Chrysalis Finance Limited
PHP Laravel Software Engineer – Lending Platform
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Software Engineer – Lending Platform
Company Overview
We are the UK's largest finance provider in the medical and dentistry sectors. We operate a financial services platform that powers automated lending, loan management, and retailer financing solutions. Our platform processes applications, manages loans, handles payments, and integrates with credit reference agencies, lenders, and payment providers.
The Role
We're looking for a mid-to-senior PHP engineer to work on our core lending platform. You'll develop features across our automated decision engine, payment processing systems, lender integrations, and customer/retailer portals. This is a full-stack role with emphasis on backend PHP development, working on a mature codebase that handles real financial transactions and regulatory compliance.
We're an AI-forward engineering team – we use AI coding assistants (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, etc.) to accelerate development and AI-powered code review to maintain quality. You'll be expected to use these tools effectively while maintaining high standards for security and correctness in financial systems.
We are ISO27001 accredited and use security first principals.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain features across application decisioning, loan management, and payment processing using AI-assisted development tools
- Build integrations with credit reference agencies (TransUnion, Equifax), lenders, and payment gateways
- Implement automated workflows using our event-driven architecture and decision engine
- Work on multi-tenant systems, ensuring data isolation and security
- Optimise database queries and caching for performance at scale
- Contribute to API development for internal and external integrations
- Write and maintain tests (unit, functional) using Codeception
- Participate in AI-assisted code reviews – both reviewing AI-generated code and using AI to review others' code
- Debug production issues involving financial transactions and third-party integrations
- Collaborate with AI tools effectively while maintaining ownership and understanding of all code
Required Skills & Experience
Essential
-
PHP & Yii2 Framework
- 3+ years PHP development experience (PHP 8.1+)
- Strong understanding of Yii2 framework (ActiveRecord, components, modules, behaviours)
- Experience with MVC architecture and OOP principles
- Understanding of PHP namespaces, traits, and modern PHP features
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Database & Data
- Proficient in MySQL – complex queries, joins, indexing, optimisation
- Experience with database transactions and ensuring data consistency
- Understanding of read replicas and query optimisation strategies
- Comfortable with database migrations and schema design
-
Backend Development
- Strong understanding of RESTful API design and implementation
- Experience with authentication systems (API keys, OAuth, session management)
- Knowledge of queueing systems for background job processing
- Understanding of caching strategies (Redis)
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Frontend & Design
- Proficiency in CSS (Flexbox, Grid, responsive design)
- Mobile-first design principles and responsive web development
- Experience with CSS preprocessors (Sass, Less) or modern CSS-in-JS
- Understanding of cross-browser compatibility and progressive enhancement
- Ability to translate designs into pixel-perfect, accessible UI components
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- General Software Engineering
- Git version control (branching, merging, rebasing)
- Experience with Docker for local development
- Understanding of software testing principles and practices
- Ability to read and understand large, legacy codebases
- Strong debugging and problem-solving skills
- Critical thinking – ability to review and validate AI-generated code for correctness and security
Highly Desirable
-
AI-Assisted Development
- Experience with AI coding assistants (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Cody, etc.)
- Understanding of prompt engineering for code generation
- Ability to effectively use AI for code exploration, refactoring, and debugging
- Experience reviewing AI-generated code critically, especially for security vulnerabilities
- Familiarity with AI-powered code review tools
- Understanding when to use AI assistance vs. manual coding
- Experience with semantic code search tools and LSP-based development
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Financial/Fintech Experience
- Experience in fintech, lending, or financial services
- Understanding of credit decisioning, affordability assessments, or loan management
- Knowledge of UK financial regulations (FCA, GDPR)
- Familiarity with payment processing (Direct Debit/BACS, card payments, Faster Payments)
- Understanding of credit reference agencies and credit checking
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Technical Skills
- Vue.js 3 for frontend component development
- Experience with event-driven architectures
- Knowledge of rule engines or workflow systems
- Experience with multi-tenant SaaS platforms
- Familiarity with open banking APIs
- Understanding of webhook integrations and handling asynchronous data flows
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Integration Experience
- Working with third-party APIs (credit bureaus, payment gateways, lenders)
- Building reliable webhook handlers with retry logic
- API versioning and backwards compatibility
Nice to Have
- Experience with Laravel or other PHP frameworks
- Knowledge of TypeScript
- Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines
- Understanding of UK credit reporting (CAIS)
- Experience with PDF generation (mPDF) and document management
- Knowledge of accounting/reconciliation systems
- Open Banking implementation experience
- Experience contributing to or maintaining AI coding documentation (like CLAUDE.md files)
Technical Environment
Core Stack
- PHP 8.x, Yii2 Framework
- MySQL (with read replicas)
- Redis (caching, sessions)
- Vue.js 3, Vite
- Docker for local development
Key Libraries & Tools
- Composer for dependency management
- Codeception for testing
- Carbon for date/time manipulation
- Various payment gateway SDKs
Architecture
- Multi-application Yii2 setup (backend, frontend, retailer, API, console)
- Shared common codebase with 300+ ActiveRecord models
- Event-driven architecture with trigger/action system
- Rule-based decision engine
- Queue-based background job processing
- RESTful APIs
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What Makes This Role Challenging & Rewarding
AI-Forward Engineering Culture
- Work with cutting-edge AI development tools to boost productivity
- Learn to effectively prompt and guide AI assistants for complex tasks
- Participate in pioneering workflows combining human expertise with AI capabilities
- Help shape best practices for AI-assisted development in financial services
- Maintain the critical balance between AI acceleration and human oversight for sensitive financial code
Complex Domain
- Work on a comprehensive lending platform with automated decisioning, loan lifecycle management, payment processing, and regulatory compliance
- Learn about credit underwriting, affordability assessment, and UK financial services
Scale & Reliability
- Handle real financial transactions requiring accuracy and audit trails
- Build systems that integrate with banks, credit bureaus, and payment providers
- Work on multi-tenant architecture serving multiple retailers and lenders
Technical Depth
- Navigate a mature codebase with AI assistance
- Optimise database queries and caching for performance
- Build reliable webhook handlers and event-driven workflows
- Implement complex business rules in the decision engine
Full Stack Scope
- Backend API development and business logic
- Frontend components in Vue.js
- Database design and optimisation
- Third-party integrations
- Console commands and background jobs
Personal Attributes
- Attention to detail – financial systems require precision; AI suggestions must be validated
- Problem solver – comfortable debugging complex issues across multiple systems
- Pragmatic – balance technical debt with delivering features; know when AI helps vs. when to code manually
- Communicative – able to discuss technical decisions and trade-offs; explain AI-assisted approaches
- Ownership mentality – take responsibility for your code in production, whether human or AI-generated
- Curious – willing to learn about the lending/fintech domain and new AI development tools
- Disciplined – follow conventions, write tests, use transactions for financial operations
- AI-savvy – comfortable working alongside AI tools while maintaining critical oversight
- Security-conscious – understand OWASP Top 10; scrutinise AI-generated code for vulnerabilities
- Open-minded – embrace new development workflows and help evolve team practices
Our Development Philosophy
We believe AI tools should augment developer capabilities, not replace critical thinking. You'll be expected to:
✅ Do's
- Use AI to accelerate exploration, refactoring, and boilerplate code
- Use AI for test generation and documentation
- Apply AI-assisted code review to catch issues early
- Share learnings about effective AI prompting and workflows
- Validate all AI-generated financial/security code carefully
❌ Don'ts
- Blindly merge AI-generated code without understanding it
- Skip testing because "AI wrote it"
- Ignore security best practices in AI-generated code
- Use AI as an excuse for poor code quality
Equal Opportunity Statement
We're committed to building a diverse team and encourage applications from all backgrounds.
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
Skills