Senior PHP Engineer

About Us:

Paysera is an EU licensed e-money institution trusted by more than a million people worldwide. We make payments simple for e-commerce, retail, and everyday finances. With over 800 colleagues across the globe, we bring together fresh ideas and the stability of an international company. If you’re curious, driven, and ready to grow with us in an AI-focused environment, Paysera is the place for you.

Role Overview:

• Title: Senior Backend Engineer (PHP/Symfony)
• Level: Senior/Senior+
• Reports To: Head of Backend Development
• Purpose: To design, build, and maintain scalable, fault-tolerant backend systems that power Paysera’s financial services, ensuring security, compliance, and high performance.

Your Key Responsibilities:

• Design, build, and maintain high-throughput backend services using PHP and Symfony.
• Develop and maintain RESTful APIs, microservices, and asynchronous workflows.
• Design, implement, and optimize scalable data solutions, including relational databases for high-volume workloads.
• Manage in-memory stores and search engines.
• Apply DDD, SOLID, and event-driven principles to model complex financial domains.
• Ensure code quality with unit testing and code review practices.
• Integrate and extend financial systems and third-party services securely and compliantly.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, architects, and other developers to ship secure, compliant, and auditable code.
• Champion AI-assisted engineering by leveraging tools to accelerate development — while maintaining rigorous code quality and review standards.
• Mentor peers, participate in code reviews, and foster a culture of knowledge sharing, security, and continuous improvement.

Must-Have Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional backend development experience, with at least 2+ years in enterprise-grade projects.
• Hands-on expertise with PHP 8.2+ and Symfony 6+.
• 2+ years working with microservices architecture and distributed systems.
• Proficiency in MySQL/PostgreSQL with evidence of optimizing schemas for high-volume workloads.
• Hands-on experience with Redis and ElasticSearch for high-volume environments.
• Knowledge of Kafka, RabbitMQ (event-driven architecture).
• Proven skills in Dockerized environments and container workflows.
• Strong knowledge of DDD, SOA, SOLID, and event-driven architecture principles.
• Strong testing culture with PHPUnit, code quality tools (PHPStan, PHP CS Fixer).
• Strong debugging skills and experience with monitoring tools (Sentry, Graylog, Grafana, Kibana).
• Proficiency in OAuth2 / JWT authentication.
• Understanding of PSR standards.
• Fluency in English (B2 level) — written and verbal.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools (ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor) in daily coding workflows.

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

• Experience with Kubernetes, Helm, and GitOps workflows.
• Hands-on exposure to high-load systems.
• Familiarity with additional languages (Java, Kotlin, Golang).
• Contributions to open-source PHP projects or internal libraries.
• Experience with SOAP/XML-based services in enterprise contexts.
• Experience with front-end technologies and frameworks.

Domain Expertise (Fintech Superpowers — Big Plus!)

• Core banking: Payments, multi-currency, account management.
• Compliance: KYC/AML workflows, sanctions screening, audit trails, FATCA/CRS reporting.
• Financial standards: SEPA, SWIFT, ISO20022, PSD2.
• Risk & Fraud: Transaction monitoring, anomaly detection, rule engines.
• Financial security: PCI-DSS, tokenization, secure key management.
• High-volume processing: Asynchronous queues, batch processing.
• E-commerce & Payments: Payment gateway integrations, card processing integrations, large-scale e-commerce platforms.

Work Conditions & Contract Info

• Employment type: Full-time, permanent contract.
• Work arrangement: Remote.
• Core hours: Business hours aligned with CET/EET.
• Compensation: Range TBD (provided by employer).
• Start date: As soon as possible.
• Contract length: Indefinite.

What we offer:

Work-life Balance: strive for balance with flexible working hours and full remote work possibilities.

Innovation and Development: participate in skill-building workshops and have freedom to experiment with various AI tools.

Growth-focused Culture: thrive within a highly professional, quality-oriented, and dynamic team and pursue your potential and innovative ideas in a fast-growing, international company.