Senior PHP Engineer
Airalo
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Posted on Mar 19, 2026
Ready to make travel easier for millions? Airalo is the world’s first and largest eSIM store, helping travellers stay connected seamlessly in over 200 countries and regions. We trust our teams to take ownership, put customers first, and do work that has a real impact every day. What’s in it for you? Airalo offers team members a range of perks, including remote work, generous PTO, wellness and learning allowances, and, of course, our annual Airalo Away retreat. Learn more about our benefits here; www.notion.so/airalo-public/Benefits-25396a97ffca81fb9bc1f0be479f1be3
Hi, I'm Daniele, VP of Engineering at Airalo!
Engineering drives Airalo’s eSIM platform. We build the product that lets millions of people connect instantly across the globe. The challenges are exciting: high-scale systems, carrier integrations, and products spanning both B2C and B2B. What matters most to us is creating an environment where engineers can do their best work. Real ownership, autonomy, and a direct link between what you ship and business outcomes are key. You’ll work with smart, motivated people who take their craft seriously. If you want to build things that matter at global scale, this is where you do it.
Airalo’s fully remote Engineering team is growing. In this role, you'll tackle complex technical challenges across our product ecosystem, helping build, innovate, and scale the platform that keeps millions of travellers connected worldwide.
Are you a seasoned engineer who thrives on solving complex architectural puzzles in PHP? Join our team as a Senior Backend Engineer where you will lead the evolution of our global platform with more then 20 million users. We value deep technical mastery, a mentor mindset, and the ability to balance rapid innovation with system stability. While we use Laravel, we highly value the architectural rigor of seasoned Symfony experts ready to pick up Laravel and apply their skills to our ecosystem.
On Call
Participating in our on-call rotation is a core expectation of this role. It's essential for maintaining 24/7 service reliability across our global operations, ensuring our systems remain resilient and our customers experience uninterrupted service, regardless of time zone or geography.
- Paid Rotation: We offer standby fees + overtime pay.
- Delayed Start: No on-call duties for your first 6 months.
- Rest & Recovery: Guaranteed rest periods and flexible hours following night incidents.
- Shared Load: Rotations are split (Weekdays vs. Weekends) to minimize fatigue.
Please refer to the On-Call Policy in the Airalo Handbook for full details: airalo-public.notion.site/our-approach-to-engineering-on-call-policy
Your main responsibilities will be to:
- Lead the design of high-performance distributed systems capable of handling global traffic
- Develop and refine services to improve scalability and efficiency
- Drive the transition toward a service-oriented architecture (SOA) to ensure modularity and resilience
- Set the bar for code quality by enforcing SOLID principles, design patterns, and testing standards
- Actively coach mid-level engineers through deep code reviews and technical knowledge sharing
- Identify bottlenecks in services and implement advanced caching and database strategies
- Partner with Product and DevOps to translate complex requirements into scalable technical roadmaps
Does this sound like you:
- 7+ years of professional backend development experience with a deep mastery of PHP
- 4+ years of building enterprise-grade applications in Laravel or an equivalent senior background in Symfony
- Mastery of distributed systems, event-driven architecture, and messaging patterns like SQS or Pub/Sub
- Knowledge of SQL and NoSQL including performance tuning and handling transactions at scale
- Experience architecting on AWS and managing containerized environments with Docker
- A champion of clean code, automated testing, and CI/CD best practices
- Fluent English with the ability to explain complex technical trade-offs to stakeholders
Bonus:
- Experience with SaaS/PaaS, SOA, or microservices architecture.
- Experience with eSIM, or GSMA technologies.
- Familiarity with Traveltech solutions.
- Experience in building or maintaining custom SDKs would be a plus
If you are interested in this position, please apply via the link.
Please note that to be considered for this role, you must reside in and be fully eligible to work in either Romania, Spain, or the UK. Proof of a valid right to work in one of these three countries will be required.
By applying, you acknowledge and agree that, in case of successful application, Airalo may request to run background checks as a condition for entering into an agreement with you. Rest assured that these checks will only occur upon your prior consent and at the end of the selection process, and will be strictly limited to what is allowed under the laws that are applicable to you. All data that you share or that we collect in connection with such checks will be processed in accordance with our Privacy Policy, available here: www.airalo.com/more-info/privacy-policy?srsltid=AfmBOooBT0rXAj1FaNelZ3VfN0wvhwzvAoxdtHnOKSVETpiSjiXVuycy
We sincerely thank all applicants in advance for submitting their interest in this opportunity. Airalo is an equal-opportunity employer and values diversity, equity & inclusion. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations upon request for individuals with disabilities throughout our job interview process.