Fullstack PHP Developer

A well-known UK retailer is hiring a mid-level PHP Developer to join their London tech function. This is a genuine full-stack seat across PHP and JavaScript, with a healthy mix of legacy maintenance, tech debt work, and a major greenfield rebuild on the horizon.

The role

You will be working across the backend, front-end, CMS, and CRM, with plenty of stakeholder interfaces where your team owns the conversation. There is a lot of custom, bespoke code rather than off-the-shelf modules bolted together, so you will need to be comfortable reading and reasoning about code that has not been written with you in mind.

The team is currently shaping a new platform and deciding the tech direction for a sizeable greenfield rebuild. If you enjoy being in the room when those decisions get made, rather than inheriting them, this is a strong moment to join.

What you will be doing Building and maintaining full-stack features across PHP and JavaScript Working through legacy code and tech debt alongside new greenfield development Contributing to platform decisions for an upcoming rebuild Owning interfaces with internal stakeholders across the business Working alongside a Product Manager and Lead Developer (who acts as Product Owner for the domain)

What we are looking for 2 to 5 years of commercial full-stack experience Strong PHP (any experience with Symfony or Laravel would be a plus) JavaScript with React (Next.js experience is a plus, but React is the priority) Comfortable reading and working with bespoke, custom-written code Able to work through problems independently, with reasonable baseline code quality Open and curious about AI tooling in the development workflow

The team and culture Three full-stack teams sit within the wider engineering function. You would report into the Engineering Manager and work day to day with a PM and a Lead Developer. There is scope for additional seats on the team beyond this hire, so growth is on the table.

On AI: the team is genuinely enthusiastic. They are exploring agentic models for code generation, review, and testing, and the philosophy is pro-AI and pro-human. You will not be expected to defend your job from a model, but you will be expected to use the tools well.

Why this one is different This is not a pure digital product business. Code is not the primary product, which means the work has a different texture: you are having conversations with people about real, tangible problems rather than optimising a funnel or shipping a feature for its own sake. If you have ever wanted your work to land somewhere visible in the real world, this role does that.

The details Salary: £40,000 Location: London, 2 days per week on-site Type: Permanent, full-time