Senior Laravel Developer - Lead Legacy Migration Architect

Reports To: Manager of Digital Assets

Position Overview

This Role Is Special! You're not just writing Laravel code. You're:

• Teaching experienced developers, a modern framework
• Architecting a zero-downtime transformation
• Leading a team that already understands the business
• Building on a stable foundation (Bootstrap/jQuery) rather than chasing trends

If you've successfully led a team through a major migration while keeping customers happy and features shipping, we want to talk. Bonus points if you can share war stories about session synchronization, gradual routing transitions, and the satisfaction of watching a team level up their skills.

The Challenge That Will Define Your Next Year

We have 350,000 lines of procedural PHP across thousands of files that's been running our business for years. No framework. Script-driven. It works, but it's time for transformation. We need someone who sees this not as a nightmare, but as the kind of architectural challenge that makes you excited to solve complex problems.

The Smart Migration Strategy

We're not doing a big-bang rewrite. You'll architect a parallel system approach where Laravel and legacy code coexist peacefully, sharing the same database. New features ship in Laravel from month one. Old features migrate gradually. Our customers never experience disruption. This requires someone who understands both the technical and business implications of every decision.

This is a chance to be part of a highly talented team and a truly unique work experience.

A Little About ASM

At ASM our mission is to help busy people organize their processes so they can connect everything and everyone, keep people safe, grow their business, and shatter expectations. We do this by putting important management systems, like Health and Safety, Quality, Environment, and HR, under one hood!

After nearly 20 years of thoughtful development, our comprehensive functionality suite enhances compliance, elevates employee development, and supports accountability. We are a growing privately owned company with lofty goals and unwavering focus on the success of our customers. If this sounds like a team you want to be a part of, apply now.

Our Current Stack (What You're Working With)

• Backend: 350K lines of procedural PHP, MySQL
• Frontend: jQuery, Bootstrap, custom CSS
• Server: Apache with PHP
• Authentication: Session-based
• Architecture: Traditional multi-page application

We're not looking to change everything. Laravel for the backend makes sense. Our jQuery/Bootstrap frontend works well for our users. You'll focus on the PHP-to-Laravel migration, not unnecessary technology churn.

The Ideal Candidate

You're Perfect for This If You:

• Have successfully migrated large legacy systems without business disruption
• Love teaching and mentoring developers in Laravel best practices
• Can architect solutions where old and new code coexist gracefully
• Think in Laravel patterns but respect why legacy code evolved the way it did
• Know when to use routes, middleware, service providers, and jobs
• Understand that jQuery and Bootstrap are solid choices (we use both extensively)
• Can explain complex architectural decisions in simple business terms
• Balance "perfect architecture" with "shipping features continuously"

Technical Must-Haves:

• 5+ years PHP development, 3+ years deep Laravel expertise
• Proven experience with parallel system migrations
• Strong MySQL skills - you'll be managing shared database strategies
• Experience with Apache/PHP configurations for running parallel systems
• Session sharing and authentication bridging experience
• Experience mentoring developers and establishing coding standards
• Canadian resident (legal requirement)

Nice-to-Haves

• Full-stack capabilities (JavaScript/jQuery/Bootstrap experience)
• DevOps/deployment experience for zero-downtime cutovers
• Experience with feature flags and staged rollouts
• Experience modernizing jQuery codebases (not replacing, but organizing)

Your Mission

• Design and implement a parallel-running strategy (Laravel + legacy sharing one database)
• Lead and mentor our existing team of experienced PHP developers through Laravel adoption
• Establish patterns, best practices, and migration architecture
• Create a routing strategy that seamlessly moves traffic between old and new
• Transform 350K lines of procedural PHP into clean, tested Laravel code
• Enable continuous feature delivery throughout the migration - no feature freeze

Your Team

You're not starting from scratch here. We have 3-4 experienced PHP developers who know our codebase inside and out. They understand the business logic, the weird edge cases, and why that strange function exists. Your job is to level them up on Laravel while leveraging their deep domain knowledge. This is about transformation, not replacement.

The Journey

• Month 1-2: Deep dive analysis, Laravel framework setup, parallel running architecture, team training begins
• Month 3-6: Core business logic migration with your trained team, old/new systems running side-by-side
• Month 7-10: Accelerated migration with the team hitting full Laravel velocity
• Month 11-12: Final modules, testing, optimization, monitored production cutover
• Month 13: Legacy retirement celebration 🎉
• Many Months more: Stick around things are just getting interesting

Our Commitment to Continuous Delivery

We can't freeze features for a year, and you'll architect a solution that ensures we don't have to. Whether it's using Laravel as a proxy, implementing careful database sharing, or building authentication bridges - you'll keep the business moving forward while transforming its foundation. This is what separates a migration architect from a developer.

What We Offer

• $80-150K base salary (based on experience)
• 100% remote work
• Realistic timeline - we value doing it right over doing it fast
• An experienced team that knows the domain
• Direct impact on critical business transformation

In addition to your salary, you will receive our comprehensive benefits, including.

• 25 vacation days a year
• Continuing Education Fund
• Fitness Allowance
• Fun Stuff Allowance!

How to Apply:

To apply for the role of DATS Coach please send your Cover Letter, Resume, and your migration analysis, to [email protected].

Required with your application: Migration Analysis

We're sharing a real 200-line PHP file from our production codebase. This code handles inspection forms, permissions, and workflow states - critical business functionality we need to migrate carefully.

Access the code: https://gist.github.com/ShayneDATS/6d8cec51fa001309f0277bf728ad5b9d

Provide these three deliverables:

Video Analysis (5 minutes max, use Loom - it's free) Walk us through the code explaining:

• What business problem this code solves
• Three specific issues that need addressing
• Your approach to migrating this to Laravel
• Which Laravel patterns you'd use for the status logic and permissions

Migration Assessment (1 page max)

• Hours estimate to properly migrate this file
• Dependencies you'd need to investigate (those includes, the $UTB_CONFIG, etc.)
• Testing approach for the complex status calculations
• One thing that could break in production if migrated incorrectly

Your Biggest Concern

• What's the riskiest part of migrating this specific code?
• What would you need from our team to mitigate that risk?