Senior PHP Backend Developer (AI-First)

About the Company

We’re an international proptech company building a real estate investment platform that enables investors to co-own income-generating properties and finance real estate projects. Our platform serves a growing community of 27,000+ investors, and we’re focused on building scalable, modern financial technology products.

We’re expanding our AI-first engineering team and are looking for a Senior PHP Backend Developer who enjoys owning the backend from development through deployment. You’ll work in a fast-moving environment where AI is an essential part of the engineering workflow, helping experienced developers deliver faster without compromising quality.

What You’ll Do

• Build scalable backend services using Laravel.
• Write Unit and Feature tests first (Pest/PHPUnit) following TDD principles.
• Own deployments on Google Cloud Platform (Cloud Run, Cloud SQL, Cloud Build).
• Use AI development tools such as Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, and similar to improve development speed and code quality.
• Monitor performance, identify bottlenecks, and continuously improve the architecture.

• Build secure, scalable, and maintainable backend systems

   

Requirements

• 5+ years of commercial experience with PHP and Laravel.
• Strong experience with Test-Driven Development (TDD).
• Hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform, including Docker, Artefact Registry, Cloud Run, and serverless services.
• Proven daily experience using AI coding tools (Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini, or similar).
• Strong understanding of AI-assisted and agentic development workflows.
• Strong knowledge of Eloquent ORM, query optimisation, indexing, and performance tuning.
• Experience building secure applications (OWASP, secure APIs, encryption).
• Solid understanding of PostgreSQL/MySQL, REST APIs, and OOP.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

• English level: B2+.

   

Must-Have Experience

• Laravel - 5+ years
• Google Cloud Platform - 5+ years
• PostgreSQL - 5+ years

• Gemini - 2+ years

   

Nice to Have

• Laravel Horizon / Pulse
• GitHub Actions
• Google Antigravity

• Open-source contributions (PHP or AI developer tooling)

   

Why Join

• AI-first engineering culture.
• Small, highly collaborative team with direct access to decision-makers.
• Latest AI development tools and subscriptions provided.
• Google Cloud credits.
• High ownership and autonomy over technical decisions.
• Opportunity to influence architecture and engineering practices in a growing product company.