Senior PHP Engineer (Laravel/Payments) - Remote Portugal

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

Join a world-class technology consultancy where software is built by people, for people, creating high-performance systems that impact users worldwide. We're seeking a PHP Engineer to join an agile, collaborative team building resilient payment platform systems that scale. This role offers you the opportunity to be a technical partner, not just a developer, working closely with leadership (CEO/COO) and clients where your voice matters as much as your code. We value empathy, self-organization, and the courage to take risks in a politics-free environment.

PROJECT & CONTEXT

You'll develop, maintain, and enhance the core backend of a high-stakes payment platform, ensuring reliability, scalability, and performance. The role involves implementing critical functionalities including transaction processing, user authentication, and integrations with external payment services like Stripe, GoCardless, and CardStream. You'll refactor complex controllers, design clean business logic within services and repositories, and collaborate with the Tech Lead on key architectural decisions. Working with multiple MySQL databases via RDS and DynamoDB, you'll write efficient queries and contribute to robust API development for mobile and web clients. You'll optimize performance using caching strategies with Redis/Laravel Cache, ensure security through secure coding practices, and support production environments on AWS. Expected travel varies by project (0-15%).

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR (Required)

• Backend PHP expertise: Strong experience with PHP, ideally within financial or e-commerce environments building reliable, scalable applications
• Laravel mastery: Solid understanding of the Laravel ecosystem for developing clean, maintainable solutions
• Database proficiency: Experience with relational databases (MySQL via RDS) and NoSQL databases (DynamoDB) ensuring efficient data handling
• Frontend basics: Familiarity with jQuery for supporting frontend interactions when needed
• Payment integrations: Hands-on experience integrating payment gateways and third-party APIs including AWS SDK
• Performance optimization: Skilled in optimizing database queries, implementing caching strategies (Redis/Laravel Cache), and applying secure coding practices
• Testing and quality: Experience writing unit and integration tests using PHPUnit, leveraging PHPStan for static analysis, and using debugging tools effectively
• DevOps fundamentals: Comfortable with Composer, NPM/Vite, and basic AWS services (EC2, S3, SQS, Lambda) for deployment
• Problem-solving skills: Ability to troubleshoot complex transaction flows and refactor legacy code while maintaining system stability
• Collaboration expertise: Strong experience with code reviews, Git-based workflows, and Agile development environments
• Unix/Linux familiarity: Comfortable navigating Unix systems and troubleshooting
• Communication clarity: Ability to explain technical concepts to various stakeholders in English
• Growth mindset: Self-driven with ability to work with minimal supervision toward common goals
• Language requirement: Fluent English (mandatory for client and leadership communication)

NICE TO HAVE (Preferred)

• Experience in fintech or high-transaction payment platforms
• Knowledge of additional payment gateway integrations
• Familiarity with microservices architectures
• AWS certifications or advanced cloud infrastructure knowledge
• Experience mentoring junior developers