Staff Software Engineer PHP

About Wakacje.pl​:

We are an organization that has been fulfilling the travel dreams of Poles for 25 years. Wakacje.pl is the largest e-commerce platform in Poland and a network of travel agencies offering a wide range of travel products. Since 2015, we have been part of Wirtualna Polska Holding – the largest Polish group of media and e-commerce companies. At Wakacje.pl, we offer thousands of domestic and international trips, as well as travel insurance, airport parking, and holiday vouchers. We constantly expand our offer to best meet our customers' needs. If you approach life with #ENERGY, value #HONESTY AND OPENNESS, focus on #CUSTOMER UNDERSTANDING and #COLLABORATION at work, carry out your tasks with high #EFFICIENCY and #RESPONSIBILITY, and want to play a key role in making us #INNOVATIVE – join us!

About us:

We are a growing team of over 100 IT specialists, including Developers, DevOps Engineers, Testers, Project Managers, Architects, and Analysts. We're driven by passion and engagement and prioritize a culture of open communication. A commitment to high code quality, robust test automation, and efficient processes is at the core of what we do. We work in Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), and our development is built on the React ecosystem.

Job description

Key responsibilities:​

• Standards & Engineering Excellence: Define, codify, and evolve PHP coding standards, architectural guidelines, and quality criteria that apply across all PHP teams. Translate engineering excellence from individual judgment into shared, documented, and (where possible) machine-enforceable rules, especially through adoption of AI-ready documents, skills and similar solutions.
• Strategic Initiatives: Identify, prioritize, and drive cross-cutting initiatives that elevate the entire chapter — shared libraries, frameworks, tooling, AI-assisted development workflows, observability practices, and modernization efforts. Operate with leverage in mind: prefer interventions that scale across dozens of engineers over one-off fixes.
• Assessment & Career Development: Own the PHP competency framework and define what "good" looks like at each seniority level. Design assessment, calibration, and feedback processes that work consistently across teams and divisions, replacing ad-hoc evaluation with repeatable structure.
• Recruitment & Hiring Standards: Define interview formats, technical evaluation criteria, and hiring bar for PHP roles across the organization. Train and calibrate interviewers to ensure consistent, fair, and high-quality hiring decisions at scale.
• Community of Practice: Build and sustain a strong PHP community across teams — through chapter meetings, knowledge-sharing formats, internal talks, and structured programs. Foster horizontal collaboration so that expertise compounds across the chapter rather than being trapped in individual teams.
• Governance & Decision-Making: Establish lightweight governance structures (councils, ADR processes, review boards) that enable consistent technical decisions across teams without becoming bottlenecks. Facilitate alignment on contested topics and document decisions for organizational memory.
• Cross-Functional Influence: Partner with engineering managers, architects, product leadership, and other Chapter Leads to align PHP technical strategy with broader organizational goals. Represent the PHP discipline in cross-divisional forums and contribute to enterprise-wide technical direction.
• Hands-On Credibility: Maintain enough hands-on involvement — through prototypes, contributions to shared libraries, technical reviews of critical designs, and selective deep-dives — to retain credibility, stay current, and make informed decisions. The role is not primarily a coding role, but technical authority cannot be fully delegated.
• Enablement Over Tutoring: Scale impact through programs, documentation, internal courses, workshops, and self-serve resources rather than 1:1 mentoring. Where direct mentoring happens, focus it on senior engineers and emerging leaders who will themselves multiply impact across their teams.
• Travel: Occasionally travel between company offices across different locations to engage with PHP teams in person, participate in chapter events and workshops, and strengthen relationships with engineers, managers, and stakeholders across divisions.

Requirements

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in computer science, software engineering or a related field, or equivalent work experience,
• At least 10 years of experience in software development with a focus on PHP,
• Deep understanding of PHP language specifications and experience in developing and maintaining complex backend systems,
• Proven experience in defining coding standards, security guidelines and best practices for PHP,
• Excellent skills in conducting code reviews and providing constructive feedback,
• Experience in training and mentoring developers to improve their skills and knowledge,
• Strong problem solving skills and the ability to tackle complex technical challenges,
• Team player and good communication skills to work effectively with other teams and solve conflicts,
• Self-motivated and able to work independently, in a goal-oriented manner without supervision,
• Good understand of AI tools in a day to day usage.

Nice to have: 

• Experience with legacy systems modernization,
• Open Source Contributions or Public Speaking.

We offer

What do we offer:
​
Workplace safety and comfort:

• Employment based on an employment contract or B2B,
• Full support during the onboarding period under the supervision of an engaging leader/buddy.

Business agency and agility:

• Real influence on business decisions, the ability to take initiatives and implement your ideas.

Development within the organization:

• Individual Development Plan,
• Participation in training courses and conferences to enhance professional competencies.

All-inclusive for Employees:

• A benefits package that you can use according to your preferences – Lux Med medical care, Health and Life Insurance (PZU and Warta), Multisport card, shopping and lunch vouchers, and many other cafeteria offers available on the Worksmile platform,
• A training and webinar package supporting professional and personal development,
• Discounts on our products for employees and their families,
• Work in the hybrid model in the office complex in Wrocław – Legnicka Business Garden, 100 meters from the Wroclaw Mikolajów
• Teambuilding events for the start and end of the tourist season – check them out: Instagram, LinkedIn, Tiktok, Facebook,
• Casual dress code.

Ready to join the team with a #travelmindset? We’re waiting for you!