Backend Team Lead (PHP)

About This Opportunity

We are representing a confidential gaming technology organization seeking a Backend Team Lead (PHP) based in the United Kingdom. This is a fully remote position offering the chance to build and lead an internal backend engineering team from the ground up.

Our client operates a high-performance B2B platform requiring exceptional availability, resilience, and scalability. You will combine hands-on technical leadership with team building, mentoring, architecture ownership, and delivery management. A major focus will be leading the migration from legacy systems toward a modern, internally managed architecture built for long-term growth.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the internal backend engineering team, establishing capabilities for full platform migration and ongoing ownership
• Recruit, mentor, and develop high-caliber backend engineers while establishing standards for delivery, clean code, and testing excellence
• Take technical ownership of the PHP backend, ensuring the platform remains stable, secure, scalable, and performant throughout migration
• Partner with software architecture leadership to translate technical vision into scalable, internally managed systems
• Lead the transition from legacy environments to modern, high-performance architecture while identifying and mitigating risks
• Own backend delivery against the technical roadmap, maintaining clear priorities and ensuring effective execution
• Ensure systems meet demanding requirements for global availability, resilience, fault tolerance, and operational stability
• Remain hands-on in the codebase, leading by example through technical decision-making, implementation, and code quality
• Drive adoption of rigorous testing, CI/CD, and modern engineering practices across the team
• Collaborate with engineering leadership to navigate complex architectural transitions and resolve high-impact challenges
• Apply modern AI tools effectively throughout engineering workflows to improve development speed and quality

What We're Looking For

• Extensive experience as a Senior Engineer, Lead Engineer, or equivalent technical leader with proven ability to build and scale high-performance teams
• Professional background in gaming technology, sportsbook, fintech, or similarly high-performance, high-availability environments
• Expert-level knowledge of PHP and Laravel, including extensive experience refactoring complex backend systems for scalability and performance
• Proven experience managing high-stakes technical migrations with strong understanding of risk mitigation and business continuity
• Deep knowledge of relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and Redis for high-performance applications
• Strong experience designing and developing scalable REST and GraphQL APIs
• Solid understanding of modern infrastructure: Docker, Kubernetes, automated CI/CD pipelines
• Experience with event-driven architectures and messaging technologies (Kafka, RabbitMQ)
• Knowledge of observability platforms such as Prometheus, Grafana, or Datadog
• Strong understanding of software architecture, backend scalability, system reliability, and fault-tolerant design
• Pragmatic, hands-on leadership style with willingness to remain technically involved
• Excellent English communication skills for conveying complex technical concepts to engineers, architects, and senior leadership
• Strong problem-solving and organizational skills in complex migration environments
• Ability to effectively use AI tools as part of modern software engineering workflows
• Familiarity with AWS or Google Cloud Platform (advantage)
• Knowledge of security best practices for high-volume financial transactions (plus)
• Knowledge of Golang (additional advantage)

How We Work With You

When you apply through Get A Job.ai, our talent team will review your application and conduct an initial screening to understand your experience and career goals. We will then present qualified candidates to our client for consideration. Please do not contact the client directly—all communication and next steps will be coordinated through our recruiting team to ensure a smooth and professional process.

What's On Offer

• Full-time permanent position
• Fully remote working model with flexibility across time zones
• Opportunity to build and lead a backend engineering team from scratch
• Significant ownership over technical direction, migration strategy, and platform architecture
• Up to 28 days annual leave plus public holidays
• Modern technology stack: PHP, Laravel, Kubernetes, Docker, Kafka, RabbitMQ, Redis, cloud infrastructure
• Exposure to complex high-performance systems in a fast-moving environment
• Opportunity to develop leadership capabilities while remaining hands-on
• Truly international working environment with colleagues across multiple countries

Equal Opportunity

Get A Job.ai is committed to fair and objective candidate evaluation. We partner with organizations that value diversity and inclusion in their hiring practices.