Backend Developer

Senior Backend Developer PHP/Symfony – AI & E-Commerce (m/f/d)

About The Company

Hygi.de GmbH & Co. KG is a leading German online retailer for medical products, hygiene supplies, and cleaning products. Since 2003, the company has continued to expand its offering and now serves more than 3.2 million customers with a range of over 140,000 products.

Around 300 employees contribute their expertise to the company’s growth and ongoing development. Hygi.de combines a modern digital infrastructure with short decision-making paths, collaborative teamwork, and a commitment to innovation and shared responsibility. The company is based in Telgte, near Münster.

About The Role

As a Senior Backend Developer, you will help shape the technology behind a large-scale e-commerce shop serving millions of customers. You will join a backend team of four developers and work closely with the Shop Team Lead and colleagues across the business. Using PHP 8.x and Symfony, you will develop the platform’s architecture and deliver robust, high-quality features across key areas of the customer and operational experience.

This role also offers the opportunity to influence how artificial intelligence supports software development and e-commerce. You will apply AI coding tools thoughtfully, help establish effective team workflows, and assess practical AI use cases for the shop. Your work will connect sound engineering decisions with measurable business outcomes.

Qualifications

• At least five years of professional backend development experience with modern PHP and Symfony.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, including approaches such as domain-driven design, modular monoliths, microservices, or event-driven systems.
• Advanced knowledge of MySQL, performance optimization, caching, and message queues.
• Practical experience using AI coding assistants or coding agents, with the ability to review generated code critically.
• Good judgment in balancing technical quality with business value and operational needs.
• Very good German and good English communication skills.
• Experience with e-commerce platforms or integrations for ERP, payments, or logistics is an advantage.
• Knowledge of LLM APIs, retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings, vector databases, or agentic workflows is welcome, as is experience mentoring other developers.

Responsibilities

• Develop and improve backend architecture using PHP 8.x and Symfony, making informed decisions about scalability, maintainability, and performance.
• Design and implement complex e-commerce features across checkout, pricing, product assortment, search, and fulfillment.
• Maintain high engineering standards through clean code, automated testing, code reviews, and CI/CD practices.
• Use tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, or GitHub Copilot for development, refactoring, testing, and documentation.
• Help define AI-supported development workflows and ensure AI-generated code meets the team’s quality and security expectations.
• Identify and evaluate AI applications for the shop, including intelligent search, product data enrichment, recommendations, and process automation.
• Translate business goals into sustainable technical solutions, considering metrics such as conversion, average basket value, margin, and process costs.
• Act as a technical partner to product owners, developers, and business teams, sharing knowledge and supporting sound technical decisions.

The core technology environment includes PHP 8.x, Symfony, MySQL, Redis, RabbitMQ, Git, CI/CD, on-premise hosting, Jira, and Confluence.

Benefits

• A secure position in a growing e-commerce business.
• Competitive compensation and a contribution toward a company pension plan.
• 30 days of annual leave and flexible working hours with flexitime.
• Individual professional development and learning opportunities.
• Employee discounts across the company’s product range.
• Modern workspaces and a digital working environment.
• Bike leasing, regular team events, and shared activities.
• Complimentary drinks, fruit, and snacks.

Equal Opportunity

Hygi.de GmbH & Co. KG welcomes applicants of all backgrounds and is committed to an inclusive workplace. We value the different experiences and perspectives of our employees, regardless of origin, skin color, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, religion, disability, or personal beliefs. We believe that diversity strengthens our culture and helps us create better outcomes together.