Senior PHP Backend Developer

<h3 style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">About Shiftbase</span></h3><p style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">At Shiftbase, we build workforce software that helps people get work done. Thousands of teams across Europe rely on our platform every day to plan work, track time, and manage leave, freeing them from unnecessary admin so they can focus on what matters and what sparked their business.</span></p><p style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">As we continue to grow in customers, usage and product ambition, the demands on our platform grow with us. Our backend needs to scale in </span><strong><span style="color:#121317">quality, reliability and speed of change</span></strong><span style="color:#121317">. That’s why we’re investing heavily in modernising our platform, building a foundation that allows us to move faster, deliver better experiences, and support the next phase of Shiftbase’s growth.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><h3 style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">About the role:</span></h3><p style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317"><br>As a Senior Backend Engineer, you are a key driver of both product delivery and platform modernisation. You work on the core of our backend, improving reliability, performance and scalability, with the explicit goal of turning Shiftbase from a platform people enjoy into a platform they love.</span></p><p style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">You help evolve a mature monolithic codebase into a more modular, testable and future-proof architecture. By modernising the foundation of the product, you directly enable better user experiences, faster iteration and higher overall product quality.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><h3 style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">What you'll do</span></h3><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><p style="text-align:start;"><strong><span style="color:#121317">Drive technical excellence</span></strong></p><ul class="ak-ul"><li><p><span style="color:#121317">Design and deliver high-quality, scalable solutions for complex features and system components</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color:#121317">Make informed architectural decisions that balance pragmatism with long-term vision</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color:#121317">Set the bar for technical craft through your contributions and code reviews</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color:#121317">Own complex technical initiatives from design through production, breaking them into testable increments</span></p></li></ul><p style="text-align:start;"><strong><span style="color:#121317">Build for reliability and scale</span></strong></p><ul class="ak-ul"><li><p><span style="color:#121317">Define comprehensive testing strategies for complex features, championing quality within the team</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color:#121317">Debug and resolve complex issues across multiple components, improving system observability</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color:#121317">Apply security best practices throughout the development lifecycle</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color:#121317">Contribute to monitoring, alerting and system health improvements</span></p></li></ul><p style="text-align:start;"><strong><span style="color:#121317">Enable team growth</span></strong></p><ul class="ak-ul"><li><p><span style="color:#121317">Mentor engineers with targeted technical guidance and feedback</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color:#121317">Support onboarding and enable a collaborative, knowledge-sharing environment</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color:#121317">Help shape delivery practices and improve team velocity through data-informed decisions</span></p></li></ul><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p> <br> <h3 style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">What we're looking for</span></h3><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><p style="text-align:start;"><strong><span style="color:#121317">Core technical expertise</span></strong></p><p style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">You have deep backend engineering experience with complex, high-scale systems. We don't expect expertise in everything listed below. We value engineers who've built depth and breadth through genuine curiosity and a drive to solve real problems. These are examples of competencies that matter in this role:</span></p><ul class="ak-ul"><li><p><strong><span style="color:#121317">Modern PHP &amp; architectural patterns</span></strong><span style="color:#121317">: Experience with hexagonal architecture, domain-driven design, or similar patterns that emphasize domain modeling over framework magic. You can build maintainable systems without relying on framework shortcuts.</span></p></li><li><p><strong><span style="color:#121317">SQL &amp; database design</span></strong><span style="color:#121317">: Comfort writing raw SQL (not just ORM abstractions) and working with complex relational schemas particularly around time-sensitive data like scheduling, timesheets and payroll where integrity and performance are critical.</span></p></li><li><p><strong><span style="color:#121317">Legacy modernisation experience</span></strong><span style="color:#121317">: You've gradually evolved mature systems rather than pursuing big-bang rewrites. You know when to modernize strategically vs. leaving working code untouched, and understand the balance between progress and stability when serving thousands of customers.</span></p></li><li><p><strong><span style="color:#121317">Monolith to services</span></strong><span style="color:#121317">: Experience breaking down monoliths with good judgment about when distribution solves real problems (deployment bottlenecks, team autonomy) vs. when it adds unnecessary complexity.</span></p></li><li><p><strong><span style="color:#121317">Testing in legacy contexts</span></strong><span style="color:#121317">: Practical experience with unit and integration testing, particularly incrementally improving coverage in existing systems.</span></p></li></ul><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><p style="text-align:start;min-height: 1.7em;"></p><h3 style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">This might be your dream job if…</span></h3><p style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">✅ You enjoy </span><strong><span style="color:#121317">modernising a mature platform</span></strong><span style="color:#121317"> and turning legacy code into something you’re proud of</span></p><p style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">✅ You get energy from </span><strong><span style="color:#121317">breaking down a monolith</span></strong><span style="color:#121317"> and shaping a more modular, service-oriented architecture</span></p><p style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">✅ You care about </span><strong><span style="color:#121317">product quality</span></strong><span style="color:#121317">, not just “shipping code”.</span></p><p style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">✅ You like improving reliability, performance and developer experience as much as adding new features</span></p><p style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">✅ You enjoy working closely with product and frontend to make better technical and product decisions</span></p><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><h3 style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">This probably isn’t your dream job if…</span></h3><p style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">⛔️ You only want to work on </span><strong><span style="color:#121317">greenfield projects</span></strong><span style="color:#121317"> and avoid legacy systems altogether</span></p><p style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">⛔️ You’re uncomfortable refactoring existing code or making incremental improvements</span></p><p style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">⛔️ You prefer being handed fully-defined solutions rather than helping shape them</span></p><p style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">⛔️ You’re looking for a role where architecture decisions are already “done”</span></p><p style="text-align:start;"><span style="color:#121317">⛔️ You’d rather optimise locally than care about the </span><strong><span style="color:#121317">end-to-end product experience</span></strong></p><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><p><em>Note: Candidates outside the Netherlands will not be considered</em></p><p>Find <a href="https://www.arbeitnow.nl">Jobs in Netherlands</a> on Arbeitnow</a>