Senior/ Lead PHP Engineer (with AI Skills)

Toronto time zone We're looking for a mature, Senior/Lead PHP Engineer with deep Laravel expertise and hands-on experience building or integrating agentic AI systems. You'll take ownership of complex backend features end-to-end, mentor other engineers, and help shape how AI-driven automation and agents fit into our product and internal workflows. About the client: Our client is a leading online car marketplace group operating across Europe and North America, bringing together market-leading brands to shape the future of our industry by combining the best of both regions. What You'll Do: - Design, build, and maintain robust backend services and APIs using PHP and Laravel - Own features from technical design through deployment and monitoring - Integrate and orchestrate agentic AI workflows (e.g., LLM-based agents, tool-calling pipelines, autonomous task runners) into existing products or internal tooling - Improve system performance, reliability, and security across the stack - Stay current with the PHP/Laravel ecosystem and emerging agentic AI tools and patterns What You Need to Succeed: - 6+ years of professional PHP development experience - 4+ years building applications with Laravel (or comparable modern PHP framework experience with strong Laravel proficiency) - Solid database skills (MySQL/PostgreSQL), including query optimization and schema design - Familiarity with containerization (Docker) and cloud deployment (AWS, GCP, or similar) - Strong communication skills and the judgment to work independently on ambiguous problems - Hands-on GenAI experience — you've built with LLM APIs, tool/function calling, retrieval, agents, or agent frameworks and put them into real workflows. - Modern AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, Codex) are part of how you work day to day. - Strong communication and collaboration skills — you work well in a team, share your opinions clearly, and can move a topic forward with people across functions. - Solid engineering fundamentals: testing, debugging, code quality, and getting things production-ready. - English - at least Upper Intermediate+ - Work in EDT (Toronto) time zone We offer*: - Flexible working format - remote, office-based or flexible - A competitive salary and good compensation package - Personalized career growth - Professional development tools (mentorship program, tech talks and trainings, centers of excellence, and more) - Active tech communities with regular knowledge sharing - Education reimbursement - Memorable anniversary presents - Corporate events and team buildings - Other location-specific benefits *not applicable for freelancers