The Job

I’m looking for a talented PHP developer to join our talented team to help build new features for SpinupWP as well as help out with support and documentation.

The app is built in Laravel and Vue.js, so experience with these frameworks will be a bonus. You’ll also be writing Bash scripts that SpinupWP will execute to operate on servers and sites using our LEMP stack. Experience with Ansible, writing bash scripts, and configuring Linux servers and server software (Nginx, PHP, MySQL, Redis, etc) is another bonus but certainly not a requirement.

We currently work in six-week cycles (assigned work) with a two-week cooldown period (you choose what you want to work on). All our code is committed to GitHub and your code will be reviewed by a member of the team using GitHub pull requests. Eventually you’ll be reviewing code as well.

We have a dedicated technical support team that can handle the majority of support requests, but there is always the odd one they will need a developer to look at.

If you’re interested in writing tutorials for our 11K+ email subscribers, you’ll be more than welcome.

Responsibilities

• Help plan and define the scope of new features
• Build new features using modern PHP (Laravel) and JavaScript (Vue.js)
• Work on bug fixes and improvements during each cycle
• Maintain and write new unit and acceptance tests
• Help with documentation
• Support our customers via email
• Attend company retreats (see details below)

Requirements

• Expert PHP & JavaScript development skills
• 3+ years of advanced PHP development
• 3+ years of HTML & CSS development
• 3+ years of JavaScript development (ES6/jQuery)
• 1+ years working with git as source control
• Experience writing automated tests
• Experience working with complex APIs like Amazon Web Services
• Excellent English communication skills (spoken and written)
• Self-motivated and work well independently
• Love working remotely

Bonus Points

• Experience with an advanced JavaScript framework (Vue.js, React, Svelte, etc)
• Experience building a web app using Laravel, especially queues
• Experience building REST APIs
• Experience configuring and maintaining Linux servers and server software
  (Nginx, PHP, MySQL, Redis, etc)
• Experience building WordPress plugins
• Experience with Bash scripting and Ansible playbooks
• UX and design skills
• Open source contributions
• Computer Science degree or equivalent

About You

You’re thrilled to work with the latest hotness language or framework but also thrive working on a “fixer-upper” project. You respect old code, no matter how ugly it looks. You truly enjoy figuring out how old code works, refactoring it, and tackling the challenges that come with it. You have experience doing this type of work and know you love it.

You’re a problem solver who loves to analyze an issue, recreate it and track it back to the source of the problem. You won’t commit any code unless it’s fully tested and solves the problem. Better still, you write the tests to go with it.

You feel a profound sense of accomplishment after helping a customer resolve an issue that was frustrating them. You have a strong compulsion to help when people need it. It’s important to you that people get the best possible answer, not just a reply.

When you encounter something you’re not sure about, you stop, research, ask questions, and make sure, rather than giving it a best guess. The idea of sending incorrect information to a customer is mortifying and completely unacceptable to you.

You’re curious and love to learn. You embrace the opportunity to level up, learn something new and really dig into it. You’re a disciplined worker and have no trouble getting work done at home on any given day.

You value consistency above preference and will adopt new coding styles, standards, and tools to that end. You are stellar at identifying the simple, elegant solution in a sea of over-engineering possibilities.

Although you enjoy working with people to help you generate ideas and formulate a plan of attack on a project, you do your best work in isolation without interruption. You’re proactive in tackling things that need to be done without direction.

You’re exceptional at communicating in writing via direct message, email, etc. You’re ok on the phone and video chat too. You understand that clear, concise written communication is how remote teams thrive. Putting a pull request up for review without explaining its context is unheard of for you.

You own both successes and failures. When a project you’re leading turns into a disaster, you own it and you learn from it. You never point the finger at others.

You invite criticism and genuinely want to grow as a professional. You’re onboard with pushing each other to be better and are not afraid to give constructive criticism in addition to receiving it.

The Offer

• Remote First. We have always been a remote company, since the very start in 2012. Working from home has its challenges, but you’ll be surrounded by compassionate folks who have been successfully working from home for many years.
• Company Retreats. As a remote company, it’s super important to get some face time. We just had our first company retreat in a few years in San Diego, around WordCamp US 2022 and had a blast.
• Location Independent. Work from wherever you’re happiest. All members of our team currently work from their homes in Canada, the UK, the US, and the Philippines.
• Choose Your Schedule. Most companies claim to have flexible hours, but the reality is often very different. We flex our hours for real 💪. As long as on average you’re working the number of hours you’ve committed to working each week, we’re good.
• Personal Development. If there’s a conference or event that will help you level up, the company will cover your expenses. You’re also allotted some time each month to learn something new unrelated to your job, participate in community discussions, and/or contribute to an open source project.
• Profit & Exit Sharing. I share a financial report with the team quarterly so everyone knows how the company is doing. And when the company does well, the team does well. When we sell the company, members of the team get a share of the proceeds based on their tenure.
• Company Holidays. Things get pretty quiet in late December / early January, so we always treat ourselves to a couple of weeks off to reboot during this time.
• Paid Leave. For the birth or adoption of a child, the company offers 8 weeks of 100% paid leave for primary caregivers and 3 weeks for secondary caregivers. We also offer 5 paid sick days and 3 days of paid bereavement leave.
• Health Insurance. Members of the team based in Canada are eligible for health/dental/life/disability insurance through the company’s Chambers of Commerce plan while those outside of Canada are eligible for a stipend to partially cover insurance costs.
• Competitive Salaries. The company typically pays salaries that are competitive with the market in which you reside. There are situations that call for higher pay even when living in a region with a lower cost of living, so we’re flexible on this.

Apply

To apply, send an email to [email protected] describing why you’re applying and why you’re a fit for this role. Include your resume. If we like what we see, we’ll arrange a 15 minute meet and greet call to kick things off.

We are an equal opportunity employer. Application information that is prone to unconscious biases is hidden during the review process whenever possible. We judge the content of the applications on their own without knowledge of the applicant’s race, color, gender, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability, or age. We support workplace diversity, but not at the expense of equal opportunity and meritocracy. We’re looking for talented and empathetic people no matter their other attributes.