Senior PHP Developer

Alongside partners with organizations to drive digital transformation and build high-performing tech teams .

We are looking for a PHP Developer to join our client's team, an organization operating in the higher education sector , based in Lisbon.

This professional will play a key role in maintaining, optimizing, and modernizing a complex, business-critical platform that supports multiple operational areas and integrates with several internal and external systems.

The project involves working with native PHP and MySQL , contributing to the modernization of legacy applications, improving system performance, and supporting the migration to more recent technology versions.

Responsibilities

• Maintain, develop, and optimize business-critical applications using native PHP and MySQL
• Contribute to the modernization of legacy systems, including migration from PHP 5 to PHP 8 and MySQL 5 to MySQL 8
• Analyze existing codebases, understand complex business logic, and identify opportunities for architectural improvements
• Develop, maintain, and troubleshoot integrations with multiple internal and external systems, including ERP platforms
• Ensure application stability, security, scalability, and performance
• Optimize database queries, connections, and processes to support high volumes of data and concurrent users
• Investigate and resolve performance bottlenecks and technical issues in legacy applications
• Support the maintenance and improvement of backend services, web applications, and internal management platforms
• Document existing functionalities, integrations, and technical processes
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to define technical solutions and modernization strategies
• Ensure business continuity throughout migration and modernization activities

Requirements

• At least 5 years of professional experience in PHP development, ideally in complex enterprise environments
• Strong hands-on experience with native PHP, without relying exclusively on frameworks such as Laravel or Symfony
• Solid experience with MySQL, including database optimization, query performance, and connection management
• Proven experience maintaining, troubleshooting, and modernizing legacy applications
• Experience working with complex integrations between different systems, APIs, and databases
• Strong understanding of software architecture, object-oriented programming, and backend development principles
• Ability to understand and maintain large, complex, and poorly documented codebases
• Experience identifying and resolving performance and scalability issues
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• High level of autonomy, ownership, and technical decision-making capabilities

Nice to have

• Previous experience migrating applications from PHP 5 to PHP 8
• Experience upgrading MySQL databases from older versions to MySQL 8
• Experience integrating applications with SAP or other ERP systems
• Knowledge of Linux environments and server administration
• Experience with high-volume data processing, synchronization, and scheduled background jobs
• Knowledge of database connection pooling and performance optimization
• Experience working with systems involving multiple interconnected business modules
• Familiarity with technical documentation and legacy code refactoring

Benefits

• On-site: Lisbon
• Opportunity to work on a long-term project within the higher education sector
• Direct involvement in the modernization of a complex and business-critical platform
• Opportunity to contribute to technical and architectural decisions
• Challenging technical environment with significant impact on daily operations
• Stable project with long-term collaboration opportunities