OWASP principles.
• We require experience with cloud platforms such as Vultr, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Azure, along with infrastructure-as-code tooling.
• We value familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and Git-based development workflows.
• We need excellent communication skills and the ability to work effectively across distributed teams.

Responsibilities

• We design, develop, and maintain high-performance PHP applications that handle millions of API requests each day.
• We architect and optimize MySQL schemas, queries, and indexing strategies to support fast access.
• We build and maintain RESTful APIs aligned with modern API design standards, including OpenAPI and versioning best practices.
• We design asynchronous workflows, background jobs, queues, and event-driven integrations where needed.
• We take part in architecture conversations, incident response, and root-cause analysis for production issues.
• We partner with product and engineering teams to define technical needs and deliver scalable solutions.
• We review code, mentor junior engineers, and promote strong engineering practices.
• We write clean, well-tested code with thorough unit and integration test coverage.