Technical Architect -PHP- architecture

Application / Technical Architect (Legacy PHP Modernization)

Location:

London - Hybrid/Onsite

We’re looking for an architect who still loves to build.

You’ll lead the evolution of a legacy PHP landscape—redesigning architecture, modernizing code and databases, and scaling performance—while staying hands‑on across development, migration, and operations. If you can balance near‑term delivery with a long‑term platform vision, we’d love to talk.

• Own the target architecture for a legacy PHP‑based system and set the modernization roadmap.
• Refactor legacy PHP and introduce modern frameworks (
  Laravel/Symfony/Zend where appropriate).
• Rationalize database logic
  : analyze, refactor, and optimize stored procedures; decouple app ↔ DB.
• Design secure, high‑performance APIs and drive application & database performance tuning.
• Ship code
  : contribute hands‑on in PHP and at least one secondary stack.
• Lead migrations (platform/framework/infrastructure) with minimal business disruption.
• Level‑up Dev Ops
  : CI/CD, automated testing, deployments, monitoring & alerting.
• Translate business needs into clean, maintainable technical solutions with cross‑functional teams.
• Ensure stability, security, and operational excellence across environments.
• Explore and apply GenAI where it meaningfully accelerates modernization and developer productivity.

• Strong PHP engineering plus frameworks (
  Laravel / Symfony / Zend / legacy
  ).
• Deep experience modernizing legacy code and reducing technical debt at scale.
• Database expertise
  : schema design, stored procedures, SQL tuning, and refactoring patterns.
• API experience
  : designing and building RESTful services.
• One or more secondary languages
  : Node.js / Java / .NET (production experience).
• Web server know‑how
  : Apache and IIS configuration & performance tuning.
• Dev Ops fluency
  :
  Git, CI/CD, automated builds/tests, deployment strategies, observability.
• Performance mindset across application and database layers.

• Implement CI/CD pipelines with industry‑standard tooling.
• Manage environments, logging, monitoring, and on‑call alerting.
• Plan releases with rollback strategies and production support best practices.

• Breaking down monoliths into modular or service‑oriented architectures.
• Strong understanding of web app security practices.
• Experience in enterprise or regulated environments.
• Architectural thinking with a hands‑on bias.
• Pragmatic problem‑solving and clear analytical reasoning.
• Ability to balance short‑term delivery with long‑term vision
  .
• Comfortable in legacy code while driving transformation (including GenAI use‑cases).
• Clear communication with both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
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