Back End Developer – Sportsbook Web Applications

About the role

Celesta, a fast‑growing iGaming development studio in Lisbon, is looking for a Back End Developer to lead the creation of its sportsbook web applications. The role focuses on delivering fast, reliable and user‑friendly cross‑platform experiences for live betting, dashboards and other betting features.

Key responsibilities

• Design, develop and maintain scalable backend solutions and RESTful APIs for sportsbook products.
• Write high‑performance, secure PHP 8 code following SOLID, KISS and ACID principles.
• Debug complex PHP applications using tools such as Xdebug and profilers.
• Build reusable libraries and services, and integrate components like RabbitMQ, Docker and ElasticSearch.
• Collaborate with designers, QA, product owners and system administrators to deliver new features.
• Leverage AI‑assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude) to accelerate coding, testing and documentation while reviewing all AI‑generated output for quality and security.
• Continuously evaluate emerging technologies and AI‑driven practices to improve engineering efficiency.

Required profile

• Minimum 3 years of professional software development experience.
• Strong proficiency in PHP 8 and modern Symfony framework versions.
• Solid understanding of object‑oriented programming, design patterns and clean‑code principles.
• Experience with containerisation, messaging queues and search engines (Docker, RabbitMQ, ElasticSearch).
• Ability to work on‑site in the Carnaxide area and adopt a hybrid work model (up to 8 remote days per month).

Required skills

• PHP 8
• Symfony (latest versions)
• Object‑Oriented Programming & Design Patterns
• SOLID, KISS, ACID principles
• RESTful API development
• Xdebug, Profiler
• RabbitMQ
• Docker
• ElasticSearch
• AI‑assisted development tools (GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, etc.)