Staff Software Engineer

Staff Software Engineer

PlanHub is the leading pre-construction SaaS platform and marketplace helping general contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers connect and grow their businesses. Built with tradespeople in mind, PlanHub is designed around the user workflow to help boost productivity, maintain deadlines, increase revenue, and create relationships. Easily post projects or submit bids with anytime-anywhere collaboration for every commercial construction trade.

We're looking for a Staff Software Engineer (Backend) ready to shape the systems powering everything we build. You'll be a technical anchor of the engineering org — designing, scaling, and shipping backend systems built for serious growth, and setting the standard other engineers build toward.

You'll tackle hard architectural problems, make calls that ripple across the platform, mentor other engineers, and sharpen how the team writes and reviews code.

Reporting to the Engineering Manager, you'll work across multiple pods, partnering with product, design, and engineering to turn ambitious ideas into resilient, production-grade systems — and bring AI-native workflows into how the team builds.

What you will be doing:

• Architect and develop high-quality, scalable, and resilient backend systems using PHP and Laravel.
• Establish patterns for safely and effectively using AI coding agents, such as Claude Code, across design, implementation, debugging, and maintenance to improve developer productivity.
• Design and optimize APIs, ensuring security, performance, and maintainability for internal and external consumers.
• Lead complex integrations across multiple databases, including MySQL and MongoDB, and search engines like Elasticsearch.
• Ensure system scalability and performance, optimizing query efficiency and backend services.
• Oversee Docker-based deployments, refining containerization strategies for reliability and scalability.
• Define and enforce engineering best practices, conducting deep-dive code reviews and architectural discussions.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product managers, DevOps, frontend engineers, and other stakeholders to deliver high-impact features.
• Guide and mentor senior and junior engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence.
• Lead troubleshooting efforts for critical production and UAT issues, ensuring fast resolution and long-term fixes.
• Own and improve CI/CD pipelines, streamlining deployment and testing automation.
• Champion API documentation best practices, ensuring clarity and consistency with Swagger or similar tools.

What you will need to be successful:

• 10+ years of software development experience in backend systems, with a focus on high-scale SaaS platforms.
• 7+ years of experience in PHP and Laravel development at an advanced architectural level.
• 7+ years of experience in MySQL development, including advanced data modeling and query optimization.
• Experience using AI coding tools (e.g. Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot) to improve software delivery, coupled with strong engineering judgment and quality controls.
• Strong expertise in MongoDB or equivalent document database and Elasticsearch, optimizing indexing and search performance.
• Proven experience leading architectural decisions, making trade-offs between scalability, security, and maintainability, at the application and the data tier levels.
• Extensive experience in API design and optimization, ensuring robustness and scalability.
• Advanced experience with Docker containers, Kubernetes is a plus.
• Deep understanding of, and experience with, DevOps principles, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud-native infrastructure.
• Experience integrating and maintaining third-party services, ensuring seamless data flow and security compliance.
• Strong understanding of agile development methodologies, with experience in technical leadership within agile teams.
• Exceptional problem-solving and debugging skills, capable of resolving complex production issues quickly and efficiently.
• Experience mentoring senior and junior developers, fostering growth and technical excellence.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to convey technical concepts to diverse stakeholders.
• Degree in Computer Science or related technical discipline, or equivalent industry experience.

What's in it for you:

The opportunity to join PlanHub, named to the 2025 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies, marking our fifth consecutive year on the list—a testament to sustained growth and momentum. You can make an immediate impact as PlanHub moves to dominate the industry!

PlanHub offers:

• An awesome culture where you will be empowered, make an impact, and learn a ton.
• Open time-off policy.
• An excellent benefit package, including medical, dental, vision and life insurance.
• 401(k)/RRSP plan with company match.

This position will be a remote position within the United States or Canada. Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer within the United States or Canada. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.

PlanHub is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.

PlanHub complies with all applicable laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company operates. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, benefits, training, and development.