Who Are We?
Smartbox Group is Europe’s leading provider of experience gifts, selling over 3.5 million gift sets annually across travel, food, wellness, and adventure. Available online and in 17,500+ retail locations across Europe, the company focuses on offering high-quality, curated digital and in-store experiences.
About the Role
We are looking for a Software Engineering Tech
Lead (PHP Backend) to join our Engineering team at Smartbox. You will lead the domain
domain that powers our real-time availability engine and support integrations with hotels, parks, and new verticals such as spas and restaurants, making it a key part of the Smartbox experience.
This is a hands-on technical leadership role, responsible for the design, scalability, and long-term health of systems within your domain. You will collaborate closely with software engineers, product managers, QA engineers, and other technical leads - both on-site and in remote/offshore teams.
Please note that this is a technical leadership role without direct people management responsibilities.
What You’ll Do
- Lead the technical direction and system architecture for your domain.
- Design and maintain scalable, testable backend services using PHP and Symfony.
- Collaborate with managers to ensure solutions align with business needs.
- Guide engineers by reviewing code, sharing best practices, and supporting solution design.
- Run regular technical syncs with offshore and cross-functional teams.
- Represent your domain in cross-team discussions and technical initiatives.
- Contribute to process improvements across our SDLC and Agile delivery practices.
- Promote code quality, test coverage, and CI/CD best practices within the team.
What We’re Looking For
- 6+ years of experience in software development, including technical ownership and mentorship responsibilities.
- Deep expertise in PHP (7 or 8) and a modern PHP framework (preferably Symfony).
- Proven experience designing and supporting robust REST/SOAP APIs.
- Strong skills in relational data modelling and performance optimisation.
- Familiarity with asynchronous processing and messaging systems.
- Comfortable working with containers and cloud-native environments.
- Hands-on experience with automated testing and maintaining high test coverage.
- Practical understanding of CI/CD pipelines in team environments.
- Strong knowledge of clean architecture, design patterns, and SOLID principles.
- Excellent communication skills; comfortable working across teams and time zones.
- Ability to balance technical priorities with business goals.
Even Better If You Have
- Experience with availability engines, inventory synchronisation, or real-time data flows.
- Familiarity with OTA specifications (e.g., OTA XML/JSON) or travel booking flows.
- Integration experience with channel managers, booking platforms, or hospitality systems.
- Understanding of Domain-Driven Design (DDD) and how to apply it in scalable systems.
- Experience in production observability (monitoring, logging, alerting).
- Symfony or PHP certifications are a plus.
Top Skills
Smartbox Group Dublin, Dublin, IRL Office
Joyce's Court, Talbot St, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
