Hybrid Senior Backend Engineer, PHP

at Reward Gateway

• Job title: Senior Backend Engineer, PHP
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Senior
• Salary: €50,500 - €56,000 per year
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Tech skills: GraphQL, MySQL, PHP, SQL
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

About the role

• Senior Backend Engineer (PHP) developing backend solutions for a leading digital platform company. Collaborating with global teams to enhance application performance and reliability.

Responsibilities

• Interpret, define, and develop software solutions based on written requirements and technical specifications.
• Identify opportunities for improvement in existing products and implement enhancements across the platform.
• Troubleshoot, test, and maintain core applications and databases to ensure performance, reliability, and scalability.
• Collaborate with QA to define acceptance criteria and assist with debugging and issue resolution.
• Contribute to the creation and upkeep of comprehensive technical documentation.
• Write clean, maintainable, and well-structured code that adheres to established coding standards and best practices.
• Work effectively within globally distributed, cross-functional teams.
• Participate in mentoring, coaching, and knowledge-sharing initiatives to support team development.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in backend web application development, with strong proficiency in PHP 8+ and MySQL.
• Solid understanding of OOP principles, SOLID, and modern software engineering best practices.
• Proven experience applying design patterns to build maintainable and scalable solutions.
• Hands-on experience with Unit and Integration testing (e.g., PHPUnit, Pest).
• Strong working knowledge of SQL, RESTful APIs, and GraphQL.
• Ability to leverage AI‑assisted development tools to improve productivity, code quality, and documentation.
• Excellent English communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively within cross-functional, globally distributed teams.
• Comfortable working in environments that follow strong Agile practices, including iterative development, continuous improvement, and close collaboration with product .

Benefits

• An online interview with the Senior Talent Partner and Engineering Lead. This should last no longer than 40 minutes.
• Final video interview of 75 minutes that will consist of 3 stages. This includes:
• 50 minutes to discuss your experience and technical abilities
• 15 minutes to review and discuss a coding exercise
• 10 minutes to ask questions you may have
• Be comfortable. Be you. At Reward Gateway, we want all of our employees to feel comfortable bringing their passion, creativity and individuality to work. We value all cultures, backgrounds and experiences, as we truly believe that diversity drives innovation. Express yourself, join our community and help us Make the World a Better Place to Work.
• We hire BETTER. From perks to people, our BETTER approach to hiring earns us more trust, happier people and more world-class talent that help us to make the world a better place to work. Find out more about Reward Gateway's approach to benefits, equality, talent, technology, empathy and what you’ll get in return for joining our Mission at rg.co/lifeatrg.