Senior Backend Developer – PHP / Laravel

Company: UsedBookR.com

Location: Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Work Mode: Hybrid / Remote — approximately 3 days per month from our Coimbatore office

Experience: 5–8 years

Employment Type: Full-time

About UsedBookR

UsedBookR.com is a growing e-commerce and retail business focused on buying and selling new and pre-loved books.

Our technology supports multiple areas of the business, including e-commerce, inventory, purchasing, buyback, warehouse operations, orders, payments, shipping, promotions and reporting.

We are looking for an experienced Senior Backend Developer – PHP/Laravel who can take ownership of our existing software and help us build, improve and maintain our technology platform.

This is a hands-on role. We are looking for someone who can understand a business requirement, investigate the existing system, develop the solution, test it, troubleshoot issues and take ownership through deployment and maintenance.

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Role & Responsibilities

Develop, maintain and enhance applications using PHP and Laravel
Build and maintain REST APIs and backend services
Develop business logic and complex application workflows
Work with an existing production codebase and understand its architecture
Write clean, maintainable and scalable code
Implement authentication, authorization and role-based access
Develop cron jobs, queues, background processes and automated workflows
Integrate third-party APIs and services

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Database & Performance

Work extensively with MySQL
Design and maintain database structures
Write efficient and optimized SQL queries
Identify and resolve slow database queries
Optimize indexes and database operations
Investigate slow APIs and application pages
Improve application performance and reliability
Handle data consistency and transaction-related issues

E-commerce & Business Systems

You will work on real business workflows involving

Product and book catalog
Inventory management
Order management
Buyback and purchasing workflows
Customer and seller management
Warehouse operations
Payment processing and refunds
Coupons and discounts
Shipping and delivery
Third-party and marketplace integrations

You should be interested in understanding the business process behind the software, not just implementing individual coding tasks.

Investigate and resolve application bugs
Reproduce issues and identify their root cause
Debug production problems systematically
Fix performance issues
Analyze logs, database queries and API behavior
Implement permanent solutions rather than temporary workarounds
Identify recurring problems and improve the system to prevent them

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Ownership

We are looking for someone who can take ownership of a feature or problem from

You will work directly with the founder/business team.

Requirements may not always come in the form of detailed technical specifications. You should be comfortable:

Asking the right questions
Understanding the actual business requirement
Identifying edge cases
Suggesting better technical approaches
Making appropriate technical decisions
Taking responsibility for the final outcome

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Working With Our Technical Partners

We have external technical partners who can support frontend development and server/infrastructure-related requirements.

You will be expected to coordinate with them whenever required.

You should be able to understand the overall application architecture and communicate effectively with frontend/infrastructure teams.

Advanced frontend expertise is not required for this position.

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Required Skills

5–8 years of professional software development experience
Strong hands-on experience with PHP
Strong hands-on experience with Laravel
Strong knowledge of MySQL
Good understanding of backend architecture
Strong SQL and database optimization skills
Experience debugging real-world production applications
Experience with third-party API integrations
Strong problem-solving ability
Ability to work independently
Ability to understand and translate business requirements into technical solutions

Good to Have

Payment gateway integration
Razorpay / Stripe or similar payment systems
Shipping and logistics API integrations
Inventory management systems
Order management systems
Marketplace integrations
Redis
Queues and background jobs
AWS or other cloud platforms
Linux/server fundamentals
Experience working with external development teams
Experience using AI-assisted development tools

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What We Are Looking For

We are looking for a developer who can go beyond

“Tell me what to code.”

We want someone who can approach a problem like

“I understand the problem. Let me investigate the existing system, identify the root cause and determine the best solution.”

The right candidate should be

Technically strong
Strong with databases
Comfortable working with an existing codebase
Good at understanding complex workflows
Comfortable making technical decisions
Able to work independently
Comfortable communicating directly with business stakeholders
Willing to take ownership of outcomes
Willing to learn new technologies
Comfortable using AI tools while understanding and verifying the resulting code

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Technical Assessment

Candidates may be required to complete a practical technical assessment as part of the selection process.

The assessment may involve a realistic problem such as

A slow API
Database performance issue
Existing application bug
Incorrect business workflow
Inventory/order-related problem

Candidates may use AI tools, documentation and Google during the assessment.

We are interested in understanding how you solve problems, not simply how much information you can recall.

The expected approach is

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Who Should Apply?

This position is suitable for experienced

Senior PHP Developers
Senior Laravel Developers
Backend Software Engineers
PHP Software Engineers

Candidates with experience in e-commerce, ERP, inventory, logistics, payment systems, order management or other business applications will be particularly relevant.

Please do not apply if

Your PHP/Laravel experience is primarily basic or academic
Your primary strength is frontend development
You require detailed instructions for every task
You have limited MySQL/database experience
You have limited experience debugging production applications
You are uncomfortable working with an existing codebase
You have only theoretical API knowledge
You are looking primarily for a React/frontend position

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Why Join UsedBookR?

Work directly with the founder and business team
Work on a live e-commerce business
Solve real problems involving inventory, orders, payments and logistics
Work with a growing technology platform
Have meaningful influence over technical solutions
Take ownership of important parts of the application
Flexible hybrid/remote working arrangement
Opportunity to grow into a larger technical ownership role
Use modern AI-assisted development tools
Work on meaningful product and business problems rather than only repetitive coding tasks

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Compensation & Work Arrangement

Salary: ₹40,000 – ₹70,000 per month, depending on experience, technical capability and interview performance.
Experience: 5–8 years
Work Mode: Primarily remote, with approximately 3 days per month from our Coimbatore office
Employment Type: Full-time

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