Senior Software Engineer (PHP Backend) (SaaS)

⭐️⭐️ NEWLY CREATED ROLE !! ⭐️⭐️ Who are we? So you might ask, who's CreditorWatch? Well, we are a leading Australian data and technology company that provides businesses with access to unique data and innovative products. By using our platform, our customers can confidently manage their commercial relationships, improve productivity and reduce financial risk. As a commercial credit reporting bureau, we offer a complete suite of credit reporting products and data insights covering the entire customer lifecycle, from customer onboarding and credit decision automation to credit risk management and automated collections. We were established in 2010 and most recently were named as one of AFR's Top 10 Best Places to Work as well as certified by Great Place to Work consecutively across 2022 and 2023. We saw significant growth in 2024 and that's not about to change. We are on track to break records in 2025, scaling at pace, making this the perfect time to join CreditorWatch. Our Purpose ✅ Empower Australian businesses to trade confidently with their customers. Our Mission 🏆 We aim to be number one in our industry by delivering unique data insights and innovative products. Your Role & Team We're looking for a hands-on Senior Backend Engineer to help shape the direction of our backend architecture, microservices, and practices across multiple squads. You'll operate as a senior technical expert, collaborating with frontend teams and engineering to elevate the backend craft at CreditorWatch. In this role your influence will span a product group. You'll drive cross-cutting backend initiatives, set coding standards, lead strategic discussions, and champion backend quality across the board. This is an opportunity for someone who loves building robust, scalable backend systems, has strong PHP (Symfony) experience, and wants to lead by doing. This role reports directly to the Engineering Manager and is a full-time opportunity offering hybrid working conditions based out of our Sydney CBD office. Some of your responsibilities include and are not limited to: Hands-on development: Write, review, and maintain high-quality, scalable and secure backend code primarily in PHP using Symfony frameworks. Backend architecture mastery: Define and advocate for coding best practices, microservices architecture guidelines, API design principles, testing strategies, and maintainability principles across teams. Microservices development: Design, build, and maintain microservices that are resilient, observable, and performant. Champion service-oriented architecture principles and distributed system best practices. Database expertise: Design and optimize database schemas, queries, and data models across various database technologies. Ensure data integrity, performance, and scalability. AWS cloud infrastructure: Leverage AWS services to build scalable, cost-effective solutions. Work with services like EC2, RDS, Lambda, S3, API Gateway, and other relevant AWS offerings. API design & integration: Create and maintain RESTful APIs and integrate with third-party services. Ensure APIs are well-documented, versioned, and follow industry standards. Security champion: Advocate security and privacy best practices across backend applications, from secure API endpoints to safe handling of sensitive data and proper authentication/authorization mechanisms. Observability & monitoring: Implement comprehensive logging, monitoring, and alerting using analytics tools. Build observable systems that provide insights into performance, errors, and business metrics. Agile methodology: Work effectively in sprint-based development cycles. Participate in sprint planning, daily standups, retrospectives, and deliver features within sprint commitments. Tech mentorship: Guide engineers through informal mentoring, code reviews, and pairing in writing secure, maintainable and well-tested backend codebase. Elevate engineering thinking through high-quality feedback and modelling best practices. Workato configuration support: (occasionally) Support and maintain existing Workato integrations and workflows configurations. Our ideal candidate Core Technical Skills: You're a highly experienced backend engineer with expertise in PHP, specifically Symfony framework. Strong experience with microservices architecture and distributed systems design. Extensive working knowledge of databases (e.g. MySQL, PostgreSQL, NoSQL databases). Proven experience with AWS cloud services and infrastructure as code. Solid understanding of RESTful API design principles and best practices. Quality & Security Focus: You care deeply about shipping high-quality, robust, and secure backend systems. You have a deep understanding of backend security principles (authentication, authorisation, data encryption, secure coding practices) and how to implement them. You've worked on large-scale backend applications and know how to balance pragmatism with scalability. Integration & Automation: Experience with Workato or similar integration platforms is highly valued. Strong knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and deployment strategies. Familiarity with analytics and monitoring tools for system observability such as DataDog. More than just work 🏃🏽‍♀️ Keep Active – All employees get a Fitness First Platinum gym membership. ☕️ Daily Fuel – Barista-made coffee, breakfast, snacks, lunches and drinks on us – we got you! 📲 Phone Credits - We pay you $50 per month to put towards your plans - how good. ❤️‍🩹 Wellness Days – Receive an additional day off each month. Whether you’re pursuing physical activities, cultivating your mental wellbeing or supporting your community… this is your time to switch off from work. 💆🏽‍♂️ Monthly Massages – We offer monthly in-house massages to soothe those sore spots and tight knots. Poor posture? Stressful week? We get it. 💰 Bonus Shares – We offer our dedicated employees’ performance-based bonuses. Our employees are also permitted to gain access to our bespoke Employee Share Scheme, giving you the rare opportunity to invest in a growing technology company. 🤩 Fun Activities – We love escaping the workplace to do fun stuff. Whether its pasta-making, sailing classes, touch footy, winery tours, go karting or relaxing on the company boat (yeah… we own a boat) – these monthly team building activities will keep you feeling valued and connected. 👩🏻‍⚖️ Legal Services – Our employees get access to free legal services – from conveyancing and property advice to legal assistance around wills, trusts, powers of attorney and more. We make life easier for you, saving you time, money and unnecessary headaches. Our Values ⚡️ The 1%’ers add up – Our commitment to going that one step further sets us apart, as we believe that small efforts or improvements in any aspect of our work collectively lead to significant success. 👊🏼 We are dependable and trustworthy – Our clients are everything to us and we are passionate about maintaining and delivering reliable and trusted services to them. 📈 We are committed to growth – Our success comes from our ability to grow and adapt; both collectively and individually. We set the bar high to ensure we continue to innovate and exceed expectations. We are dedicated to the development of our business and our people. 🫶🏾 Our people make the difference – Just as we help small businesses think big, we help our employees achieve their aspirations. We provide our people with challenges and opportunities, supporting them to live their best lives. Recruitment Process – We like to keep it simple! Phone Screening – A deep dive into the company, role and experience required, including a thorough review of your match to the role – let’s get to know each other and ensure the opportunity is a match! Short Coding assessment - To understand your technical ability and will be used in the next Technical stage. Technical Interview  – to understand if there is a technical fit from both sides. Values Meeting – We’d love to hear why CreditorWatch and see how you’d fit into our world. We are committed to you We offer a fantastic culture with open communication and rewards and recognition that include probation celebrations, all-staff birthday and service anniversary celebrations. We are an equal opportunity employer and committed to excellence through diversity. We do not discriminate on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We are a 2024 Circle Back Initiative Employer – we commit to respond to every applicant.