Senior PHP Developer

Remote-first (UK)
Full-time
Up to £60,000

We're a ten-year-old, independent technology consultancy based in Saltaire, West Yorkshire.

We help established businesses modernise, scale and improve mature digital platforms - the kind that are business-critical and genuinely interesting to work on.

If you enjoy untangling complex systems, improving legacy codebases without burning them down, and leaving software in a better state than you found it, you'll feel at home here.

This is a senior, hands-on role with real influence over how our systems are designed, built and evolved.

What you’ll do

Lead and improve back-end systems

  • Write clean, maintainable and well-tested PHP using Symfony
  • Take ownership of parts of the platform and be trusted to improve them over time
  • Raise quality through better structure, clearer boundaries and safer patterns

Shape technical direction

  • Contribute to architectural decisions and refactoring strategies
  • Help define how we build software, not just what we build
  • Balance pragmatism with long-term maintainability in legacy environments

Improve developer experience

  • Identify pain points in tooling, testing or workflows and help fix them
  • Champion sensible standards, automation and test strategy
  • Leave the codebase easier to work with than you found it

Mentor and collaborate

  • Support and mentor other developers through code reviews and discussion
  • Work closely with delivery managers, testers, designers and frontend developers
  • Communicate clearly about technical decisions, risks and trade-offs
Apply now

You'll thrive in this role if you:

  • Have strong working experience in PHP, OOP and design principles (SOLID, patterns, clean code)
  • Are comfortable working in legacy systems and improving them incrementally
  • Care about test strategy and quality - not just shipping features
  • Have solid experience with MySQL and relational data modelling
  • Build and consume APIs thoughtfully
  • Use modern tooling (Docker, Git, PHPStan, PHPUnit, CI/CD)
  • Have hands-on experience with Symfony
  • Enjoy collaborating, mentoring, and learning from others
A series of images showing people working at desks, attending the ClimbUK conference, collaborating in an office, and taking part in a hands-on pottery workshop.

The tech stack you'll work with

Backend:
PHP 7/8, Symfony 5/6/7, MySQL/MariaDB, Redis

Frontend:
Angular, Twig

Cloud & Infrastructure:
AWS, Docker, Sentry

CI/CD & Testing:
Git, GitHub Actions, PHPUnit, PHPStan

Developer experience & growth

We believe great software comes from people who are supported, trusted and given room to grow.

  • Space to refactor, improve tests and fix root causes as part of normal delivery
  • Regular technical discussions and collaborative problem-solving
  • Autonomy to make decisions, with support when you need it
  • A £500 annual personal development budget for learning, events or certifications
  • Annual reviews focused on growth, impact and progression

What comes as standard

  • Competitive salary (up to £60,000) with annual performance-based reviews
  • Flexible working - structure your day around what works for you
  • Remote-first culture (UK-based), with monthly in-person team days
  • 34 days off (including Bank Holidays), plus your birthday off every year
  • Home office setup - we’ll provide the right equipment to get you started
  • Summer and Winter team days - recent outings include spa days, pottery and off-roading
  • A friendly, down-to-earth team where your ideas and judgement genuinely matter

Our workspace in Salts Mill

We're remote-first, but we've invested heavily in a workspace we're genuinely proud of.

Our office is based in Salts Mill - a historic, light-filled space that's become a natural hub for collaboration, focus and shared problem-solving. Many of the team choose to spend time there during the week, especially for pairing, technical discussions and getting out of the home office.

We're remote-first, with one in-person team day each month - and plenty of flexibility the rest of the time. We believe there's real value in spending time together, and we've built an environment that makes that easy and enjoyable.

If you're curious, you can read more about why we chose Salts Mill and what it's like to work from there.

Exterior view of Salts Mill in Saltaire on a sunny day, the new home of True9

Equal Opportunity Employer

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to creating an inclusive and respectful environment for everyone.

Apply now

If the role sounds like a good match, we'd love to hear from you.

Fill in the form below to apply or email your CV and a short intro to recruitment@true9.co.uk if you'd prefer.

Thanks for applying.

We've received your application and someone from the team will review it and get back to you as soon as possible.