Staff PHP Software Engineer

ByteHire; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

ByteHire in the United States seeks an experienced Staff Level Software Engineer to own key areas of its technology platform. The role focuses on backend systems built with PHP and Symfony, with opportunities to contribute to frontend, databases, APIs, and cloud infrastructure.

You will mentor engineers, drive scalable architecture, and collaborate across product, data, and AI teams. The position offers significant ownership of production systems, modern deployment with Kubernetes, and a path

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, including substantial commercial PHP development.
• Strong hands-on experience with Symfony or another modern enterprise PHP framework.
• Experience with Doctrine ORM technologies.
• Strong MySQL and/or PostgreSQL knowledge, including schema design, query optimisation, and performance tuning.
• Experience designing and developing production APIs and backend services.
• Strong understanding of scalable and distributed application architectures.
• Commercial experience with Kubernetes and containerised applications.
• Strong knowledge of unit, integration, and functional testing.
• Experience owning technically complex features or systems through to production.
• Previous experience mentoring engineers and contributing to technical decision-making.
• Strong communication skills across teams.
• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent professional experience.
• Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP).
• Experience with high-volume or data-intensive enterprise applications.
• Experience in healthcare, financial services, or another regulated industry.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop reliable web applications, backend services, and APIs using PHP and Symfony.
• Take ownership of technical solutions from initial design through development, testing, deployment, and ongoing improvement.
• Contribute to architectural decisions for scalable and distributed production systems.
• Design and optimise relational databases, including schemas, queries, indexes, and data access patterns.
• Improve application performance, security, resilience, and maintainability as the platform grows.
• Work with Kubernetes and modern deployment processes to support reliable production releases.
• Collaborate with product, data, AI, and engineering teams to turn complex requirements into practical technical solutions.
• Maintain strong automated test coverage across application and service layers.
• Review code, mentor engineers, and help improve development standards across the team.
• Contribute to technical planning and the longer-term direction of key platform components.
• Support recruitment and onboarding as the engineering organisation expands.

Skills

PHP

Symfony

Doctrine ORM

MySQL/PostgreSQL

Kubernetes

API design

Unit tests

Code review

Mentoring

Distributed systems

Cloud (AWS/GCP)

Education

B.S. in CS

Tools

Docker

CI/CD

Git

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.

About the role:

Our client is looking for an experienced Staff Level Software Engineer to take ownership of key areas of its technology platform.

The position has a strong backend focus, particularly around PHP and Symfony, alongside opportunities to contribute to frontend development, architecture, databases, APIs, and cloud infrastructure. You will work closely with engineering, product, data, and AI teams while providing technical guidance to other developers.

Responsibilities:

• Design and develop reliable web applications, backend services, and APIs using PHP and Symfony.
• Take ownership of technical solutions from initial design through development, testing, deployment, and ongoing improvement.
• Contribute to architectural decisions for scalable and distributed production systems.
• Design and optimise relational databases, including schemas, queries, indexes, and data access patterns.
• Improve application performance, security, resilience, and maintainability as the platform grows.
• Work with Kubernetes and modern deployment processes to support reliable production releases.
• Collaborate with product, data, AI, and engineering teams to turn complex requirements into practical technical solutions.
• Maintain strong automated test coverage across application and service layers.
• Review code, mentor engineers, and help improve development standards across the team.
• Contribute to technical planning and the longer‑term direction of key platform components.
• Support recruitment and onboarding as the engineering organisation expands.

Key Experience:

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, including substantial commercial PHP development.
• Strong hands‑on experience with Symfony or another modern enterprise PHP framework.
• Experience with Doctrine or comparable ORM technologies.
• Strong MySQL and/or PostgreSQL knowledge, including schema design, query optimisation, and performance tuning.
• Experience designing and developing production APIs and backend services.
• Strong understanding of scalable and distributed application architectures.
• Commercial experience with Kubernetes and containerised applications.
• Strong knowledge of unit, integration, and functional testing.
• Experience owning technically complex features or systems through to production.
• Previous experience mentoring engineers and contributing to technical decision‑making.
• Strong communication skills and experience working across multiple technical and business teams.
• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent professional experience.
• AWS, GCP, or comparable cloud platform experience.
• Previous work on high‑volume or data‑intensive enterprise applications.
• Experience within healthcare, financial services, or another regulated industry.
• Advanced API design and application performance optimisation experience.
• Experience helping modernise or scale established software platforms.

Why Join?

• Take significant ownership of technically challenging production systems.
• Work across backend engineering, architecture, cloud infrastructure, and frontend development.
• Join an engineering‑led environment where technical quality and reliability are taken seriously.
• Collaborate with experienced software, data, product, and AI specialists.
• Help shape the technical direction of a growing technology platform.
• Strong opportunities for continued technical and career development.