Senior Outsourced PHP Developer - Mumbai, Maharashtra

About the Role:

We are seeking a talented Senior Outsourced PHP Developer to join our team in Mumbai, Maharashtra. This role is crucial for the ongoing development and evolution of our custom PHP web application, which is integral to real-world operations. This is an opportunity for engineers who thrive on understanding the intricacies of a system and enjoy working with clean, object-oriented PHP, RESTful services, and a robust technology stack. If you are passionate about core/vanilla PHP, dedicated to performance optimization, and comfortable working across data layers, UI, and cloud infrastructure, this position will be an excellent fit.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and deliver features end-to-end within a framework-free, object-oriented PHP codebase, adhering to principles like namespaces, interfaces, traits, and SOLID.
• Design and implement efficient RESTful endpoints (JSON), including comprehensive request validation, pagination, error handling, and versioning.
• Write and optimize SQL queries (DDL/DML), manage indexes, and integrate seamlessly using PDO with prepared statements.
• Utilize MongoDB for document-oriented data needs, designing effective schemas and aggregation pipelines.
• Enhance front-end user interfaces and interactions using jQuery, HTML/CSS, and Tailwind CSS for a fast and clean user experience.
• Integrate with external APIs (REST/Webhooks), managing complex authentication flows like OAuth, token management, retries, idempotency, and rate limiting strategies.
• Operate within AWS, deploying applications on Elastic Beanstalk, managing assets in S3, utilizing DynamoDB where appropriate, and maintaining healthy environments through logging and scaling.
• Manage SSL/TLS certificate renewals and DNS records via Cloudflare, ensuring zero-downtime and optimized caching.
• Contribute to WordPress CMS development, including content ingestion, integration, headless API development, and custom field/template implementation.
• Collaborate closely with a Senior Developer, participating actively in code reviews and architectural discussions.
• Champion code quality through pragmatic testing, metrics instrumentation, comprehensive documentation, and continuous codebase improvement.

Technical Environment:

• Development is centered around Core/Vanilla PHP with a strong emphasis on Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), avoiding modern PHP frameworks.
• Adherence to OOP and RESTful design principles, prioritizing clarity, testability, and performance.
• A culture of 'speed with discipline,' characterized by small pull requests, sensible testing practices, and a commitment to continuous improvement.

Required Skills and Experience:

• Proficiency in Core/Vanilla PHP (7.x/8.x) with a strong understanding of OOP principles (interfaces, traits, namespaces, dependency injection, SOLID).
• Proven experience in designing and implementing RESTful APIs (JSON), including authentication patterns and versioning.
• Mastery of SQL, including query optimization, indexing, transactions, and PDO best practices.
• Solid understanding of MongoDB, including schema design, aggregations, and performance considerations.
• Front-end development skills with jQuery, semantic HTML, modern CSS, and Tailwind CSS.
• Experience integrating external APIs, including OAuth, webhooks, retries, idempotency, and error handling.
• Hands-on experience with AWS services such as Elastic Beanstalk, S3, and DynamoDB, including environment configuration, logging, and monitoring.
• Strong knowledge of security best practices, including input validation, prevention of common web vulnerabilities (CSRF, XSS, SQL injection), secrets management, and safe file handling.
• Experience with SSL/TLS and DNS management through Cloudflare, including HSTS, redirects, caching rules, and certificate renewals.
• Familiarity with WordPress CMS, including administration, configuration, theme/plugin interaction, or headless/REST usage.
• Proficiency with Git and collaborative development workflows, including feature branching, code reviews, and basic CI/CD.
• Comfort and experience with Linux/CLI for diagnostics and automation.

Beneficial Skills:

• Experience with queues/workers for background job processing.
• Experience with testing frameworks like PHPUnit and an integration testing mindset.
• Performance profiling using tools like Xdebug/Blackfire and implementing caching strategies (OPcache, application-level caching).
• Basic understanding of observability principles (structured logging, alerts, dashboards).

Success Metrics:

• 30 Days: Fully onboarded, productive in local/dev environments, and contributing small improvements and fixes. Demonstrates understanding of core domain models.
• 60 Days: Independently delivering medium-sized features end-to-end, and improving SQL query performance.
• 90 Days: Co-owning roadmap areas, proposing architectural improvements, and enhancing overall code quality and documentation.

Work Environment:

• Remote-first culture with an emphasis on clear written communication.
• Agile workflow utilizing tickets with lightweight specifications and acceptance criteria.
• Mandatory code reviews for all pull requests and pair programming for complex changes.
• Pragmatic documentation practices, including readmes and Architecture Decision Records (ADRs), kept close to the code.