Senior PHP Full-Stack Engineer

We are looking for an experienced Backend Engineer to join our growing engineering team and contribute to the development of a large-scale, business-critical platform.

This role is ideal for an engineer who enjoys solving complex technical challenges, takes ownership of outcomes, and understands that software development is about delivering business value—not just completing tasks. You will work on high-traffic systems, scalable backend services, real-time communication features, and integrations that support core product functionality.

We are seeking someone who can think beyond individual tickets, understand the broader product vision, and actively contribute to technical and architectural decisions.

The Team:

We are an ambitious, fast-growing team that is scaling rapidly. Today, we are 70 people strong. Our team is highly professional, outcome-driven, and deeply committed to delivering exceptional results. We operate with very few junior-level employees, and in our technical organisation, there are no juniors at all. This allows us to move quickly, make high-quality decisions, and maintain a strong culture of ownership and excellence.

We work in a flexible hybrid environment. Part of the team is based in our Vilnius office, while the majority works in a hybrid setup, and several colleagues operate fully remotely. What unites us is not location, but our shared mindset — curiosity, responsibility, and a desire to build meaningful technology.

Within the team, you’ll find AI architects, senior engineers, experienced product owners, and domain experts who collaborate closely to solve complex problems and shape the future of our platform. It’s the kind of environment where you learn from the best, have real impact, and contribute to something that scales fast.

If you want to join a highly skilled, fast-moving team and help build a company during its most exciting phase — you’ll feel at home here.

Our Recruitment Process:

Recruitment process will consist of two interviews, one with CTO and Chief Product Owner, another one, short one, with Engineering manager in final hiring stages. Discussions will be held with PO‘s, small test task might be provided to understand the thought process, task will be not useful for Copla‘s product or deliveries.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain backend services using PHP and Go (optional).
• Build and optimize REST APIs and integrations with internal and external systems.
• Develop and maintain real-time communication solutions using WebSockets.
• Design and optimize data models and queries in PostgreSQL.
• Implement and improve search capabilities using OpenSearch.
• Work with containerized environments using Docker.
• Contribute to system architecture discussions and technical decision-making.
• Identify performance bottlenecks and implement scalable solutions.
• Collaborate closely with product, engineering, and business stakeholders to ensure technical solutions align with business goals.
• Participate in code reviews and help maintain high engineering standards.
• Take ownership of features and services throughout their entire lifecycle.

Qualifications:

• Strong experience with PHP 8.x.
• At least 2–3 years of hands-on experience with Laravel or Symfony.
• Solid knowledge of PostgreSQL, including database design, schema creation, normalization, and query optimization.
• Experience with JavaScript and/or TypeScript.
• Practical experience with Vue.js or React.
• Experience writing and maintaining automated tests using PHPUnit or Pest.
• Comfortable working with Git, pull requests, and collaborative development workflows.
• Strong written English skills, with the ability to read and write technical documentation.
• AI-Focused Experience (Highly Valued).
• Active use of modern AI development tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, or OpenAI Codex.
• Experience integrating at least one LLM provider (e.g. OpenAI, Anthropic, or similar) into a production application.
• Understanding of prompt engineering, structured outputs, and token/cost optimization strategies.

Bonus points for experience with:

• RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation).
• Embeddings and vector databases.
• LLM evaluation frameworks (evals).
• AI agents.
• MCP (Model Context Protocol) tooling.

Nice to Have:

• Experience with Tailwind CSS.
• Experience building admin panels with Filament.
• Familiarity with Inertia.js, TanStack Query, or Zustand.
• Experience with Redis, Laravel Horizon, queues, or Laravel Octane.
• Knowledge of the Spatie ecosystem (Permissions, Media Library, Query Builder, etc.).
• Experience with Docker, AWS/S3, and Sentry.
• Experience working on multi-tenant or SaaS applications.
• Familiarity with static analysis tools such as Larastan or PHPStan.
• Experience setting up and maintaining CI/CD pipelines.

Soft Skills

• Ownership mindset with the ability to deliver features end-to-end across backend and frontend.
• Curious, proactive, and continuously learning, with a strong interest in emerging technologies and AI.
• Strong code review mindset and commitment to code quality.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with the team.

What you will gain at Copla:

• Architectural ownership of a security-focused SaaS platform operating in a highly regulated domain.
• The opportunity to design and evolve multi-tenant, high-availability systems with complex permission models and strict data isolation requirements.
• Real-world experience translating ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIS2, and DORA requirements into scalable technical architecture — not just documentation, but working systems.
• Responsibility for designing and improving:
  – Access control systems (RBAC, fine-grained permissions).
  – Audit logging and traceability layers.
  – Evidence collection engines.
  – Secure data lifecycle management.
• Influence over backend architecture (Laravel) including performance optimization, modularization, and long-term maintainability
• The ability to shape engineering standards around:
  – Secure coding practices.
  – Test strategy and automation.
  – Observability and system reliability.
• Experience solving non-trivial challenges in:
  – Multi-tenancy at scale.
  – Complex relational data modeling.
  – High-volume audit data processing.
  – Enterprise integrations (SSO, APIs, third-party tooling).
  – Close collaboration with CISOs and security leaders — gaining rare domain expertise at the intersection of engineering and governance.
  – A platform where technical decisions directly impact how companies manage risk and compliance.

What We Offer:

• Environment for real impact: Got an idea that’ll make Copla product better? Share it, get feedback, fine-tune, and take action. We trust expertise and value ownership.
• Flexible schedule (2 days in the office, 3 days remote). Office located on Raitininkų St., Vilnius.
• A collaborative work environment: you will be surrounded by open minded people in the team who are striving for a common goal.
• Hot topic: The chance to work on cybersecurity products that make a real difference.
• Salary: 5500 – 7750 EUR before taxes.

Other perks:

• Personal learning budget.
• Courses/ certifications.
• Conference budget.
• Internal mentorship programs.
• Regular offsites.
• Additional days off for parents.
• AI Productivity perks:
  – ChatGPT Team subscription.
  – Jasper, Notion AI, GitHub Copilot for developers.
  – Internal AI training.