Senior Backend Architect (PHP/Laravel) — Remote & AI-Driven

Shakers is seeking a Senior Backend Engineer (PHP/Laravel) to join the Integrations at scale team for a freelance project, remote and full-time. The platform processes tens of millions of shipments every month and integrates with hundreds of carriers and major e-commerce platforms.

You will design scalable backend services in PHP/Laravel, build carrier and platform integrations, and drive the evolution of distributed microservices on AWS.

Design and develop scalable backend services, mainly in PHP and Laravel. Build and maintain integrations with carriers, e-commerce platforms and third-party services. Drive the evolution of the microservices architecture and distributed systems. Lead the technical design of solutions and raise engineering standards in the team. Weigh architectural trade-offs across scalability, reliability, performance and maintainability. Integrate AI and LLM capabilities to automate complex workflows. Improve performance and reliability at high transaction volumes. Mentor two mid-level engineers alongside the Team Lead. Collaborate with Product, Design and Support from discovery to release. 5+ years of professional backend software engineering experience. Degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related field. Strong system design skills, clean architecture and a clear grasp of engineering trade-offs. Hands-on experience with microservices, asynchronous patterns and distributed systems. Track record designing and operating reliable, production-grade services. Ownership of technical decisions and the ability to explain the reasoning behind them. Fluent written and spoken English (C1): the engineering team works in English.