Senior Full-Stack Engineer

Part-Time Contract · 100% Remote About Hedlyner: Hedlyner is B2B workflow SaaS for the live music booking industry — the operational backbone that talent buyers, booking agencies, and venue operators use to manage high-frequency, recurring live music programs at scale. The platform automates contracts, artist communications, scheduling, payment tracking, and reporting for teams running dozens to hundreds of bookings per month. Artists receive secure, invitation-based offer links and confirm electronically — no artist account required. We are a pre-revenue startup with a small distributed engineering team across Ukraine, Ethiopia, and Europe. Our stack is PHP 8.2 / Laravel (backend) + React 18 / TypeScript / Vite (frontend), deployed on DigitalOcean with Docker. The Role: We need a Senior-level Full-Stack Engineer who can serve as a technical force multiplier for our existing team. You will own code reviews, unblock sprints, contribute architecture decisions, and fix bugs that require deep system knowledge. This is not a junior support role; we need someone who can jump in with minimal hand-holding, writes production-quality code and can lead by example. What You'll Do: -Review pull requests and provide substantive, educational code feedback within 1 business day of of submission -Diagnose and fix complex backend bugs in our Laravel application (API layer, queues, payment integrations) -Contribute to frontend work in React/TypeScript when needed; mostly component logic and API wiring -Participate in asynchronous architecture discussions via ClickUp -Occasionally pair with junior engineers to unblock them on hard problems -Flag design issues early — before they become production incidents Requirements: - 7+ years of professional PHP development; 4+ years with Laravel in production — you know the internals (service container, Eloquent internals, queue system, middleware pipeline) - 3+ years React 18 + TypeScript in production SPAs — hooks, custom hooks, component architecture; working knowledge of shadcn/ui, Radix UI, and Tailwind CSS - Demonstrable experience doing code reviews as a principal or senior engineer — not just approving, but teaching with clear explanations of trade-offs - Fluent in DDD layered architecture: Route → Controller → Service → Repository → Model with strict layer separation; no business logic in controllers - Strong grasp of MySQL: query optimisation, indexing strategy, migrations at scale, N+1 elimination via eager loading - Comfortable with PHPStan / Larastan static analysis and Laravel Pint code style — our CI enforces both - Experience with REST API design, Docker/Docker Compose, and GitHub Actions CI/CD pipelines - Write tests alongside implementation (TDD): PHPUnit 10 for backend feature + unit tests, Vitest for frontend unit tests - English proficiency sufficient for async written communication (Slack, PR comments, ClickUp) — B2 minimum - Can deliver agreed sprint milestones within the 2-week sprint window; responsive to async communication within 24 hours. Nice to Have: - Elasticsearch 7.x — we use it for search; query DSL familiarity is a plus - Laravel Cashier / Stripe subscription billing — we run subscription payments through Cashier - HashiCorp Vault or secrets management tooling — our production environment uses Vault for runtime secret injection - Conventional commits workflow (commitlint / Husky) — our frontend CI enforces it - Golang exposure (one of our engineers works in Go) - Previous work at a startup in a lead or principal capacity Compensation & Logistics: Milestone-based payment, not hours. Engagement: Part-time contractor. Invoiced monthly. No equity. No benefits. Trial: Paid 2-week trial sprint with defined scope. Payment upon sprint completion. Tools: ClickUp, GitHub, Twilio, Stripe, DigitalOcean, Sentry, Postman. How to Apply - Link to your GitHub (or GitLab) — public repos showing PHP/Laravel and React/TypeScript work - 2–3 sentences describing the most complex system you have architected or debugged - A short code review of this snippet (we will send it after initial contact) OR a link to a PR where you did a substantive review - Your current availability and timezone - Your expected sprint rate We read every application. No recruiters or agencies, please.