Full Stack / Backend Developer
Full Stack / Backend Developer (PHP) Location: Remote Employment Type: Full-time
About the Role
We are seeking a Full Stack / Backend Developer with strong experience in PHP and large-scale MySQL environments to join our engineering team. This role focuses on building and maintaining backend services and APIs that power our platform, with some involvement in front-end integrations using modern JavaScript frameworks. You will work on systems that handle high volumes of data and traffic, requiring careful attention to performance, scalability, and reliability.
Key Responsibilities
- Design, develop, and maintain backend services using PHP
- Build and maintain APIs and integrations with internal and third-party systems
- Design and optimize queries for large-scale MySQL databases
- Analyze and improve database performance, indexing, and query efficiency
- Collaborating with front-end developers working in React
- Troubleshoot production issues and implement long-term solutions
- Write clean, maintainable, and well-documented code
- Participate in code reviews and contribute to development best practices
- Support deployment processes and ongoing system maintenance
Required Qualifications
- 3+ years of professional experience with PHP (no frameworks required)
- Strong experience working with large-scale MySQL databases
- Deep understanding of query optimization, indexing strategies, and performance tuning
- Experience handling high-volume data and production-critical systems
- Strong understanding of backend architecture and API design
- Experience building and consuming RESTful APIs
- Familiarity with front-end integration using React
- Experience with version control systems (Git)
- Strong problem-solving and debugging skills
- Ability to communicate effectively and work collaboratively
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience working with large, legacy PHP codebases
- Familiarity with replication, sharding, or other scaling strategies in MySQL
- Experience with asynchronous processing, queues, or background jobs
- Familiarity with AI coding tools such as Copilot in VS code or Claude Code
- Understanding of web security best practices
- Experience working in high-traffic environments
- Exposure to cloud infrastructure (AWS or similar)
Why Join Us? Lee Enterprises offers competitive wages in a dynamic, interesting work environment with career growth opportunities. We offer an extensive benefit program that can be personalized to your needs. Our benefit program includes medical, dental, vision, short and long-term disability, company provided life insurance and supplemental life insurance. In addition, we offer a 401K retirement plan with company match. We also offer generous paid time off to allow the flexibility to balance personal life and work. This includes paid parental leave for new parents. Lee Enterprises is a leading provider of local news and information and a major subscription and advertising platform, with daily and weekly newspapers and rapidly expanding digital products serving 114 markets across 25 states. Our core commitment is to provide valuable, intensely local news and information to the communities we serve. Lee Enterprises is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We respect and celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. For more information about Lee, check us out at www.lee.net. Apply tot his job Apply To this Job