Principal Developer - PHP Laravel
About the role We are looking for a Principal Engineer with deep expertise in Laravel. You won't just be shipping code - you’ll be defining the technical strategy that scales our app api. In this role you will own the quality, scalability, and security of app api, remove technical bottlenecks and solve "hard" engineering problems, elevate the team’s output, improve PR standards, and draw the right balance between tech-debt and speed of delivery (optimising for business requirements). Ideally, you are a backend authority who also has the pragmatic full-stack skills (especially ReactJS) to unblock features and drive delivery end-to-end. Role Responsibilities Whilst every role in a startup has a degree of flexibility over time, here is what we see as the role’s main responsibilities: Architect high-performance, scalable APIs that serve as the backbone of our platform. Making high-stakes decisions on scalability, maintainability, data modeling, and performance. Elevate the entire engineering team by setting high standards, conducting rigorous PR reviews. Make smart trade-offs between "perfect code" and speed to market, understanding that engineering is a lever for business growth. Champion reliability and observability. You build it, you run it! Ensure our systems are debuggable, resilient, and performant in production. Ship complex, high-value features end-to-end. You are hands-on and lead from the front, unblocking the team on the hardest technical challenges. About You The type of person we think will be awesome in this role will likely have a track record of the below skills and experience: Extensive commercial experience (sweet spot is 8-12 years) designing and building mission-critical SaaS platforms using Modern PHP & Laravel. You understand the framework's internals. Practical experience implementing Domain-Driven Design Sufficient experience with ReactJS and TypeScript to comfortably handle full-stack features and unblock frontend challenges when necessary. Deep experience with modern testing frameworks, CI/CD pipelines (we use GitHub Actions), and maintaining "production-ready" code standards. Demonstrated ability to prioritise business value and "move rapidly" over perfection. Ability to explain complex technical trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders in simple terms. While not necessary, we’re especially interested in candidates with the below: You thrive in ambiguity and are comfortable driving projects forward autonomously in a fast-paced environment. Deep familiarity with AWS services beyond just EC2 & RDS. Experience tuning complex SQL queries Handling large datasets in different formats. Pay & Benefits Salary Total compensation packages are based on a wide array of factors unique to each candidate, including but not limited to demonstrated skill set, years and depth of relevant experience, location and some role-dependent factors. We’ll be happy to discuss this during the interview process. The Perch Perks Work from Anywhere – PerchPeek is a fully distributed & remote company that supports employees working wherever they’d like to be (within the parameters of your role’s requirements). We offer an allowance to ensure your working environment suits you. Flexible Holiday and Leave – you’ll receive all statutory holiday plus wellbeing leave and flexible annual leave for you to rest, relax, or recharge as you see fit. Company share options – be a business owner and have your very own little piece of PerchPeek. Learning & Development Budget – so you can be proactive about learning something fun outside of your core role. Annual Onsite – we all take flight once a year and gather the flock together somewhere cracking to spark new ideas, connections and memories! In the past we’ve traveled to Tenerife, Barcelona, and Marrakech. Ready to be a Perchy? Firstly, no need for a cover letter (phew!). Please just share your resume and responses to the application questions. Our interview stages are: HR Screen (25-30 minutes): A brief chat with Penny (Head of People) to discuss your background, what you're looking for next, and answer any initial questions about the company or team. Technical Challenge (Take-home): A practical coding exercise designed to let you showcase your engineering standards - focusing on clean architecture, and modern Laravel practices. We respect your time and keep this concise. Collaborative Technical Workshop (90 mins): A "real-world" working session with our engineers. We will use your code submission as a base to solve 2-3 additional problems together. We also provide detailed feedback on your submission during this call. Engineering Excellence Interview (45 mins): A deep-dive technical interview with technical co-founder, Ace. We will discuss system design, architectural trade-offs, and how you approach building scalable, mission-critical software. Culture & Alignment Interview (45 mins: A final conversation with Paul (CEO) and Hellie (COO) to ensure our values align and that we can offer the environment you need to thrive. We hope you’re as excited to apply as we are to hear from you - Good luck! Apply To This Job