Software Development Engineer - AI

ROLE SUMMARY The SDE-AI is a senior engineer who architects and delivers the company's mission-critical internal systems using AI-augmented development. This role combines deep expertise in Claude, PHP, Symfony, and relational databases with the strategic ability to leverage AI assistance for rapid, high-quality delivery. The engineer drives architectural decisions, mentors junior developers, and ensures that AI tooling augments-never replaces-critical judgment and code quality. Ownership spans from database design to user experience, with accountability for both feature delivery and system reliability. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES • Architect and build full-stack systems from database schema to UI, using PHP/Symfony as the primary stack and Claude AI for rapid, high-quality iteration. • Own features end-to-end: define requirements, design schema and APIs, implement with AI assistance, review critically, test thoroughly, deploy, and support live. • Lead AI-assisted development practice: write precise specifications, guide Claude's output generation, catch and correct mistakes, and validate every deliverable as rigorously as hand-written code. • Mentor and code review: guide junior developers, conduct thorough code reviews, share AI best practices, and maintain code quality standards. • Identify and propose improvements: notice gaps in workflows, systems, or data model; propose solutions; and drive them to production. • Troubleshoot at depth: investigate root causes, trace complex failures across layers, and resolve issues permanently. • Maintain specifications as the source of truth: keep architecture documentation, API specs, and database schemas current as behaviour evolves. • 6–7 years of professional software development experience, with demonstrated ownership of systems from requirements through production. • Expert-level proficiency in PHP 8+ with Symfony framework and Twig templating. Production experience with Symfony 5+ (or similar like Laravel) , REST API design, form handling, and security hardening required. • Deep working knowledge of relational databases, particularly PostgreSQL (mandatory) and No-SQL (good to have) : schema design, query optimization, transactions, migrations, and performance tuning. • Hands-on experience with Claude AI / Cursor / similar as a development partner: ability to write precise specs, validate AI-generated code, catch logical errors, and integrate Claude into development workflows. Prior AI-assisted projects required. • Mastery of version control (Git): branch strategies, code review cycles, merge conflicts, and release workflows. • Architectural thinking: can design systems for scalability, security, and maintainability; understands trade-offs between simplicity and feature richness. • Excellent written and verbal communication: documents decisions, explains code rationale, asks clarifying questions, and raises concerns early. • Diploma or degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or equivalent demonstrated expertise. • Good understanding of one of cloud components (AWS or Azure) • Front-end fundamentals: HTML, CSS, modern JavaScript frameworks (Vue.js, React). • Containerization and deployment: Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI). • Scripting and automation: Python or Bash for data pipelines, testing, and DevOps tasks. • Testing expertise: unit tests, integration tests, test-driven development (TDD), and performance benchmarking. • Security practices: input validation, authentication/authorization, OWASP top 10, secure credential management. • Experience with agentic or advanced AI tooling beyond Claude; understanding of model limitations and prompt engineering.