Senior PHP Full Stack Laravel Development Lead (Remote)

We are seeking a highly experienced
Senior PHP Full Stack Laravel Development Lead
to join Smile and play a pivotal role across our
Retail Dental Cover and Corporate Dental Cover
platforms.


This role is ideal for a senior, hands-on technical leader who thrives in
small, high-ownership teams
, enjoys building scalable systems, and takes pride in delivering clean, reliable, and well-architected solutions.


You will be responsible for
leading technical delivery
, architecting and developing new features, maintaining critical infrastructure, and ensuring the scalability, performance, and security of our platforms as the business continues to grow.


AMAZING REASONS TO WORK WITH SMILE

- 100% Remote: Enjoy the flexibility and convenience of working from anywhere.
- Full-Time Position: Secure a stable and consistent work schedule.
- Similar Time Zone: Work seamlessly with a team in a compatible time zone.
- Established Company: Join a nearly 20-year-old successful & growing organisation.
- National Presence: Be part of a national Australian company.
- Meaningful Work: Contribute to a noble mission to revolutionise quality healthcare accessibility and affordability.
- Top-Tier Leadership & Team: Collaborate with 'A' leadership and 'A' players, including successful Australian/Canadian Founder/CEO and an accomplished Australian COO with extensive experience building and scaling companies.
- Excellent Culture: Thrive in a positive, supportive work environment with a long-serving team.

Responsibilities

- Design, build, and maintain production-grade PHP/Laravel applications and scalable backend APIs for web and mobile platforms.
- Architect and integrate secure RESTful APIs and third-party services (payments, CRMs, analytics, messaging, mapping, deep linking).
- Deliver full-stack features using JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Blade, jQuery, and modern tooling (Composer, npm, Gulp).
- Apply advanced Git/GitHub practices, including branching, pull requests, rebasing, and code reviews in multi-developer environments.
- Design and optimise SQL schemas and databases (PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server) following SOLID principles.
- Implement automated testing and code quality standards using PHPUnit and linting tools.
- Deploy and support development, staging, and production environments, including AWS infrastructure, servers, DNS, and hosting.
- Use AI-assisted development tools responsibly to improve productivity while maintaining engineering discipline.
- Support analytics, tracking, and growth systems, including GA4, Google Tag Manager, CRM integrations, and conversion tracking.
- Research, evaluate, and integrate third-party tools and SDKs, ensuring technical fit and business value.
- Produce clear technical documentation and communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Demonstrate strong ownership, accountability, and reliability, operating effectively in a high-performance remote setup.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIs)

- Code Quality: Code review outcomes, test coverage, and static analysis results.
- Delivery Time: Speed from feature initiation to production deployment.
- Improve Sales & Customer Satisfaction: Application of best-practice e-commerce and customer experience methodologies, with customer feedback driving acquisition and retention.
- API Performance: Reliability, response times, and error rates of REST APIs.
- System Uptime: Hosting and infrastructure availability against uptime targets.
- Innovation Impact: Measurable gains in efficiency and productivity through adoption of new tools and technologies.
- Compliance Adherence: Consistent adherence to data security, privacy, and regulatory standards.
- Collaboration & Communication: Effectiveness as a team player, including code reviews, knowledge sharing, and cross-functional engagement.
- Ownership & Accountability: Demonstrates responsibility for outcomes, follows through on commitments, and proactively resolves issues.

Requirements
This
full-time role
will suit someone who meets
all
of the following:

- 8–10+ years of PHP experience, with deep expertise in Laravel and backend/API development for web and mobile.
- Strong full-stack capability across JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Blade, jQuery, and modern build tools.
- Proven ability to design, scale, and integrate RESTful APIs and third-party services (payments, CRM, analytics, messaging, mapping).
- Advanced Git/GitHub proficiency in collaborative, multi-developer environments.
- Strong foundations in SQL schema design, SOLID principles, and production databases (PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server).
- Experience with automated testing and code quality (PHPUnit, linting).
- Hands-on experience deploying and supporting AWS-based production infrastructure.
- Effective use of AI-assisted development tools within disciplined engineering practices.
- Experience supporting marketing teams with analytics, tracking, and growth tooling (GA4, GTM, CRMs).
- Ability to evaluate and integrate third-party tools and SDKs.
- Demonstrated ability to liaise with stakeholders, plan and deliver projects, and maintain technical documentation.
- Excellent spoken and written English.
- Proven ownership, accountability, and reliability, with a professional remote work setup and remote work experience..

If you believe you are a great fit for the role and meet ALL requirements above, we look forward to hearing from you!