Junior PHP Software Developer

About the role

Our client, a progressive company based in Port Elizabeth, is seeking a Junior PHP Software Developer to join a dynamic team responsible for designing, building, and optimising backend systems. You will work on modernising the architecture towards micro‑services and receive mentorship from senior engineers.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and maintain backend solutions using PHP and MVC frameworks such as Laravel, Symfony or Zend.
• Assist in improving system performance, reliability and maintainability.
• Support integrations with third‑party systems and contribute to CI/CD pipelines.
• Collaborate with senior developers, product managers and cross‑functional teams to translate business requirements into technical tasks.
• Participate in project planning, provide status updates and suggest process improvements.
• Help detect, monitor and report system errors, and troubleshoot production issues under senior guidance.
• Assist with deployments, bug fixing, logging and technical support as needed.

Required profile

• 2–3 years of solid commercial experience with PHP and object‑oriented programming.
• Relevant degree or comparable qualification preferred.
• Ability to write clean, readable and maintainable code and to work within established coding patterns.
• Strong basic SQL skills, including writing queries, joins and updates, with an understanding of query performance and indexing.
• Basic experience using Docker for local development and the ability to run the application with Docker/Compose.
• Practical knowledge of database tables, relationships and MVC data flow.

Required skills

• PHP
• Object‑oriented programming
• Laravel, Symfony or Zend (MVC frameworks)
• SQL
• Docker