Staff PHP Software Engineer

ByteHire; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

ByteHire is seeking an experienced Staff Level Software Engineer to own key areas of its platform, with a backend focus on PHP and Symfony, and opportunities to contribute to frontend, databases, APIs, and cloud infrastructure.

You will collaborate with engineering, product, data, and AI teams, provide technical guidance, maintain automated tests, and help shape the technical direction as the platform scales and operates reliably in production.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with PHP.
• Strong Symfony or modern enterprise PHP framework experience.
• Experience with MySQL or PostgreSQL and ORM technologies.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop reliable web applications, backend services, and APIs using PHP and Symfony.
• Own technical solutions from design to deployment and ongoing improvement.
• Contribute to architecture for scalable, distributed production systems.
• Design and optimize relational databases and data access patterns.
• Improve performance, security, resilience, and maintainability at scale.
• Work with Kubernetes and modern deployment processes for reliable releases.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to technical decisions and standards.
• Collaborate with product, data, AI, and engineering teams to translate complex requirements.

Skills

PHP backend

Symfony

Doctrine ORM

MySQL/PostgreSQL

APIs

Kubernetes

Testing (unit/integration)

Mentoring engineers

Technical leadership

Education

BS in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

Doctrine ORM

Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP)

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.