We are looking for a Lead Software Engineer with 6-11 years of experience in PHP backend development to design and deliver scalable, high-performance services for our product platform. This is a primarily backend-focused role involving high-volume data processing, PDF/document workflows, REST APIs, database optimization, and cloud-based application development.

The ideal candidate should have strong hands-on PHP expertise, experience building scalable backend systems, and the ability to leverage AI-assisted development tools throughout the software development lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities :

- Design, develop, and maintain scalable backend applications using PHP.

- Translate product requirements into detailed technical specifications, including acceptance criteria and edge cases.

- Collaborate with Technical Product Managers and engineering teams to design robust and scalable solutions.

- Build high-throughput data ingestion and processing pipelines for structured and unstructured data.

- Develop solutions for PDF parsing, extraction, generation, and document processing.

- Design and develop scalable REST APIs following established architectural patterns and best practices.

- Optimize application performance, memory usage, database queries, and storage strategies for large datasets.

- Design and optimize relational database schemas and queries, particularly using MySQL.

- Integrate third-party services and APIs into backend applications.

- Build and deploy applications on AWS and contribute to cloud-based architecture and deployment practices.

- Review code for correctness, security, performance, scalability, and maintainability.

- Develop and validate automated tests and ensure appropriate test coverage.

- Troubleshoot production issues and contribute to root-cause analysis and performance improvements.

- Use AI coding assistants such as Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, or similar tools to improve development productivity while maintaining engineering quality.

- Mentor junior/associate engineers on PHP development, coding practices, technical design, and effective use of AI development tools.

- Contribute to improving engineering practices, specification templates, AI-assisted development workflows, and validation processes.

Required Skills & Experience :

- 6-11 years of experience in software development, with strong hands-on experience in PHP backend development.

- Strong proficiency in PHP and modern PHP frameworks, preferably Laravel or Symfony.

- Strong understanding of object-oriented programming, design patterns, and scalable software design.

- Experience building and maintaining RESTful APIs and backend services.

- Strong experience with MySQL, including schema design, indexing, query optimization, and performance tuning.

- Experience working with large datasets and high-volume data processing/ingestion.

- Experience with PDF/document processing using relevant PHP libraries or services.

- Good understanding of NoSQL databases such as MongoDB or DynamoDB.

- Experience deploying and supporting applications on AWS.

- Strong understanding of Git and modern software development practices.

- Experience with automated testing and test-driven/testable application design.

- Hands-on experience with AI coding assistants such as Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, or similar tools.

- Strong problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills.

Good to Have :

- Experience with Kafka or other message queues/streaming platforms.

- Experience designing event-driven and asynchronous backend architectures.

- Knowledge of Docker and CI/CD pipelines.

- Experience with AWS services such as S3, SQS, ECS, Lambda, RDS, and CloudWatch.

- Experience with performance profiling, caching, memory optimization, and high-throughput application design.

- Experience with Redis or other caching technologies.

- Experience mentoring junior engineers.

- Experience with specification-driven or agentic AI development workflows.

- Experience contributing to engineering process and development practice improvements.