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Backend Engineer — PHP / CodeIgniter
Full-time Mid–Senior 5+ years PHP CodeIgniter Laravel Vue.js
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About the Role

We are looking for a Mid–Senior Backend Engineer with strong PHP experience to develop, maintain, and improve backend services, APIs, and production-critical systems.

CodeIgniter is our primary production framework — including legacy versions — and will be the core of your day-to-day work. Some projects may involve Laravel, so familiarity with the framework at a comfortable level would be valuable. You will work hands-on across established production environments, contributing to API development, performance improvements, debugging, reliability, and technical modernization.

This is a full-stack-leaning role: approximately 80% of the work is back-end and full-stack development, with about 20% involving front-end responsibilities. The ideal candidate has solid foundational front-end experience with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap, and Vue.js, and is comfortable stepping into front-end work when needed — particularly across back-office applications, CRUD systems, internal dashboards, administrative interfaces, and other business-facing tools — without needing to be a dedicated front-end specialist.

The position also includes backup support responsibilities for core backend systems.

Key Responsibilities

  • Develop, maintain, and improve backend services and REST APIs.
  • Work confidently within existing and legacy PHP codebases, including maintaining, extending, and refactoring functionality.
  • Design, build, and integrate internal and external APIs.
  • Investigate, debug, and resolve production issues.
  • Profile applications and improve backend performance, reliability, and scalability.
  • Improve test coverage and system reliability, especially around business-critical workflows.
  • Work day to day with relational databases, caching layers, and queue-based systems.
  • Provide backup support for core backend systems when required.
  • Participate in code reviews and contribute to engineering best practices.
  • Document technical decisions, share knowledge, and collaborate closely with a small technical team.
  • Use AI coding agents and modern development tools responsibly as part of the development workflow.
  • Step into front-end work when needed, maintaining, troubleshooting, and enhancing both modern and legacy front-end code across back-office applications, CRUD systems, internal dashboards, and administrative interfaces.

Required Skills and Experience

  • 5+ years of professional backend development experience with PHP.
  • Strong hands-on experience with CodeIgniter, including legacy and older production versions — our primary and most important framework.
  • Familiarity with Laravel at a comfortable level is valuable, as some projects may involve working within it.
  • Solid understanding of REST API design, implementation, and integration.
  • Good working knowledge of MySQL, including schema design, query optimization, and performance troubleshooting.
  • Experience with Redis for caching, queues, or related backend use cases.
  • Solid foundational front-end experience with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap, and Vue.js.
  • Familiarity with legacy jQuery, as some existing systems still rely on it.
  • Comfortable owning production systems, including debugging, profiling, incident investigation, and safe incremental refactoring.
  • Experience using Git-based workflows.
  • Exposure to AWS infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines.

Technical Stack

Languages PHP 7.x–8.x
Frameworks CodeIgniter (including legacy versions), Laravel
Databases and Data Tools MySQL, Redis
Search and Analytics Elasticsearch is a plus
Infrastructure and Tooling AWS, GitHub, CI/CD pipelines
Front-End HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap, Vue.js, legacy jQuery
Development Tools AI-assisted coding tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, or similar

Preferred Qualifications

The following experience is beneficial but not required:

  • Experience modernizing, migrating, or refactoring legacy systems.
  • Experience introducing automated tests into previously untested codebases.
  • Experience with Elasticsearch tuning, message queues, BigQuery, or ETL workflows.
  • Previous experience in the travel or travel-tech industry.

Candidate Profile

We are looking for someone who is:

  • Pragmatic and delivery-focused, with a strong ability to ship safe, incremental improvements.
  • Highly reliable and comfortable taking ownership of production-critical backend systems.
  • Confident working with legacy code, ambiguity, and evolving technical environments.
  • Focused on improving systems rather than rewriting them unnecessarily.
  • A clear communicator who collaborates well in a small team environment.
  • Quality-minded, with an interest in improving tests, observability, documentation, and engineering practices.
  • Curious about modern development workflows, including responsible use of AI coding tools.
  • Comfortable stepping into front-end work when needed, without needing to be a dedicated front-end specialist.

What Success Looks Like

In this role, success means becoming a trusted owner of important backend systems, delivering reliable improvements to existing services, contributing to API and infrastructure stability, and helping the team modernize systems in a practical and sustainable way.

You will be expected to balance delivery speed with production safety, communicate clearly, and make thoughtful technical decisions that improve reliability, maintainability, and long-term system health.

Send your CV and a short note about your background to contact@undercode.ro with the subject line Backend Engineer — PHP / CodeIgniter.

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