Senior Backend (Laravel) Engineer - Series A - PropTech Startup

We’re Kato – a fast-growing PropTech startup with a big mission – to revolutionise commercial property. Backed by top-tier VCs, investors, and industry experts, we’re transforming the way the world thinks about commercial real estate, with our all-in-one platform and deep industry data. We’re just getting started, and we want YOU to help shape our journey. If you’re dynamic, confident, and excited by challenges, this is your chance to be part of something truly game-changing!

Role Overview: We’re looking for an experienced PHP Laravel Developer to join our team as a Senior Developer, heading up your own development team and ensuring its success. You will be at the heart of our “holy trinity” alongside the Product Manager and Designer, working together to ideate, scope, and deliver impactful projects. As a Tech Lead, you’ll drive technical excellence, ensure best practices, and provide mentorship and guidance to your team. This is a hands-on role – you’ll be leading from the front, solving complex technical problems, architecting the right solutions, and implementing them with your team. If you're ready to take charge of technical direction and mentor others while building scalable, high-performance applications, this is your chance to make a significant impact!

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Lead & Mentor Development Team: Lead a team of developers, setting the technical direction and ensuring they’re on the path to success. Provide mentorship and guidance, helping team members grow their technical skills and achieve their potential.
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Work closely with the Product Manager, Designer, and other stakeholders to ensure the project vision is clear and understood. Collaborate with your team to ensure alignment and timely project delivery.
• Project Scoping & Resource Planning: Scope projects and think strategically about the resources and team members required to achieve the project vision. Break down complex tasks into actionable plans and ensure the team is equipped to execute them efficiently.
• Technical Leadership & Solution Implementation: Lead the team in solving difficult technical problems, architecting scalable and efficient solutions. Be hands-on in implementing solutions, ensuring code quality and adherence to best practices.
• Drive Technical Excellence: Establish and uphold technical standards and best practices for the team to follow. Champion continuous improvement, ensuring the team adopts the latest technologies and methodologies to drive product success.

Core Technical Skills:

• Expert understanding of Laravel 8.x framework
• Strong proficiency in PHP 8.3+
• Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) principles
• SOLID principles and design patterns
• Laravel Ecosystem Knowledge: Laravel Passport, Laravel Horizon, Laravel Dusk, Laravel Pint
• Database & ORM: MySQL/PostgreSQL, Eloquent ORM, database optimisation, migrations, and seeders
• API Development: RESTful API design principles, API authentication and authorisation, JWT implementation, API documentation, API versioning, API testing
• Third-Party Integrations: Experience with various external services, understanding of webhooks and event handling
• Testing & Quality Assurance: PHPUnit for unit testing, mocking, and testing strategies
• Security: Laravel security best practices, SAML2 authentication, CORS policies, XSS and CSRF protection, input validation and sanitisation
• Performance Optimisation: Cache management, queue handling, database query optimisation, Laravel's caching mechanisms, Redis
• Understanding of clean code principles
• Knowledge of SOLID principles

Additional Technical Skills:

• Event-driven architecture, microservices concepts, web sockets and real-time features, file handling and storage, logging and monitoring

What Success Looks Like to Us:

• Successful Team Leadership: You’ll empower your team to deliver high-quality, scalable solutions, while maintaining a collaborative and growth-driven environment.
• Technical Excellence: Your leadership will ensure that every project is approached with a focus on high performance, scalability, and maintainability.
• Problem Solving & Solution Implementation: You’ll lead from the front, solving complex technical challenges, and ensuring that solutions are implemented successfully.
• Project Delivery: You’ll ensure that projects are scoped appropriately and delivered on time, with the team aligned on vision and execution.

What We’re Looking For:

• Proven experience leading software development teams and driving successful project delivery.
• Superb PHP knowledge and a solid understanding of Laravel, with a good level of competence in React (preferred).
• A track record of breaking down complex tasks into clear, actionable plans.
• Excellent problem-solving skills, able to navigate difficult challenges and create effective solutions.
• A do-er mentality: Someone who thrives on solving problems, unblocking challenges, and driving progress.
• A "It’s not done until it’s in production" mentality, ensuring the product is fully delivered and deployed to production.

What’s In It for You:

• Competitive salary and a range of benefits designed to support your well-being.
• 25 days of annual leave plus additional “life” days (birthday off, duvet days, etc.).
• Enhanced maternity/paternity leave to support you during key moments.
• Healthcare package (Dental, Optical, and more).
• Training & development opportunities to help you grow in your career.
• 2 days a week to work from home – balance is key!
• Casual dress code – bring your true self to work!
• Free snacks and drinks in the office to keep you fuelled.
• Team events like Summer & Christmas parties, spontaneous socials, and more!

If you're a proven technical leader ready to take on the challenge of guiding a talented team, building high-quality products, and leading technical direction, we’d love to hear from you!