Senior PHP Engineer (m/f/d)

Dear Network,
I am currently looking for an experienced Senior PHP Engineer (m/f/d) to support the further development of a large-scale payments platform.
Project Details
Start Date: ASAP
Contract Type: Freelance / Contracting
Duration: 3 months, with a possible extension
Workload: Full-time (40 hours per week)
Location: Remote within the EU
Key Responsibilities
Design, develop, and maintain scalable backend applications and services using PHP.
Build and optimise APIs and integrations with payment service providers and financial systems.
Contribute to the design and evolution of microservice-based and event-driven architectures.
Ensure high availability, reliability, and performance of business-critical payment applications.
Work with cloud-native technologies and containerised environments.
Participate in architectural decisions, code reviews, and technical solution design.
Promote best practices in software engineering, testing, and operational excellence.
Key Requirements
Extensive experience as a Backend Engineer with a strong focus on PHP development.
Proven expertise in designing and developing backend systems, APIs, and distributed applications.
This is not a Full-Stack role; the client is specifically seeking a backend specialist with deep PHP expertise.
Strong experience within FinTech, Payments, Banking, or Financial Services is highly preferred and considered a key requirement.
Proven experience working with transaction-driven systems that require high availability, scalability, and security.
Solid understanding of microservices, event-driven architectures, and systems integration patterns.
Experience with relational databases such as PostgreSQL and caching technologies such as Redis.
Familiarity with messaging and streaming technologies, including Kafka, RabbitMQ, or SQS.
Experience working in cloud-based and Kubernetes environments.
If you are interested, please send me your current CV, including your earliest possible start date, desired hourly rate, and relevant project references. I will get back to you after reviewing your profile.
I look forward to hearing from you and would like to thank you in advance for your response.
Kind regards,
Mariam Gareginyan
Associate Principal Candidate Consultant
E-Mail: m.gareginyan(@)sthree.com
Desired Skills and Experience
PHP, Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS, Redis, PostgreSQL, FinTech, Payments, Banking, Financial Services
SThree_Germany is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.

Work arrangement
Yes