Senior Backend Engineer (PHP/Symfony)
About Paysera
Paysera is the first fintech company in Lithuania and an EU-licensed e-money institution. We provide fast, convenient, and affordable financial services globally. Our services range from a payment gateway for e-shops, a finance management app, money transfers, and a parcel locker network.With over 1 million app downloads and growing, we aim to become an industry-leading super app that provides financial and lifestyle services across the globe. At Paysera, we are a start-up-minded team, which means we thrive in a fast-paced environment and seek open communication while placing great focus on upholding our core company values. Join our vibrant international team of over 800+ people across 20+ cities, worldwide.
Role Overview
- Title: Senior Backend Engineer (PHP/Symfony)
- Level: Senior/Senior+
- Reports To: Head of Backend Development
- Purpose: To design, build, and maintain scalable, fault-tolerant backend systems that power Paysera’s financial services, ensuring security, compliance, and high performance.
Key Responsibilities
[R1] Design, build, and maintain high-throughput backend services using PHP and Symfony.[R2] Develop and maintain RESTful APIs, microservices, and asynchronous workflows.[R3] Design, implement, and optimize scalable data solutions, including relational databases for high-volume workloads.[R4] Manage in-memory stores and search engines.[R5] Apply DDD, SOLID, and event-driven principles to model complex financial domains.[R6] Ensure code quality with unit testing and code review practices.[R7] Integrate and extend financial systems and third-party services securely and compliantly.[R8] Collaborate closely with product managers, architects, and other developers to ship secure, compliant, and auditable code.[R9] Champion AI-assisted engineering by leveraging tools to accelerate development — while maintaining rigorous code quality and review standards.[R10] Mentor peers, participate in code reviews, and foster a culture of knowledge sharing, security, and continuous improvement.
Must-Have Qualifications
[Q1] 7+ years of professional backend development experience, with at least 3+ years in enterprise-grade projects.[Q2] Hands-on expertise with PHP 8.2+ and Symfony 6+.[Q3] 3+ years working with microservices architecture and distributed systems.[Q4] Proficiency in MySQL/PostgreSQL with evidence of optimizing schemas for high-volume workloads.[Q5] Hands-on experience with Redis and ElasticSearch for high-volume environments.[Q6] Knowledge of Kafka, RabbitMQ (event-driven architecture).[Q7] Proven skills in Dockerized environments and container workflows.[Q8] Strong knowledge of DDD, SOA, SOLID, and event-driven architecture principles.[Q9] Strong testing culture with PHPUnit, code quality tools (PHPStan, PHP CS Fixer).[Q10] Strong debugging skills and experience with monitoring tools (Sentry, Graylog, Grafana, Kibana).[Q11] Proficiency in OAuth2 / JWT authentication.[Q12] Understanding of PSR standards.[Q13] Fluency in English (B2 level) — written and verbal.[Q14] Experience using AI-assisted development tools (ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor) in daily coding workflows.
Nice-to-Have Qualifications
[N1] Experience with Kubernetes, Helm, and GitOps workflows.[N2] Hands-on exposure to high-load systems.[N3] Familiarity with additional languages (Java, Kotlin, Golang).[N4] Contributions to open-source PHP projects or internal libraries.[N5] Experience with SOAP/XML-based services in enterprise contexts.[N6] Experience with front-end technologies and frameworks.
Domain Expertise (Fintech Superpowers — Big Plus!)
[N7] Core banking: Payments, multi-currency, account management.[N8] Compliance: KYC/AML workflows, sanctions screening, audit trails, FATCA/CRS reporting.[N9] Financial standards: SEPA, SWIFT, ISO20022, PSD2.[N10] Risk & Fraud: Transaction monitoring, anomaly detection, rule engines.[N11] Financial security: PCI-DSS, tokenization, secure key management.[N12] High-volume processing: Asynchronous queues, batch processing.[N13] E-commerce & Payments: Payment gateway integrations, card processing integrations, large-scale e-commerce platforms.
Work Conditions & Contract Info
[W1] Employment type: Full-time, permanent contract.[W2] Work arrangement: Office.[W3] Core hours: Business hours aligned with CET/EET.[W4] Compensation: Range TBD (provided by employer).[W5] Start date: As soon as possible.[W6] Contract length: Indefinite.
