Senior PHP Developer
First seen by Alion on Sep 28, 2026.
The Software Engineer (Backend) is responsible for the development, maintenance, and continuous improvement of backend systems supporting company products. This role applies solid object-oriented programming (OOP) principles, algorithmic problem-solving, and system design skills to build scalable, secure, and maintainable software. The engineer collaborates across teams to deliver reliable, high-quality solutions across distributed environments.
Core Competencies● Object-Oriented Programming (OOP): Strong understanding of OOP principles, design patterns, and abstraction to create modular, reusable, and testable systems.
● Algorithms & Data Structures: Ability to apply algorithms and complexity analysis to build performant, optimized systems.
● Distributed Systems & Microservices: Familiarity with distributed, service-based architectures and an understanding of service contracts and observability.
● Authentication & Authorization: Understanding of secure authentication and access control models, including token-based and role-based strategies.
● System & API Design: Ability to contribute to backend architectures, RESTful and GraphQL APIs, and service integrations that balance performance and maintainability.
● Code Quality & Testing: Committed to producing clean, secure, and maintainable code supported by automated testing frameworks and CI/CD processes.
● Problem Solving & Root Cause Analysis: Able to diagnose issues across services and layers, identify root causes, and implement sustainable fixes.
● Collaboration & Communication: Works effectively across Product, Architecture, QA, and Support teams with clear, proactive communication.
● Continuous Improvement: Demonstrates ownership in enhancing processes, tools, performance, and code quality across the engineering lifecycle.
Responsibilities● Develop and maintain backend systems, APIs, and integrations supporting company products and distributed services.
● Write clean, modular, and testable code in PHP and complementary technologies such as JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and related frameworks.
● Contribute to distributed systems and microservices that support scalability, reliability, and separation of concerns.
● Apply OOP principles and solid architectural patterns to ensure extensibility and maintainability.
● Implement and maintain secure authentication and authorization mechanisms (e.g., OAuth2, JWT, RBAC).
● Utilize data structures, algorithms, and caching strategies to optimize system performance and responsiveness.
● Conduct debugging, profiling, and performance tuning across multiple environments and services.
● Collaborate with Product Managers, Architects, QA, and Support Teams to gather requirements, define scope, and ensure successful delivery.
● Participate in testing strategies with QA/QE teams to ensure coverage of both new and existing functionality.
● Adhere to code quality, security, and scalability standards across the development lifecycle.
● Participate in peer code reviews, contributing to knowledge sharing and consistent practices.
● Maintain technical documentation including API specifications and relevant implementation notes.
● Participate in engineering reviews, sprint ceremonies, and cross-team demos to align on progress and priorities.
● Ensure compliance with company policies regarding open-source usage and third-party dependencies.
Qualifications● Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field, or equivalent professional experience.
● 3+ years of backend software engineering experience, primarily in PHP production environments.
● Solid understanding of OOP, design patterns, algorithms, and data structures.
● Experience building and maintaining backend systems and service integrations.
● Proficiency in secure API design and familiarity with authentication/authorization concepts.
● Experience with relational databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL) and backend architecture fundamentals.
● Familiarity with version control (Git), CI/CD pipelines, and containerized environments.
● Ability to debug, optimize, and deliver reliable solutions.
● Good communication, collaboration, and documentation skills.
● Strong sense of ownership and accountability.
Preferred Skills● Experience with modern PHP frameworks such as Laravel or Symfony.
● Familiarity with RESTful and GraphQL API design and frontend integration best practices.
● Experience with DevOps, container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes), and cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure).
● Knowledge of distributed caching, queuing, and messaging systems (e.g., Redis, RabbitMQ, Kafka).
● Exposure to observability and monitoring tools (e.g., Prometheus, ELK Stack, Datadog, OpenTelemetry).
- ● Understanding of asynchronous processing, event-driven systems, and service-to-service communication patterns.