Software Engineer, Backend Developer

Location:

Bristol (Hybrid – typically 1 day per week in office)
Salary: £50,000-£60,000
Reporting To:
Technology Team Lead

About the Client
Are you an experienced Software Engineer looking for genuine ownership, autonomy and the opportunity to make a visible impact?

We’re working with an ambitious, growing Bristol-based business that is investing heavily in its people, technology, systems and AI capabilities. This is an opportunity to join a small, collaborative technology team where your work will have a direct impact on how the business operates and grows.

Technology sits at the heart of the organisation, and you’ll work across a varied software estate including back-office applications, customer-facing platforms, APIs, integrations and analytics systems.

You’ll have the opportunity to influence solution design, engineering standards, tooling and ways of working, while seeing your ideas move quickly from business requirements into software used every day.

How you’ll spend your day

* Turning business requirements into clear solution specifications and technical designs, challenging ambiguity and identifying missing information early.

* Developing and maintaining PHP and JavaScript applications backed by relational databases.

* Working across a mature monolithic application alongside newer services and technologies.

* Using AI-assisted development and coding agents as part of day-to-day software delivery, while maintaining responsibility for quality, security and technical decisions.

* Writing, debugging and reviewing code directly where hands-on engineering is the most effective approach.

* Working closely with colleagues to refine specifications, acceptance criteria and appropriate test coverage.

* Taking ownership of solutions throughout the full lifecycle, from implementation and release through to monitoring, support and ongoing improvement.

* Helping to modernise existing systems pragmatically, without unnecessary rewrites.

* Contributing to the ongoing development and improvement of the AWS environment, including deployments, monitoring, security, backups and troubleshooting.

* Documenting systems and technical decisions to ensure knowledge is shared across the team.

* Occasionally supporting planned releases or infrastructure changes outside normal working hours.

What you’ll bring to this role

* At least five years' commercial software development experience.

* Strong PHP development experience, ideally using Symfony, Laravel or another modern framework.

* Strong modern JavaScript development skills.

* Good relational database design knowledge and strong SQL skills.

* The ability to take loosely defined business requirements and turn them into structured technical solutions.

* Experience using AI-assisted development tools, combined with a critical approach to reviewing and validating generated output.

* Strong debugging, testing and code review fundamentals.

* The ability to quickly understand unfamiliar systems and technologies.

* Confidence working autonomously while balancing engineering quality with commercial priorities.

* Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

It would also be great if you have experience with:

* Symfony.

* AWS and Linux environments.

* CI/CD and deployment automation.

* APIs and third-party integrations.

* Monitoring and observability.

* Security, backup and recovery.

* Maintaining and incrementally modernising mature or bespoke software applications.

Why Join?

Make a genuinely visible impact in a growing business where technology is central to its future.

Join during a significant period of investment in software, infrastructure, AI capabilities and people.

Have genuine autonomy and influence over solution…