Forge Your Future Success Us!

Forge Holiday Group unites three amazing brands - Sykes Holidays, Forest Holidays, and Bachcare (NZ), under one mission: to make unforgettable holidays. With a team of 1,700 colleagues and four values at our heart: One Business One Team, Keep It Simple, Grow & Learn, Sustainable Impact – we're shaping the future of travel while building a sustainable, values-driven business for our guests, owners, and people.

About The Role: Senior Developer

We're looking for a Senior Developer to join our award-winning Technology Team of 120 tech specialists. You'll join one of our varied product squads, acting as a technical role model and a key contributor to our most exciting projects. You'll collaborate closely with developers, product, UX, and business stakeholders while helping drive engineering excellence across the organisation.

If you're passionate about PHP development, love working with modern frameworks, and want to play a key role in shaping both our technology and our people, we'd love to hear from you.

What You Need To Know:

Salary: Up to £55,000 per annum (depending on experience).

Location: Chester / One City Place

Team: Technology

Reports To: Lead Developer

Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00am – 5:30pm

Role Responsibilities

Building and delivering high-quality, scalable software solutions

Collaborating with stakeholders to clarify complex requirements and resolve production issues

Promoting software development best practices and engineering standards

Reviewing colleagues' code, identifying improvements, and encouraging quality and consistency

Mentoring and supporting junior and mid-level developers

Covering team leadership responsibilities when required

Actively participating in Agile ceremonies and working with senior peers to remove blockers

Exploring new technologies and approaches to support our next phase of technical growth

What We're Looking For

We're looking for someone who is technically strong, passionate about clean code, and motivated by helping others grow.

Essential experience:

Extensive experience in software engineering

Strong PHP MVC frameworks skills (Laravel, Symfony, or CodeIgniter)

Test-Driven and SOLID principles

Excellent MySQL knowledge, with the ability to identify and resolve performance issues

React JS and core front-end experience (JavaScript, jQuery, Livewire, HTML, CSS)

Agile experience

Building and consuming REST APIs

Bonus points if… you have experience with AWS (ideally ECS), CI/CD tools like Bitbucket Pipelines or GitHub Actions, front-end frameworks such as SASS or Tailwind, and are comfortable using the UNIX command line. Knowledge of microservices and Docker, experience mentoring developers, and working closely with Product, UX, and business teams - particularly within retail, financial services, or leisure/tourism would also be a plus.

Why You'll Love It Here ❤️

At Forge, technology is at the heart of everything we do. Our teams are united by a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement. As a Senior Developer, you'll work on award-winning, transformative projects, using the latest technologies while helping to set standards and mentor the next generation of developers.

You won't just write code, you'll influence technical direction, support delivery excellence, and help build solutions that power unforgettable holiday experiences.

This isn't just another senior role. It's your chance to make your mark.

Forge Holiday Group Benefits:

Annual bonus scheme linked to company performance.

️ 33 days' holiday (incl. bank hols) + extra for long service

Your birthday off

2 paid volunteering days

Enhanced parental leave (24 weeks maternity, 3 weeks paternity at full pay)

Discounts on stays with our brands + wellbeing perks

❤️‍ Health cash plan, life assurance & 24/7 mental health support

Training & development opportunities.

️ On-site gym & parking at Chester HQ (near train station)

Employee savings scheme & long service awards

We're all about diversity, inclusion, and bringing your authentic self to work. Need adjustments for the recruitment process? Just ask.

Ready to lead, build, and innovate with us? Apply now and make your mark at Forge Holiday Group.