Backend PHP Developer - Mid Level (Remote)

Are you looking for impactful work with a small, talented team — while also stretching yourself technically and creatively — this is the role for you.

About Us

Ovatu is a leading appointment booking platform, equipping beauty and wellness businesses around the globe with tools to run their daily operations with efficiency and ease. We pride ourselves on our unique ability to utilise cutting edge technology whilst maintaining simplicity and style.

This isn’t your everyday tech company. At Ovatu, you’ll join a small, talented, remote team where your ideas are heard, your code makes a difference, and your work helps thousands of businesses thrive. Our tech is modern, our pace is fast but sustainable, and our culture is built on trust, collaboration, and flexibility.

Why you’ll love it here:

A fully remote team you’ll actually enjoy working with

Complex, meaningful engineering challenges (multi-tenant SaaS, large-scale scheduling, real-time systems)

Encouragement to leverage AI-powered tools for coding, testing, and problem-solving

A culture that values autonomy, innovation, and real contribution

Long-term stability with minimal staff turnover

About You

We’re looking for a Mid-Level Backend PHP Developer to join our Aussie based tech team of 5, to help drive the continued evolution of our platform.

This is a unique opportunity, for the right person, looking for a long-term role with real job satisfaction, to join a company that truly punches above its weight.

You'll be working on a sophisticated multi-tenant SaaS application that handles complex booking logic, payments, integrations, and serves millions of appointments annually.

This role is perfect for a developer who enjoys a challenge, values testing and code quality, and wants to work on a platform that makes a real difference to small business owners.

Responsibilities:

Lead backend development on our Laravel 12 platform

Build and maintain RESTful APIs serving our Nuxt 3 frontend applications and mobile apps

Implement complex business logic for appointment scheduling, availability calculations, and resource management

Develop and maintain integrations with payment processors (Stripe, Square), social and CRM integrations, and third-party APIs

Write comprehensive tests (PHPUnit) and maintain high code quality standards

Optimize database performance for complex queries with MySQL

Work with our queue system (Laravel Horizon/Redis) for background processing

Collaborate on our ongoing migration from legacy Yii 1.1 to Laravel 11 (70% complete)

Work with our customer support team to diagnose and fix bugs

Assist our entire team, on ad hoc tasks, in a flexible manner, where needed

Essential Requirements

5+ years PHP development experience (PHP 8.4)

Strong Laravel experience

Comprehensive testing experience with PHPUnit

Deep understanding of RESTful API design and implementation

Strong grasp of OOP principles, design patterns, and SOLID principles

Version control with Git and collaborative development workflows

Highly Desirable

Multi-tenant SaaS application experience

Yii Framework experience

Payment processor integrations (Stripe, PayPal, Square)

Redis experience for caching and queues

Docker/Kubernetes deployment experience

Amazon Web Services experience using the EKS service

Experience with complex business logic (booking systems, availability calculations)

Knowledge of Laravel Horizon, Sanctum, and Laravel ecosystem

API authentication and security best practices

Performance optimization and scaling experience

Technical Environment

Backend: Laravel 12, Yii 1.1 (being migrated, 70% complete), PHP 8.4

Frontend: Nuxt 3, Vue.js

Database: MySQL, Redis

Infrastructure: Docker, Kubernetes, AWS

Tools: PHPStan, GitHub Actions CI, ArgoCD

Monitoring: New Relic, Sentry, Laravel Pulse, Laravel Nightwatch

What We Offer

Competitive salary

Fully remote work arrangement

Modern tech stack and interesting technical challenges

Collaborative team environment

Opportunity to work on a product that genuinely helps small businesses succeed

The Challenge

You'll be working on complex problems like:

High-performance availability calculation algorithms

Real-time booking conflicts and resource allocation

Payment processing with multiple providers

Background job processing for millions of notifications

API design serving web, mobile, and third-party integrations

Location: Remote within Australia

Experience Level: Mid (5+ years)

Employment Type: Full-time, Permanent

How to apply:

To be considered for this role, please follow the process below:

Please email a resume and a bespoke cover letter, to Ula, at [email protected].

Please elaborate on the following points:

Why are you interested in joining Ovatu? What about this role resonates with you?

Which parts of your experience are most relevant to this role, and why?

What do you value most in a remote team culture, and how do you contribute to that culture?

Where are you located?