PHP Engineer

Mid-Level PHP / Symfony Developer

Location: Leeds (Hybrid – 2 days per week onsite, Monday & Thursday)
Salary: Up to £45,000 (DOE)

The opportunity:
We’re looking for a Mid-Level PHP / Symfony Developer to join a growing engineering team building modern digital platforms used by education professionals worldwide.

This is a backend-focused role working across web applications and APIs within a collaborative, close-knit technology team. You’ll play a key role in developing new functionality, maintaining existing systems, and contributing to the ongoing evolution of a modern platform environment.

The role would suit someone who enjoys writing clean, maintainable code, solving technical problems, and working within a supportive engineering culture that values collaboration, continuous learning, and progression.

Although the role is predominantly backend-focused, there may be opportunities to contribute to frontend development when required, making it a great opportunity for someone looking to broaden their technical exposure over time.

You’ll join a small team where culture and teamwork are genuinely important, with clear progression opportunities available as the engineering function continues to grow.

What you’ll be doing:

As a Mid-Level PHP / Symfony Developer, you’ll work closely with developers, QA engineers, and stakeholders to deliver scalable web applications and APIs using modern development practices.

Key responsibilities include:

• Developing and maintaining Symfony-based backend applications and APIs
• Writing clean, scalable, and well-documented PHP code
• Building and improving RESTful API integrations and services
• Supporting existing systems, troubleshooting issues, and resolving bugs
• Collaborating with frontend developers and wider technical teams
• Contributing to code reviews, testing, and CI/CD processes
• Supporting deployments and integrations within AWS environments
• Contributing ideas to improve architecture, tooling, and development workflows
• Helping maintain technical documentation and development standards
• Occasionally supporting frontend development work where required

 
Core technology stack:

• PHP 8
• Symfony 6
• MySQL
• Doctrine ORM
• AWS (EC2 / Lambda)
• Docker
• Git / CI/CD pipelines
• Jira
• React / TypeScript frontend environment

What we’re looking for:

Essential experience:

• Commercial experience with PHP and Symfony
• Strong understanding of RESTful API development
• Experience working with relational databases such as MySQL
• Familiarity with Git and modern development workflows
• Ability to write clean, maintainable, and efficient code
• Strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail
• Good communication and collaboration skills

 
Desirable / bonus experience:

• Frontend exposure with JavaScript, TypeScript, or React
• Experience working with Docker or containerised environments
• Exposure to AWS services and cloud deployments
• Experience working within Agile teams
• Knowledge of automated testing frameworks such as PHPUnit or Codeception
• Understanding of serverless or microservice-based architectures

 
About you:

• You’re a proactive developer who enjoys learning and improving
• You take pride in producing clean, reliable code
• You enjoy collaborating within a supportive team environment
• You’re comfortable taking ownership of your work and contributing ideas
• You’re adaptable and happy working across both new feature development and existing systems
• You’re looking for a role where you can continue to grow technically and professionally