Senior PHP Developer (Payments)
Not Your Average Start-Up · Europe ·
- Work mode
- Remote
- Seniority
- Senior
- Category
- Software engineering
- Experience
- 5+ years
Senior PHP developer to build and scale a card payments platform from scratch for high-risk merchants — integrating acquirers, PSPs and processors, designing APIs and backend payment flows (3DS2, recurring, card-on-file). A solo/first-engineer, AI-first startup environment.
💻 We’re hiring: Senior PHP Developer (Payments)
We’re building next-gen payment infrastructure for high-volume, high-risk merchants.
Looking for a Senior PHP Developer to build and scale core payment systems — integrations, APIs, and backend architecture.
⚙️ Must have
5+ years of hands-on production experience in fiat/card payments ⚙️
Deep understanding of card payment infrastructure and full payment lifecycle
Strong experience integrating acquirers, PSPs, and payment processors
Solid knowledge of card network rules and technical specifications
Hands-on expertise with 3-D Secure (3DS2), Merchant-Initiated Transactions (MIT), and card-on-file / recurring payments
Strong understanding of payment authentication data (CAVV, trace IDs, transaction indicators, etc.)
Proven ability to debug and audit payment flows at request/response level
Experience implementing integrations strictly according to processor/acquirer/network specs
🧠 Engineering & Architecture
Strong full-stack / backend engineering background
Experience designing APIs and complex billing/payment systems
Familiarity with MoR / PayFac architecture (strong plus)
Ability to independently architect and build a V1 payment platform from 0→1
Comfortable being the first/solo engineer in a high-ownership environment
Strong debugging skills and experience handling production incidents
🤖 AI-native workflow
Actively uses AI tools (Claude, Copilot, Cursor, or similar) 🤖
Uses AI for coding, debugging, code review, and validating implementations against specs
Treats AI as a core productivity multiplier, not just an assistant
⭐ Nice to have
Experience with Merchant of Record (MoR) or PayFac models
Building payment infrastructure (not just integrating PSPs)
Experience with multiple acquirers/processors
Exposure to complex international payment flows
Crypto + fiat integrations (crypto as an addition, not a replacement for fiat expertise)
Early-stage startup experience
💎 What we offer
Opportunity to build a core payment platform from scratch
Full ownership of architecture, infrastructure, and product decisions
Fast-paced, low-bureaucracy environment with real impact
Highly technical, challenging engineering problems
Freedom to apply an AI-first engineering workflow