Senior PHP/Laravel Developer

WeconnectU; Durbanville; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

WeconnectU, a proudly South African SaaS company serving the property management industry, seeks a Senior PHP/Laravel Developer. You will lead a small cross-functional squad while remaining hands-on, shaping architecture and delivering high-quality software with AI-enhanced workflows.

You’ll mentor engineers, drive best practices, and collaborate with Product and Quality Engineering to balance customer value and speed.

Qualifications

• Strong PHP and Laravel development background.
• Experience building SaaS web applications.
• Leadership or mentoring experience within an engineering team.
• Experience with APIs and modern web architectures.
• Proficient with Git and CI/CD workflows.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership within a small cross-functional squad of developers and quality engineers.
• Remain hands-on in development and contribute to the squad's most challenging work.
• Design, develop and maintain scalable PHP/Laravel applications.
• Own features from problem definition through testing and production.
• Break down complex technical problems and propose practical solutions.
• Make architectural decisions balancing scalability and delivery needs.
• Promote automated testing and shared software quality responsibility.
• Mentor engineers through code reviews and technical discussions.
• Communicate technical concepts clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Collaborate with Product and Quality Engineering to balance customer value and delivery speed.
• Identify opportunities to improve development processes and squad performance.
• Encourage continuous learning and knowledge sharing within the squad.

Skills

PHP

Laravel

APIs

Git

AI tools

Code reviews

Mentoring

Communication

Ownership

Job description

Senior PHP/Laravel Developer

About WeconnectU WeconnectU is a proudly South African SaaS company building intelligent software solutions for the property management industry. As one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the country, we are committed to creating solutions that make property management simpler, smarter and more efficient. Our culture is built around ownership, innovation, collaboration and continuous development. We encourage our people to challenge the status quo, take responsibility for outcomes and continuously grow into the best version of themselves.

Role Overview

We are looking for an experienced Senior PHP/Laravel Developer who combines strong engineering fundamentals with a product mindset, high ownership and the ability to effectively incorporate AI into their everyday development workflow. In this role, you will act as a hands‑on technical leader within a small cross‑functional squad consisting of Software Developers and Quality Engineers. You will continue to spend meaningful time developing software while providing technical direction, supporting the team in solving complex problems and driving high‑quality delivery. We are looking for someone who goes beyond simply completing development tickets. You should be comfortable understanding the broader problem, challenging assumptions, considering the impact across the system and taking ownership of delivering the best possible outcome.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and direction within a small cross‑functional squad of Software Developers and Quality Engineers.
• Remain hands‑on in development and contribute to the squad's most important and technically challenging work.
• Design, develop and maintain scalable, reliable and maintainable PHP/Laravel applications.
• Take ownership of features from initial problem definition through development, testing and production.
• Break down complex technical problems and support the team in identifying practical solutions.
• Make well‑considered technical and architectural decisions, balancing scalability, maintainability and delivery requirements.
• Champion strong automated testing practices and promote shared ownership of software quality.
• Mentor and support other engineers through code reviews, pairing and technical discussions.
• Communicate technical concepts clearly to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Collaborate closely with Product and Quality Engineering to balance customer value, technical quality and delivery speed.
• Identify opportunities to improve development processes, engineering standards and overall squad performance.
• Encourage continuous learning, knowledge sharing and technical growth within the squad.

AI-Enabled Engineering

AI forms an important part of how our engineering teams work. We expect our senior engineers to confidently use modern AI development tools to improve both the speed and quality of software delivery, while helping others in the squad develop these capabilities.

You will use AI tools to:

• Understand unfamiliar codebases and investigate technical problems.
• Explore, design and evaluate implementation approaches.
• Generate, refactor and review code.
• Develop and expand automated test coverage.
• Debug complex issues and identify potential edge cases.
• Research technologies and technical solutions.
• Create and maintain technical documentation.
• Improve development efficiency without compromising engineering standards or quality.

We are looking for someone who understands that effective AI‑enabled engineering requires strong technical judgement. You should be able to provide AI tools with the appropriate context, critically evaluate their output and confidently identify when an AI‑generated solution is not suitable.

Qualifications

• Strong professional software development experience, with significant experience working with PHP and Laravel.
• Proven experience building and maintaining scalable web applications and SaaS platforms.
• Strong understanding of software engineering principles, design patterns and application architecture.
• Experience providing technical leadership or mentoring developers within an engineering team.
• Strong understanding of relational databases and database design.
• Experience with automated testing and a strong quality‑focused development approach.
• Experience working with APIs, integrations and modern web application architecture.
• Comfortable working within a cross‑functional environment alongside Product and Quality Engineering.
• Experience with Git and modern software development workflows.
• Practical experience using AI‑assisted development tools as part of the software development lifecycle.
• Ability to critically review and validate AI‑generated code and technical recommendations.
• Strong problem‑solving and analytical skills.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• A high level of ownership and accountability for technical outcomes.
• A continuous‑learning mindset with an interest in new technologies, tools and engineering pr