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.