Lead Backend Developer (PHP)

TL;DR

Lead Backend Developer (PHP): Leading and owning the architecture and technical direction of a content processing pipeline for a global VR video streaming ecosystem with an accent on system design, code quality, and technical incident response. Focus on evolving backend architectures, managing technical debt, and mentoring engineers.

Location: Fully remote

Company

hirify.global is expanding the boundaries of what video can be, moving from passive watching to active, interactive, multi-user journeys within the VR video streaming ecosystem with its leading immersive streaming technology DeoVR.

What you will do

• Own the architecture and technical direction of the content processing pipeline, including upload API and workflows.
• Lead system design for new features, create and maintain architecture documentation and ADRs.
• Drive code quality, review standards, and engineering practices (testing, CI/CD).
• Lead technical incident response; write post-mortems and identify/manage technical debt.
• Translate product requirements into technical solutions, milestones, and well-decomposed tasks.
• Mentor engineers through design sessions, pair programming, and code reviews; reduce key-person risk.
• Define and maintain SLIs/SLOs for team-owned services and coordinate technical dependencies with other teams.

Requirements

• 4+ years of backend software engineering experience with PHP, including demonstrated technical leadership (leading design, mentoring engineers, owning architecture).
• Experience with NoSQL databases (MongoDB or similar) and relational databases (PostgreSQL or similar).
• Proficiency in one or more additional languages such as Go, Python, Java, or C++.
• Experience designing and evolving backend architectures, including APIs, data flows, and service decomposition.
• Strong understanding of testing practices (unit, integration, E2E) and CI/CD pipelines.
• Ability to communicate technical trade-offs, risks, and designs clearly to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
• English B1+ (written and verbal communication).

Nice to have

• Experience with Camunda or similar BPMN/workflow orchestration engines.
• Experience with various video formats, media containers, and transcoding pipelines.
• Experience defining and working with SLIs/SLOs in production.
• Understanding of message brokers and event-driven architectures (RabbitMQ, Kafka, or similar).

Culture & Benefits

• A fully remote contract role (B2B only).
• Flexible working hours and a remote-first culture.
• Direct impact on the future of immersive media.
• A team that values initiative, clarity, and collaboration.
• Access to all tools and tech needed and unlimited DeoVR Premium.
• A work environment where ideas matter and people are treated with respect.

Hiring process

• HR Screening (30 min)
• Team Interview (1.5 hour)
• Live Coding Interview (1 hour)
• CEO Interview (30 min)