Backend PHP Developer (PHP/MariaDB)

Develop, maintain and enhance a custom PHP/MariaDB rating engine responsible for calculating premiums, applying business rules, processing rating data and supporting high-volume quote generation.

· 4+ years commercial PHP development experience

· Experience maintaining custom-built PHP applications and legacy codebases

· Experience working with large datasets and complex business logic

· Strong understanding of software architecture and maintainable code design

PHP Requirements

· Strong object-oriented programming (OOP)

· Interfaces, inheritance, traits and abstract classes

· SOLID principles

· Dependency Injection

· Exception handling and error management

· Advanced array manipulation and data transformation

· Recursive data processing

· Working with DateTime, PDO and related core PHP classes

· Writing clean, testable and maintainable code

Database / MariaDB Requirements

· Advanced SQL query writing

· Query optimisation and performance tuning

· Understanding execution plans

· Indexes, composite indexes and key design

· Stored procedures

· Database normalisation and data modelling

· Transactions and locking concepts

· Handling large datasets efficiently

· Ability to identify and resolve database bottlenecks

Rating Engine / Business Rules

· Designing configurable business rule systems

· Building extensible calculation engines

· Translating business requirements into technical rating logic

· Versioning and maintaining business rules

· Processing complex nested data structures

· Performance-focused calculation design

· Ability to troubleshoot and validate premium calculation

Nice to Have

· Insurance industry experience

· Experience with quoting or underwriting systems

· Experience with financial calculations

· Experience with REST APIs

· Git and CI/CD pipelines

Technical Assessment

· Candidate should design and implement a configurable rating engine using PHP and MariaDB

· Exercise should demonstrate architecture, database design, rule implementation, performance considerations and testing approach

Pulled from the full job description

• Sick pay
• Company pension
• Casual dress
• On-site parking, Niche Cover is a wholesale insurance agency committed to providing a range of motor and non-motor products to our brokers through our panel of carefully chosen insurance partners.

Our state-of-the-art system is constantly developing and integrating with multiple applications to deliver an unrivalled user experience to deliver our ambitious growth plans.

Benefits and Perks

· Flexibility: Hybrid work options following the initial onboarding in the Halesowen office location.

· Generous Holidays: 28 days holiday including Bank holidays, increasing to 33 days with length of service.

· Birthday Off: Enjoy a day off on your birthday to celebrate!

· Pension Plan: Auto-enrolment in our pension scheme.

· Training and Development: Continuous learning opportunities to enhance your skills.

· Casual dress

Work Schedule

· 37.5 hours per week

· Standard hours of work 09:00 - 17:30

· Accommodation of alternative hours may occasionally be required for delivery purposes

· Monday to Friday

· No weekends

Work Location

Hybrid working options with the possible requirement to travel to other office locations (Travel Costs away from the agreed working location are reimbursable)

Applicants in and around Halesowen and surrounding area would be desirable.

Work authorisation

United Kingdom (required)

Take this opportunity to be part of a progressive and forward-thinking team at Niche Cover, where your skills and contributions are valued, and your career growth is encouraged. We look forward to receiving your application!

Pay: £35,000.00-£40,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Casual dress
• Company pension
• On-site parking
• Sick pay