Skiddle
Back-End PHP Developer

Company Background:

Skiddle was born in 2001 as a what's on guide and began selling tickets in 2006 and is now one of the UK's most loved ticketing services selling tickets for tens of thousands of events throughout the UK, from independent club nights through to 60,000 capacity festivals. Skiddle currently sells tickets for the likes of The Warehouse Project, Creamfields, Digbeth Dining Club and Live Nation, and hundreds of independent venues and promoters across the country. Likewise, we host the largest festival guide in Europe.

Role Summary:

With over 10 million page impressions per month with a 30+% growth year on year, you will be working on the busiest event ticketing website in the UK. As an integral member of the team, you will have expertise to suggest approaches to finding solutions and are able to drive a project from concept to completion. Our development team is small but moves quickly, so an understanding agile workflow and developing in an iterative process is an advantage.

Person Specification:

Were looking for a motivated and thoughtful software engineer to join our team, who will thrive in a dynamic and fast-paced environment while upholding our core values through authenticity. Youll be well-organised, communicate clearly with technical and non-technical colleagues, and approach challenges with understanding and compassion.

The role spans multiple technologies and codebases, combining established PHP and Node.js systems across a range of cloud-based services. Its a great opportunity for someone who enjoys learning, broadening their technical skillset and contributing ideas without over-engineering.

Were keen to hear from people who are curious, engaged and motivated by continuous improvement - in their own work and across the wider team. A relevant computing degree or equivalent commercial experience is welcome, and examples of projects youve worked on are always of interest.

Essential Requirements:

Takes ownership of work from ticket refinement through to delivery, review, and release, proactively communicating progress, risks, and blockers

Experience raising and reviewing pull requests, engaging constructively in code reviews

Comfortable with object-oriented design and writing maintainable, testable PHP code

Experience working on production systems where reliability, security, and user impact are critical

Ability to work confidently with legacy code and improve it incrementally, making pragmatic trade-offs where appropriate

Minimum of 2-3 years of commercial PHP experience, including work with a modern framework such as Laravel or Symfony

Experience building and consuming RESTful APIs and integrating with third-party services

Solid understanding of MySQL

Strong troubleshooting and debugging skills

Working knowledge of HTML, CSS, and modern JavaScript

Ability to clearly explain technical solutions and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Willingness and ability to work across PHP and Node.js back-end services

Desirable Requirements:

Experience writing automated tests, or a clear interest in improving test coverage and maintainability

Optimising slow-running MySQL queries

Experience with ElasticSearch

Experience with AWS

Good understanding of user experience and accessibility best practices

Experience with AI-powered development tools

Awareness of industry trends and best practices, and sharing relevant insights with the team where appropriate

What can Skiddle offer:

Our company culture is informal, friendly and lively, with a team built up of like-minded individuals who all share a passion for music.

In return for your commitment, you can look forward to excellent working conditions in a progressive and growing company that acknowledges and rewards its staff for their efforts. Youll enjoy various team outings throughout the year, with Christmas parties and regular team-building days, and be given the opportunity to attend fantastic events and get involved with charitable fundraising activities.

We can offer:

Friendly working environment / Casual dress

Health insurance provided by Vitality following 1 year of service

25 days holiday rising to 30 days, plus bank holidays

Performance-based compensation

Cycle to work schemefollowing 1 year of service

Tech schemefollowing 1 year of service

Electric Car Scheme following 1 year of service

Company pension

Sick pay

Future career progression

Hours: 37.5 Hours per week (Monday to Friday)

Important Information: The successful applicant must agree to a Basic Disclosure under the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) procedures. Employment will be confirmed to the successful applicant subject to a satisfactory Disclosure report.