Lead PHP Developer

Lead PHP Developer

Fully Remote working - UK SaaS eCommerce software company

Salary £50k to £60k

Stratospherec is delighted to be recruiting for a leading UK SaaS company whose Order Management platform is revolutionising the way retailers and eCommerce companies run their businesses.

We are looking for an experienced PHP developer to take on the technical side of the business — starting hands-on and growing into full technical ownership of the platform. This is a long-term career role, not a stepping stone, and it's largely what you make of it.

You'll wear two hats. Day to day, you're the technical support for the team and the person who keeps the application running: working tickets, fixing issues, being the one people come to.

At the same time, you'll own the bigger picture — developing a plan for how the system should evolve, developing and reshaping parts of the application once you're established. Balancing the reactive and the strategic is the central challenge of the role, and we want someone who understands why that's hard.

For this role, our client are looking at hiring a PHP Developer who is proficient in using Artificial Intelligence tools to accelerate their software development work. The value in this role isn't in typing code — it's in understanding what the business actually needs, deciding what should be built, directing AI tooling to build it, and being the person who can tell whether what came back is right.

So: we're not looking for someone who loves writing PHP code by hand, and we're not looking for someone who can't read it. We're looking for the person in between — strong judgement, business fluency, and enough technical depth to be accountable for what ships.

Role Responsibilities:

* Turn business problems into working software — often talking to the person with the problem

* Own day-to-day technical support and keep the application running reliably

* Work tickets, fix bugs, and maintain a live SaaS product

* Use AI tooling as your primary means of delivery, and own the correctness of what it produces

* Develop a clear plan for the system's evolution and deliver against it

* Improve and restructure parts of the application as you become established

* Take on architectural and technical-direction responsibility as you demonstrate you're ready

What we're looking for:

* You read unfamiliar code quickly and can explain what a change will affect before it ships — the specific language matters less to us than this

* Good experience and familiarity with PHP, or the demonstrable ability to get to that point fast in a large, established codebase

* Genuine fluency with AI development tools — not curiosity about them, but a working practice you can show us

* You understand a business requirement well enough to challenge it, and you'd rather ask the question than build the wrong thing

* The judgement to make good decisions independently and own the outcomes

* Realistic about what can be delivered, and reliable in delivering it

* Works well with a small, close team and earns their trust

* Wants a long-term career with an established SaaS company

This is a fully remote role, as is the rest of the team. My client are small and stable, — people tend to stay for years because they value the culture, the environment, and being treated with respect.

If you are interested, please apply with your CV for immediate interview