Awesome Motive: Senior Laravel Developer

As a Senior Developer at Awesome Motive, you will be at the forefront of developing, maintaining, and scaling our powerful B2B SaaS applications, their associated WordPress plugins, and the intricate backend systems that support them. You will architect and implement high-performance solutions, lead development initiatives, and create innovative features that impact millions of users worldwide. Your expertise will drive the technical excellence of our diverse platform, which leverages modern Laravel (PHP 8+) for its core SaaS components and WordPress plugins, alongside a significant existing backend all operating within a containerized Docker environment. You will ensure scalability, security, and an exceptional user experience across all these interconnected components.

💡 Interested in applying?

🔍 Please read/follow the next steps outlined in “How to Apply” at the bottom of this listing.

Attention to detail is one of our core values! This is your chance to stand out 🙂

To love this role, here’s the type of person you are:

• You’re a technical leader who thrives on solving complex problems, mentoring other developers, and working with other talented individuals to elevate the entire team’s capabilities.
• You’re a self-starter who loves taking initiative and seeing things through from conception to completion, with a proven track record of owning major features and architectural decisions.
• You’re an excellent communicator, fluent in both verbal and written English, who makes sure nothing slips through the cracks. We believe communication is critical, and there is no such thing as overcommunication.
• You’re passionate about leveraging cutting-edge technologies, including AI tools, to enhance development workflows and create innovative solutions for both Laravel and WordPress environments.
• You have a strong curiosity and desire to learn and grow your skills, particularly within the Laravel, Vue.js, and WordPress plugin development ecosystems.
• You’re passionate about building high-quality, scalable, and maintainable software that provides an excellent user experience.
• You take pride in writing clean, maintainable, and efficient code that stands the test of time and scale.
• You are a team player, comfortable collaborating effectively with product managers, designers, and other developers, providing constructive feedback while remaining open to new ideas.
• You’re adept at tackling complex challenges and are comfortable jumping between backend (Laravel) and frontend (Vue.js) development tasks, as well as WordPress plugin development.
• You’re comfortable making data-driven decisions and can balance technical excellence with business requirements.
• You’re adaptable and eager to continuously learn and improve your skills in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.
• You possess strong leadership qualities and are keen to guide and uplift your peers.

Common responsibilities include (but are not limited to):

• Architecting, developing, and maintaining scalable, high-performance Laravel applications (PHP 8+), WordPress plugins, and the underlying backend services that support them, ensuring they can handle millions of user interactions and large datasets.
• Lead the design and development of new features and enhancements for our core SaaS application (using PHP/Laravel, Vue.js (Vue 3), Livewire, Alpine.js), its companion WordPress plugin, and the evolution of supporting backend systems.
• Develop and maintain the WordPress plugin, ensuring seamless integration with our SaaS application, compatibility with e-commerce platforms (Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce), and adherence to WordPress best practices.
• Write clean, well-documented, and thoroughly testable code, adhering to our established coding standards (PHPCS, ESLint) for all parts of the platform.
• Contribute significantly to the architecture and technical direction of our SaaS platform and its WordPress integrations, including API design, and strategies for modernizing and maintaining the multi-technology backend.
• Optimize database queries (MySQL/PostgreSQL) and application performance across the Laravel application, WordPress plugins, and backend systems.
• Manage, maintain, and improve API integrations between various internal systems (built on different PHP frameworks/versions) and third-party services.
• Work within, maintain, and improve our Dockerized development, testing, and production environments.
• Implement robust security measures to protect sensitive user data and ensure compliance with privacy regulations.
• Integrate and leverage AI technologies where appropriate to enhance application features and development workflows.
• Design, develop, document (using tools like Scribe, VitePress), and maintain robust RESTful APIs and potentially microservices for internal and external consumption.
• Implement event tracking and analytics within the WordPress plugin and ensure data flows correctly to our SaaS application.
• Utilize modern WordPress development tools and practices, including @wordpress/scripts, for plugin development.
• Mentor junior and mid-level developers, conduct code reviews, and promote best practices across the team.
• Collaborate with DevOps to establish and maintain CI/CD pipelines for smooth and efficient deployments.
• Troubleshoot complex issues in production environments and implement effective, lasting solutions.
• Stay current with Laravel, Vue.js, and WordPress ecosystem developments, recommending adoption of new tools and practices.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and other developers to deliver high-quality software solutions.
• Triaging bugs and enhancements that come into GitHub.
• Scoping, writing, and testing new product features.
• Refactoring legacy code with a particular attention to backwards compatibility and performance.
• Communicating effectively with the team and supporting your peers using chat, audio, and video

• 8+ years of professional experience in web application development, with a strong emphasis on PHP/Laravel (ideally including PHP 8+) and WordPress plugin development, coupled with experience working on legacy code.
• Expert proficiency in PHP, the Laravel framework’s ecosystem (Eloquent ORM, Blade, middleware, service providers, event system), and modern PHP practices. Demonstrable experience with older PHP versions and frameworks like CodeIgniter is also highly valuable.
• Significant experience in WordPress plugin development, including hooks (actions and filters), REST API integration, custom post types, and a deep understanding of the WordPress core. Experience with e-commerce plugins (Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce) is a strong plus.
• Strong experience with modern JavaScript frameworks, particularly Vue.js (Vue 3 preferred), including state management (Vuex/Pinia), Vue Router, and the Composition API. Experience with Alpine.js is beneficial.
• Experience building and scaling applications that handle high volumes of data and traffic.
• Expertise in database design, optimization, and query performance tuning (MySQL/PostgreSQL) within both modern ORM-driven applications and systems with more direct database interaction.
• Solid understanding of core frontend technologies: HTML5, CSS3 (Tailwind CSS preferred), and modern JavaScript (ES6+).
• Experience with queue systems (e.g., Redis, RabbitMQ) for handling asynchronous processes.
• Proven experience in building, consuming, and documenting RESTful APIs (experience with automated documentation tools is a plus).
• Proficiency in writing comprehensive unit, integration, and feature tests (PHPUnit, Pest, Cypress, Vitest/Jest), including experience with WordPress testing frameworks (e.g., WP_Mock, Brain Monkey) and strategies for effectively testing legacy PHP applications.
• Strong understanding of software design principles, architectural patterns, and best practices applicable to both Laravel and WordPress development.
• Familiarity with containerization technologies (Docker) and cloud services (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Experience in developing, maintaining, and troubleshooting CLI applications and scripts within a PHP environment.
• Experience implementing or working with AI tools and APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Hugging Face) to enhance development workflows or application features is a plus.
• Solid understanding of security best practices, GDPR compliance, and data protection principles.
• Proficiency with version control through Git and GitHub, including branching strategies (e.g., GitFlow) and thorough code review processes.
• Familiarity with modern frontend build tools (e.g., Vite) and WordPress build tools (e.g., @wordpress/scripts).
• Exceptional troubleshooting and problem-solving skills with meticulous attention to detail, particularly in complex, multi-component systems.
• Ability to keep complex ideas and features simple. (Simplicity is a core value!)
• Previous remote work experience and ability to work effectively in a distributed team.
• Personal computer with reliable internet access.
• Availability to participate in audio/video meetings between the hours 9 am – 5 pm EST (or a significant portion thereof).

Bonus points if you also have:

• Experience with Laravel ecosystem tools like Nova, Vapor, Forge, Horizon, Telescope.
• Proven experience in progressively modernizing legacy PHP applications.
• Experience with the challenges of maintaining and evolving a multi-component backend system with varying ages of technology.
• Knowledge of diverse backend technologies and the challenges of integrating them.
• Experience with containerization technologies (Docker), including building and managing Dockerfiles, docker-compose configurations, and working in Dockerized development/production environments.
• Knowledge of email marketing platforms, ESPs, or related technologies (Mailgun, SendGrid, Amazon SES), and email deliverability best practices.
• Experience with real-time features using WebSockets or Laravel Echo.
• Contributions to open-source projects, particularly in the Laravel, Vue.js, or WordPress ecosystems.
• Experience with machine learning or AI implementation in production applications.
• Knowledge of email template design, responsive email coding, and email client compatibility.
• Experience with A/B testing and analytics integration for marketing campaigns.
• Familiarity with serverless architectures and event-driven systems.
• Advanced proficiency in other JavaScript frameworks like React or Svelte.
• Experience with e-commerce platforms or related APIs (beyond EDD/WooCommerce).
• Deep understanding of the broader WordPress ecosystem, including common plugins and themes.
• Experience with WordPress block editor (Gutenberg) development.
• Familiarity with WordPress coding standards and best practices.
• DevOps & Infrastructure Expertise:

• Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), including service configuration, scaling, and cost optimization.
• Server management, web server configuration (Nginx, Apache), and performance tuning.
• Understanding of CI/CD principles and extensive experience with relevant tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Buddy, etc.).
• Knowledge of network configuration, security best practices, and load balancing.

Working for a fast-growing bootstrapped company is a rare opportunity, one we consider a lifestyle choice rather than a job choice. Our positions are challenging, but also come with amazing advantages and fulfillment to those who earn them. Here’s what we offer.

• Competitive Salary.
• Term Life Insurance and Accidental Death & Dismemberment for all full-time team members during their employment.
• Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance benefits for full-time U.S. employees.
• Health Insurance benefits for all employees in India, Pakistan, Brazil, Philippines, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Nepal, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, Argentina & Jamaica.
• Work from your home. We’re spread out all over the world – United States, Canada, Ukraine, India, Pakistan, Singapore, and more. This is a Remote position.
• Flexible PTO after 90 days of employment. We encourage employees to take the time they need for a vacation, stay healthy, and spend time with friends and family.
• Holidays (based on your location)
• Paid Parental Leave.
• We happily provide or reimburse software you’ll need as well as books or courses that promote continued learning.
• We cover all costs of company travel (including our annual all-company retreat and mini-team meetups).
• Additional Perks include AM Welcome Box for new team members, Yearly Anniversary Gifts, and Technology Stipend each work anniversary.
• We give you the opportunity to solve challenging and meaningful problems that make a difference.
• Ability to work with some of the best people in the business through frequent, if not daily, interactions.
• And in case you were wondering: no politics, no b.s., and no jerks.

Location
This is a Remote position – our team is spread around the globe! Our home base is in Florida, USA, so company operating hours are 9am – 5pm ET (UTC -5). While full coverage is not a requirement, you must be available during a portion of the day.

Inclusion Statement
At Awesome Motive, we strive to have the broadest possible view of diversity, going beyond visible differences to include the background, experiences, skills, and perspectives that make each person unique. Awesome Motive is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, veteran status, or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law.

How to apply?
If all of this sounds interesting, then please submit your application!

Please clearly include the following in your cover letter:

• Your experience with Laravel and Vue.js in building complex, scalable web applications.
• Your experience with WordPress plugin development, particularly highlighting any
• e-commerce integrations or complex plugin architectures you’ve worked on.
• Describe a challenging technical problem you solved recently (ideally involving Laravel,
• WordPress, or both) and how you approached it.
• If you have experience with AI tools in development or application features, please provide
• specific examples.
• Share your experience with optimizing database performance and handling large datasets,
• particularly in contexts involving multiple interconnected systems or legacy code.
• Detail any experience with Docker, including managing Dockerized applications and
• environments.
• Tell us a bit about yourself and why you should be considered for this Senior Developer role.
• Details about your experience, qualifications, leadership approach, personality, etc., are very
• helpful.
• Profile links with code samples (GitHub, GitLab, WordPress.org, etc.).
• Other profile links if available (Your website, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)

Also note, don’t forget to proofread before submitting. Check spelling, capitalization, etc. This is your chance to make your application stand out 🙂

We won’t be able to individually respond to all applications, but if we feel you’re a strong match, someone will be in touch shortly.

Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you!