Lead PHP Developer

We are seeking a highly accountable, hands-on Lead PHP Developer to join the Platform Feed Management team. This position involves end-to-end ownership of projects requiring deep technical judgment and carrying high release risk. You will serve as the team's release manager and designated technical escalation path, collaborating closely with Product and Engineering leadership to translate business objectives into scalable, well-architected solutions. This role defines technical patterns and direction for your projects.

This position offers significant ownership and accountability, blending hands-on engineering with technical leadership, while fostering the technical capabilities of the team.

Responsibilities

• Act as the named Project Owner for projects demanding the deepest technical judgment and highest release risk.
• Define and evolve architectural direction and technical patterns for owned projects, setting standards for other engineers.
• Review and approve solution descriptions and sizing for owned projects.
• Validate the technical approach for owned projects, either personally or by engaging another Lead or Staff Engineer.
• Collaborate with Product on refinement, decomposition, and maintaining current owned projects in Jira.
• Design and develop scalable PHP APIs, services, and solutions from concept to production as a hands-on contributor.
• Own the release process and CI pipeline health for the team, acting as the point of escalation during releases and coordinating rollbacks when necessary.
• Lead planned improvements to the release pipeline and help build a bench of additional releasers to prevent single points of failure.
• Mentor other engineers on the team, demonstrating visible growth over time.
• Provide a pull-based escalation path for other Project Owners on the team.
• Incorporate AI-powered capabilities, built and maintained by the FDX AI team, into merchant-facing feed features as required.
• Exemplify the team's technical and cultural practices, setting the standard for healthy technical disagreement.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• At least 1 year of relevant leadership experience.
• Expertise in PHP, including building scalable, production-grade APIs and services.
• Familiarity with MySQL or similar relational data stores.
• Capability to own delivery for medium to large, ambiguous technical problems.
• Demonstrated experience mentoring engineers with visible, named growth over time.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, comfortable representing the team in cross-functional conversations.

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with modern JS/TS frameworks (Angular, React).
• Knowledge of caching technologies (e.g., Redis).
• Background in e-commerce, product catalogs, or sales channel/marketplace data models.
• Proficiency in integrating with AI or LLM-powered services in a production application.

What We Offer

• International projects with top brands.
• Work with global teams of highly skilled, diverse peers.
• Healthcare benefits.
• Employee financial programs.
• Paid time off and sick leave.
• Upskilling, reskilling, and certification courses.
• Unlimited access to the LinkedIn Learning library and 22,000+ courses.
• Global career opportunities.
• Volunteer and community involvement opportunities.
• EPAM Employee Groups.
• Award-winning culture recognized by Glassdoor, Newsweek, and LinkedIn.

EPAM is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.