**About Smart Working** At Smart Working, we believe your job should not only look right on paper but also feel right every day. This isn’t just another remote opportunity — it’s about finding where you truly belong, no matter where you are. From day one, you’re welcomed into a genuine community that values your growth and well\-being. Our mission is simple: to break down geographic barriers and connect skilled professionals with outstanding global teams and products for full\-time, long\-term roles. We help you discover meaningful work with teams that invest in your success, where you’re empowered to grow personally and professionally. Join one of the highest\-rated workplaces on Glassdoor and experience what it means to thrive in a truly remote\-first world. **Applicants must have the right to work in the country they are applying from and be able to work without employer sponsorship.** **About the Role** As a Senior PHP/Symfony Engineer, you will take hands\-on ownership of backend development within a mature Symfony platform that manages marketing and revenue data for enterprise customers. The core application currently runs on Symfony 6\.1, with an upgrade to Symfony 7 planned, alongside an Angular front end and TypeScript and Python AI agent microservices. This is a strongly backend\-weighted, senior hands\-on engineering role requiring an architect mindset, strong independence and the ability to understand how technical decisions affect the wider system. You will work within a remote, cross\-functional product squad alongside engineering, product, QA and DevOps colleagues. ### **Responsibilities** * Take ownership of backend development within the core Symfony application, becoming fully independent in delivering work within 2–3 months of joining. * Review and critically assess code written by the team and AI tools, challenging proposed approaches and making sure key considerations have been properly addressed. * Support the migration from Symfony 6\.1 to Symfony 7 by resolving versioning, compatibility and legacy issues currently preventing the upgrade. * Improve the application’s performance, scalability and maintainability, making it easier and safer to introduce new functionality. * Work across the Angular front end, TypeScript and Python\-based AI agent services, collaborating with DevOps where backend changes impact other areas of the system. * Be comfortable reading and understanding the Angular/TypeScript codebase, even though the role is primarily backend focused. Strong front\-end development experience is not required. * Understand the wider impact of technical decisions across Symfony, Angular and AI services, while spotting gaps or issues in both human\-written and AI\-generated code. * Question existing approaches, identify root causes and look for better ways of building things rather than simply completing assigned tickets. * Deliver thoughtful, maintainable solutions within a legacy codebase while maintaining a consistent pace of delivery. * Work with a high level of autonomy and ownership while collaborating effectively with a remote, cross\-functional team. * Follow SOC 2, PII and security requirements consistently and without exception. ### **Requirements** * 8\+ years of commercial software engineering experience, including at least 5 years working with PHP. * 7\+ years of Expert\-level PHP development experience. * 3\+ years of recent commercial experience with Symfony 6\.x/7 at Advanced level. Strong senior\-level Laravel experience may be considered where the experience is clearly transferable and the candidate has a good understanding of the differences between Laravel and Symfony. * 4\+ years of Advanced experience in backend architecture, system design and scalability. * 2\+ years of Advanced experience using AI development tools critically, including reviewing, validating and challenging AI\-generated code rather than accepting it without question. * 5\+ years of Advanced MySQL experience, including database schema design and query optimisation. Equivalent depth of experience with PostgreSQL or another relational database may also be considered. * At least 1 year of experience working with or understanding Angular/TypeScript. Experience with React or Vue using TypeScript may also be considered, but some front\-end exposure is essential. * 3\+ years of Advanced experience with automated testing using PHPUnit. Experience with Pest or another equivalent PHP testing framework may also be considered. * At least 1 year of Intermediate experience working on framework upgrades and modernising legacy codebases. Experience with major\-version upgrades or significant refactoring in other large PHP applications may be considered. * 2\+ years of Intermediate AWS experience. Equivalent experience with Azure or GCP may also be considered. * Fluent written and spoken English. * Strong written and verbal communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to work effectively in a remote envi