Senior Backend Engineer

We're looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to take a leading role in supporting our development teams and advancing an established platform used for mission-critical financial services. You will shape solution architecture, drive technical design, and build reliable backend services while working with experienced colleagues in a dynamic, continuously evolving environment shaped by changing client needs. Your responsibilities: Take a leading role in the design, development, maintenance, and continuous evolution of backend applications, services, and the existing platform. Translate complex business and functional requirements into effective technical designs and production-ready solutions. Build with PHP, using Laravel and/or Symfony as part of our backend technology stack. Shape backend solution architecture and make sound technical design decisions across services, modules, and interfaces. Design and integrate APIs, backend services, enterprise applications, databases, and external systems. Help evolve our existing multi-client platform toward more modular, API-driven, AI-enabled, and microservices-based architecture in response to changing client needs. Work closely with experienced solution architects, engineers, and product professionals to turn architecture and client requirements into effective implementation. Set the bar on engineering standards, design consistency, and continuous improvement through code reviews and technical guidance. Write reusable, secure, well-structured components that other engineers can build on. Design and optimize data models, queries, and database interactions across MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB. Support data integrity, reliability, and efficient processing at scale. Participate in the full development lifecycle — from design through deployment, troubleshooting, and support. Drive the modernization and continuous development of the existing platform toward more maintainable, scalable, and adaptable architectures. Use Git, automated testing, and CI/CD practices as standard parts of how we build. Role's requirements: Strong senior-level backend engineering experience, with real ownership of complex technical solutions. Solid understanding of software architecture, design principles, maintainability, scalability, security, and performance. Hands-on PHP experience, with practical experience in Laravel and/or Symfony. Experience designing, developing, and integrating APIs and distributed backend services. Experience with databases including MySQL and PostgreSQL, covering data modeling, query optimization, and performance tuning. Experience with MariaDB and MongoDB is considered an advantage. Ability to evaluate technical options, make pragmatic architecture decisions, and guide implementation quality. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to work independently and take ownership. Advantages: Technical leadership, architecture ownership, or experience mentoring other engineers. Experience with both Laravel and Symfony, plus unit testing/test-driven development. Experience with CMS and digital commerce platforms such as Drupal, Magento, Shopify, and Joomla. Enterprise application integration, API architecture, or event-driven/service-oriented design experience. Experience with CI/CD pipelines, containerization, or cloud environments. Background in banking, insurance, or other regulated industries. Curiosity about AI-assisted development and emerging engineering practices.