PHP Developer Job Description and Template

If you are a company on the lookout for experienced PHP talent, then you might be overwhelmed by the sheer breadth of talent available in the market. Getting the right talent would require that you spend time articulating your job requirement clearly. This guide provides you the proper guidance to create your job description, along with samples that you can adapt to your needs right away.

Roles and Responsibilities of a PHP Developer

The primary criteria for choosing your PHP developer would be dependent on the platform or framework you would prefer for your site. If you would like to implement a content management solution like WordPress or Drupal for your site, then most styling and customization needs do not require a very experienced PHP developer.

However, suppose you are building a web portal from the ground up with integration to APIs. In that case, the level of PHP customization required could vary greatly. It might also need a developer who is aware of what each PHP framework and release flavor has to offer. Assuming you are looking for a well-rounded PHP developer who can do both types of roles, the responsibilities for such talent would fall into the following categories:

Code ownership: Ability to write and manage standardized, scalable, and secure code.

Full-stack development: Ability to understand and create database queries, build RESTful APIs, and write front-end HTML/CSS/Javascript code.

Source management and versioning: Ability to work in a distributed team, and resolve code conflicts effectively.

Quality Control: Ability to enforce controls across the engineering team for unit testing and integrated testing.

Popular Frameworks Used by PHP Developers

PHP Developers choose to align themselves with one or more frameworks of choice during their careers. Hence it is an excellent investment to familiarize yourself with the popular frameworks available. It might also help to understand what each PHP release has to offer. The following are the most popular frameworks you could get started on.

CodeIgniter

Codeigniter is often considered the first choice for PHP developers at the beginner level, with a lot of pre-built modules offering a great starting point for component-based design.

Laravel

Laravel has come a long way since its inception in 2005 by providing a comprehensive set of first-party plugins for every use case. It is one of the most exhaustive PHP frameworks around.

Zend

Recently renamed as the Laminas Project, Zend has a steeper learning curve. But it is a viable choice for enterprise applications, thanks to its extensibility, and object-oriented support.

Symfony

Symfony has been longer than most of the available PHP frameworks. It is known for its loyal community of PHP developers, primarily for its support for enterprise systems like OroCRM.

Skills for PHP Developers

Source Control

It is advantageous for your hire to know about setting up code repositories for working with a distributed team. Setting up code standards and workflows on Git-based repositories on platforms like Github and Gitlab is a great benefit to have.

Full Stack Development

Since PHP is a back-end scripting language, understanding how the entire application works end-to-end is an added asset. If your hire can understand and troubleshoot client-facing HTML/CSS/Javascript code, it would immensely expedite the rate of web development in your team.

Database Expertise

If your PHP hire can confidently navigate your MySQL data store and create complex queries independently, it would set up a foundation for consuming and processing data for their entire team faster. It would also help the whole team troubleshoot and fix complex data issues, thus elevating your product's quality.

PHP Developer Job Description Template

Note: Copy and customize the job description below for your business needs.

[insert company description here]

As our company grows, the role of an experienced PHP developer has become essential to scale our web operations. While our business operates from our [insert location] based office, we would consider remote options for the best PHP talent.

Roles and Responsibilities

Experienced candidates should be ready to take on the following functions, and others that senior stakeholders may assign from time to time.

• Initiate a new PHP project from the ground up and establish proven web standards for architecture, performance, and security
• Create and integrate database queries to analyze and consume different sources of data within the web application
• Integrate and support front-end development by writing and troubleshooting HTML/CSS/Javascript code
• Establish code review standards and implement within a distributed engineering team

Skills and Qualifications

We do not make our hiring decisions based on a rigid checklist. We feel that every PHP talent brings a varied set of capabilities to the table. We provide our core and preferred criteria for your reference. Even if you do not match all qualifications but feel confident in your experience working with many of these, we encourage you to apply.

Must-Haves

• Knowledge of popular PHP frameworks, preferably <insert PHP framework of choice>
• Thorough understanding of enterprise web design patterns
• Experience working with different database integrations, preferably <insert database of choice>
• Understand front end development and be able to troubleshoot HTML/CSS/Javascript code
• Experience working with a distributed engineering team

Bonus Qualifications

• Have implemented <PHP framework of choice> with a large user base
• Have set up Git repositories for large distributed teams
• Have experience working with PHP security improvements

Personal Attributes

• Good communication skills
• Team player with strong problem-solving and conflict resolution skills
• Quick learner

Compensation

Depends on experience. However, we offer competitive compensation packages. All tools that we expect you to be proficient in will come with certification-ready training from their vendors. We will share a detailed breakdown of our remuneration with successful candidates during the interview process.

How To Apply

Please send a detailed resume that convinces the hiring team of your talent to [insert contact details here]. Also include your portfolio links for us to review before getting in touch with the first round of interviews.

Due to the expected high volume of applications, please allow at least two weeks for us to process your applications. Only qualified applicants will be contacted.