The Role
We are looking for a Laravel developer to work across client projects and our internal product ecosystem. This is not a maintenance role where you update existing systems to someone else’s specification. You will build new systems from scratch, design APIs that third-party applications depend on, and write the business logic that turns client requirements into working software.
Our backend runs on Laravel 10 with PostgreSQL and MySQL. The work spans the full range of what Laravel can do: RESTful APIs consumed by React SPAs and mobile applications, queue-based job processing for heavy operations like AI tool execution and webhook handling, event-driven architectures with real-time broadcasting via Pusher, and scheduled command systems that run dozens of recurring tasks. You will work with all of it, not just one slice.
The role splits between client engagements and internal product development. On the client side, you build custom systems — client portals, dashboards, automation platforms, and data processing pipelines — for businesses across healthcare, legal, recruitment, finance, and professional services. On the product side, you contribute to the Beacon suite: seven interconnected tools with their own API layers, authentication systems, subscription management, and telemetry. The variety is genuine — it is rare to work on the same type of problem for more than a few weeks.
What the Day-to-Day Looks Like
A typical week might include building a new API endpoint for the Beacon Workbench desktop application, implementing a Stripe webhook handler for subscription lifecycle events, writing an analyser class that processes content through OpenAI and returns structured results, and fixing a query performance issue in a client reporting dashboard. You will participate in scoping calls for new projects, contribute to architectural decisions, and review pull requests from other team members.
You will talk to clients directly. There is no project manager translating between the business and the code. When a client explains what they need, you are the person who works out how to build it and then builds it. That requires communication skills alongside technical ones — you need to explain technical trade-offs in terms the client understands and push back when a request would create problems downstream.
What We Are Looking For
Required:
- Strong experience with Laravel (ideally version 9 or 10) — not just basic CRUD, but queues, events, service providers, and custom middleware
- Solid understanding of relational databases, particularly PostgreSQL — query optimisation, migrations, and data modelling for complex business domains
- Experience building and consuming RESTful APIs, including authentication (Sanctum, API keys), versioning, and rate limiting
- Ability to write clean, testable code and work with PHPUnit or equivalent testing frameworks
- Comfortable working independently with minimal supervision — you manage your own time, flag blockers early, and deliver what you commit to
Valuable but not required:
- Experience with Stripe API integration (subscriptions, webhooks, customer management)
- Familiarity with OpenAI or similar AI APIs
- Experience with real-time systems (Pusher, WebSockets, server-sent events)
- Understanding of multi-tenancy patterns and multi-database architectures
- Contributions to open source or personal projects that demonstrate initiative beyond employment
What We Offer
- Meaningful work — you build systems that businesses depend on daily, not throwaway marketing projects
- Technical variety — client projects and product development on the same stack, with different problem domains
- Direct impact — small team, no management layers, your decisions shape the architecture
- Remote flexibility — UK-based, remote-first, with flexibility around core hours
- Product ownership — contribute to the Beacon product suite alongside client work, with visibility into how your code performs in production
- Professional growth — exposure to AI integration, real-time systems, and multi-product architecture that most roles do not offer at this level
How to Apply
Send an email to careers@digitalroyalty.co.uk with your CV and a brief note on why this role interests you. If you have a GitHub profile, personal projects, or anything else that shows how you think about code, include it — it tells us more than a CV alone. We do not use recruitment agencies.
The process is straightforward: an initial conversation to make sure the fit is right on both sides, a short technical exercise that reflects the kind of work you would actually do here, and a final conversation about the role specifics. No whiteboard algorithms, no trick questions.