Junior PHP Engineer

Jira ticket

MacPaw is a software company that develops and distributes software for macOS and iOS. Today, we have 20 million active users across all our products, and every 5th Mac on Earth has our product installed.

At MacPaw, we believe humans and technology can reach their greatest potential together.

We gather open-minded people who support each other and aspire to change the world around us, making millions of people’s lives easier with technology.

Our flagship products include CleanMyMac, Setapp, ClearVPN, Moonlock, and more. Now, we’re stepping into an important new stage: launching a product ecosystem with a new AI Mac Assistant - Eney.

We are looking for a Junior PHP Engineer who is eager to grow, learn by doing, and build a solid foundation in backend development within a product environment.

In this role, you’ll work on the main MacPaw website, combining new feature development with maintaining and improving the existing codebase, including refactoring and working with legacy solutions.

In this role, you will:

• Work on the development and maintenance of the main  MacPaw website, supporting its day-to-day stability and performance.
• Gain a deep understanding of the current website architecture and functionality.
• Contribute to refactoring initiatives, helping improve code quality and maintainability over time.
• Participate in planning and implementing refactoring of the codebase.
• Develop new features while working with and improving legacy code.
• Contribute to the development of other web projects of the company.

Skills you’ll need to bring:

• At least 1+ year of commercial experience in backend development.
• Solid knowledge of PHP (syntax, data structures, OOP).
• Understanding of HTTP/HTTPS fundamentals (methods, headers, status codes) and RESTful APIs.
• Basic experience with SQL: ability to design simple schemas and write queries using JOINs and aggregations (GROUP BY, HAVING).
• Confident use of Git (branching, resolving conflicts, understanding merge vs rebase).
• Experience setting up a local development environment using Docker and docker-compose.
• Strong problem-solving skills with a focus on finding solutions rather than just completing tasks.
• Ability to think beyond individual tasks and understand how the product works as a whole.
• Learning agility: ability to quickly adapt to new tools, technologies, and contexts.
• At least an Intermediate level of English and fluent Ukrainian.

As a plus:

• Basic experience or understanding of Go or Node.js.
• Experience integrating third-party services or SDKs based on documentation (API-first approach).
• Pet projects in a public repository (GitHub/GitLab) demonstrating code structure and architectural thinking.
• Experience working with legacy code and willingness to refactor and improve existing solutions.