Senior Full-Stack Developer (PHP/Laravel)

About Us

Domeo is on a mission to change how letting properties are managed in Europe. We are an online property management platform for mid- to long-term rentals, building a powerful platform at the intersection of PropTech, FinTech, and AI to empower users and speed up, simplify, and transparently process transactions.

We're a passionate team backed by Zest (the largest Italian accelerator), unicorn founders (Scalapay & Truelayer), and the largest independent Italian wealth manager (Azimut).

We are now looking for an experienced Senior Full-Stack Developer who will take full ownership of our existing Laravel application, maintaining, improving, and stabilizing it while supporting the gradual migration to a go tech stack. This is a unique opportunity to be the primary owner of a production platform serving real customers, ensuring business continuity while transitioning toward either a frontend-focused role (React) or backend role (Golang) as the platform evolves.

Current Focus (18/24 months) You Will Own This

You'll be the primary owner and decision-maker for our existing Laravel-based platform while we build its Golang replacement.

This means:

• Autonomous decision-making on technical improvements and priorities
• Direct responsibility for bug fixes, critical improvements, and incident response
• Ownership of the entire codebase you'll be the go-to expert
• Feature enhancements for immediate business needs
• Performance optimization and strategic technical debt reduction
• Ensuring smooth operations during the migration period
• Knowledge transfer and comprehensive documentation for system handoff

What "Ownership" Means at Domeo

We're looking for someone who will:

• Make autonomous decisions about technical approaches and priorities
• Drive improvements without waiting to be told what needs fixing
• Think like a product owner understanding business impact, not just code
• Own the entire lifecycle from requirements to deployment to monitoring
• Communicate proactively about risks, blockers, and opportunities
• Set the technical direction for the legacy platform's evolution
• Be the expert the person everyone turns to for this codebase
• Take pride in keeping a legacy system running smoothly and efficiently

Responsibilities

Platform Ownership (Primary Focus)

• Own end-to-end responsibility for the Laravel application's health and performance
• Make technical decisions independently on architecture, refactoring, and improvements
• Proactively identify and resolve issues before they impact users
• Set priorities for bug fixes, performance optimization, and feature enhancements
• Own the incident response process and post-mortem analysis
• Take initiative in reducing technical debt strategically
• Ensure system stability and business continuity during the transition period

Maintenance & Improvements

• Maintain and enhance the existing Laravel monolithic application
• Prioritize bug fixes, security patches, and critical functionality improvements
• Optimize application performance and database queries for the current production workload
• Implement incremental feature enhancements as required by the business
• Refactor legacy code to improve maintainability where needed

Code Quality & Stability

• Conduct code reviews and ensure high-quality standards
• Write and maintain tests using PHPUnit to prevent regressions
• Own monitoring and observability set up alerts and track key metrics
• Document complex systems and business logic for knowledge transfer
• Establish best practices for error handling and logging
• Be accountable for code quality across the entire application

Integration & API Management

• Maintain existing RESTful APIs consumed by internal and external systems
• Integrate third-party services (payment processors, property management tools, document signing)
• Ensure API backward compatibility during platform transition
• Work with Eloquent ORM for database operations and migrations

Frontend Development

• Maintain and enhance Livewire components and Blade templates
• Work with Laravel Mix and Webpack for asset compilation
• Implement responsive designs using Bootstrap and SCSS
• Ensure cross-browser compatibility and accessibility standards

Collaboration & Transition Planning

• Act as the bridge between business needs and technical implementation
• Work closely with the team building the Golang replacement
• Participate in architectural discussions for the new platform
• Help define API contracts and data migration strategies
• Mentor junior developers and share domain knowledge
• Contribute to technical documentation for both legacy and new systems
• Own the knowledge transfer process as systems are migrated

Required Technical Skills

Backend (Primary)

• Strong experience with Laravel framework (routing, middleware, Eloquent ORM, service providers, queues, events, jobs)
• Deep knowledge of PHP including object-oriented programming, traits, interfaces, namespaces
• Expertise in MySQL including complex queries, joins, indexes, transactions, and performance tuning
• Experience with Artisan console commands and custom command development
• Understanding of Laravel's authentication and authorization systems (gates, policies)
• Proficiency with Composer for dependency management
• Experience with database migrations and seeders
• Knowledge of Laravel queues and background job processing

Frontend

• Solid experience with Livewire (components, actions, properties, lifecycle hooks, real-time updates)
• Proficiency with Blade templating engine and directives
• Strong knowledge of JavaScript (ES6+) including promises, async/await, modules
• Experience with SCSS/SASS and CSS preprocessors
• Familiarity with Bootstrap framework and grid system
• Understanding of Webpack/Laravel Mix for asset bundling
• Experience with Yarn or npm for package management

Development Tools & Practices

• Proficient with Git workflows (feature branches, merge requests, conflict resolution)
• Experience with Docker and docker-compose for local development
• Knowledge of GitHub CI/CD pipelines
• Familiarity with PHPUnit for unit and feature testing
• Understanding of PSR standards and PHP coding conventions
• Experience with code quality tools like StyleCI, ESLint

System & Infrastructure

• Understanding of Linux/Unix environments
• Experience with nginx or Apache web servers
• Knowledge of Redis for caching and session management
• Familiarity with application monitoring and error tracking tools
• Understanding of security best practices (CSRF, XSS, SQL injection prevention)
• Experience with performance profiling and optimization

Architecture & Patterns

• Experience with MVC architecture and service-oriented design
• Understanding of repository pattern and dependency injection
• Knowledge of RESTful API design principles
• Familiarity with event-driven architecture
• Experience with database normalization and schema design

Experience Requirements

• 5+ years of professional experience with PHP and Laravel
• Proven track record of owning production applications from end to end
• Experience being the primary technical owner or lead developer on a project
• Demonstrated ability to work autonomously and drive technical initiatives
• Experience with full-stack development (backend + frontend)
• History of proactive problem-solving and incident management
• Experience working with legacy codebases and managing technical debt
• Demonstrated ability to debug complex issues in monolithic applications
• History of working in Agile/Scrum environments

Preferred Experience

• Experience with PropTech, FinTech, or regulated industries
• Previous involvement in platform migrations or rewrites
• Track record of being the "go-to person" for a codebase or system
• Knowledge of payment gateway integrations (Stripe, PayPal, etc.)
• Familiarity with document management and e-signature services
• Background in API versioning and backward compatibility strategies
• Exposure to React or Golang (even at a learning level)

Soft Skills & Mindset

Essential Traits

• Ownership mindset: You treat the codebase as your own product and take pride in its quality
• Proactivity: You identify issues before they become problems and drive solutions
• Accountability: You take responsibility for outcomes, not just outputs
• Self-direction: You don't need hand-holding; you see what needs to be done and do it
• Pragmatism: You balance perfectionism with business needs and ship value
• Initiative: You propose improvements and drive them to completion
• Resilience: You stay calm under pressure and own incident resolution
• Communication: You proactively update stakeholders and document decisions clearly

Additional Qualities

• Adaptability: Comfortable working with legacy code and learning new technologies
• Problem-solving: Strong debugging skills and systematic troubleshooting approach
• Collaboration: Work effectively with cross-functional teams during transition
• Growth mindset: Enthusiasm for learning React or Golang for future role evolution
• Customer focus: Understanding that code quality impacts real users and business outcomes

What We Offer

• Competitive salary plus performance-based bonus
• Stock option plan tied to funding milestones
• True ownership this isn't just a title, you'll have real decision-making power
• Autonomy and trust we hire people to own things, not to micromanage them
• Flexible working arrangements with remote options
• Learning budget for courses and training in React or Golang
• Clear career path with intentional transition planning
• Opportunity to shape your future role based on your interests
• Work with a collaborative startup team with experienced advisors
• Exposure to modern architectural patterns during platform evolution
• Direct impact your work directly affects business success and customer satisfaction
• Mentorship opportunities with both legacy and new tech stacks

Our Hiring Process

1. Submit your application with CV and portfolio/GitHub profile
2. Initial 30-min video call with the tech lead discuss ownership experience and mindset
3. Technical assessment practical Laravel debugging and enhancement challenge, plus architecture, maintenance scenarios, and decision-making discussion
4. Final interview with the CEO and co-founder
5. Offer