PHP developer job description templates for framework, CMS, legacy, senior, junior, and contract roles, with FLSA classification, pay bands, and IP notes.
PHP Developer Job Description Templates for Small Teams
Six templates for the four different jobs the title covers: framework product work, CMS and agency work, legacy maintenance, senior, junior, and contract. With the FLSA, state threshold, and code-ownership notes generic templates leave out. Download as DOCX.
The first PHP developer job description I ever wrote was wrong in a way I only understood after three weeks of interviews. I listed PHP, MySQL, and strong communication skills, and I got applications from a WordPress theme builder, an agency generalist, a Symfony architect, and someone who had spent six years keeping a fifteen-year-old billing system alive. All four were qualified. Only one of them could do the job I had.
That is the real problem with this title. PHP is not one role. It is a language that spans four different jobs, and a posting that does not say which one it means will attract all four, waste a screening round on each, and still leave you guessing.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for owners and founders who make this hire personally, without a recruiting team to catch what the posting left out. The six below cover the general role, framework work, CMS work, senior, junior, and contract, each with the classification and code-ownership notes the generic versions skip. More sit in the hiring templates library.
TL;DR
A PHP developer builds and maintains server-side code, and the title covers four different jobs: framework product work, CMS and agency work, legacy maintenance, and e-commerce. There is no federal occupation for PHP developers, so benchmark against software developers ($135,980 median), computer programmers ($100,390), or web developers ($92,650), depending on the work. Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
What a PHP Developer Actually Does
A PHP developer writes and maintains the code that runs on the server: application logic, database queries, APIs, background jobs, and the deployment that puts changes into production. Everything the visitor sees is assembled somewhere else. The PHP developer owns what happens before that.
The reason the role stays in demand is the installed base. W3Techs, which surveys server-side technology across public websites, put PHP at 70.3 percent of sites whose server-side language is known in August 2026, well ahead of every other language. That is not a statement about which language is fashionable. It is a statement about what already runs and needs maintaining.
Write the Posting Around the System, Not the Stack You Wish You Had
The most common mistake in a PHP posting is describing an aspirational rewrite instead of the application that exists. If seventy percent of the job is maintaining a codebase written in 2014, say so. Candidates who only want greenfield work will leave in month four anyway, and the ones who are genuinely good at careful change to old systems are a distinct and underserved group who will read that sentence as an invitation rather than a warning.
Four Jobs, One Job Title
PHP work sorts into four settings that share a language and almost nothing else. They differ in day-to-day rhythm, in the skills that matter, and in what the market pays. Name yours in the first paragraph of the posting and most of your screening problem disappears.
Framework product team
Laravel or Symfony
A modern PHP application with a framework, tests, migrations, and a deployment pipeline. This is the role most closely comparable to any other backend engineering job, and it prices like one.
Agency or publisher CMS work
WordPress, Drupal, Craft
Custom themes, plugins, integrations, patching, and performance across a portfolio of sites. Broad and interrupt-driven rather than deep, and the pay band sits below product engineering.
Legacy application maintenance
An older codebase that still earns
A system written years ago that runs the business and cannot be rewritten. The skill you are buying is careful change in code without tests, plus a credible upgrade path off an old PHP version.
E-commerce and payments
Money moves through the code
Storefront customization, checkout, and payment or tax integrations. Security and correctness matter more than speed here, and the posting should say so plainly rather than list frameworks.
The pay consequence is real. A framework product role benchmarks toward software developer wages, while agency CMS work benchmarks toward web developer wages, and the gap between those two national medians is roughly $43,000. Two jobs, one title, wildly different budgets. The back end developer templates cover the language-agnostic version of the same hire.
What Belongs in the Posting
A developer job description does four jobs at once: it describes the system honestly, it filters unqualified applicants, it protects you legally, and it closes the candidate. Most technical postings do the first two badly and skip the third entirely.
The parts developers read first
The PHP version and framework, named exactly
The database, hosting, and queue stack
What the application does and who uses it
Team size and who reviews code
The parts that filter applicants
Years of production PHP, stated as a range
Must-have skills separated from nice-to-have
Whether the work is new build or maintenance
On-site, hybrid, or remote, with the state list
The parts that protect you
FLSA classification stated on the posting
W-2 employee or 1099 contractor, decided honestly
Intellectual property assignment named up front
Equal opportunity statement
The parts that win the hire
A real pay range, not a placeholder
What the first ninety days look like
Who the developer reports to and works with
A named person and a fast decision timeline
The omission that costs the most is the stack detail. Naming the PHP version, the framework, the database, and the hosting takes two sentences and filters harder than a bulleted list of twenty requirements. Our general guide to writing a job description covers the structure that applies to any role.
6 PHP Developer Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: company overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, a classification and compliance note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you need to change.
Download All 6 PHP Developer Job Description Templates
General, framework backend, CMS, senior, junior, and contract. All in one download.
PHP Developer
The general full-time role
The default mid-level posting: server-side features, database work, APIs, and deployment, with the exemption note built in.
Backend, Laravel or Symfony
Framework product work
For a modern application: domain logic, migrations, queues, versioned APIs, and a test suite you expect to stay green.
WordPress / CMS Developer
Agency and publisher work
For custom themes, plugins, and integrations across a site portfolio, with an honest split between developer and site administrator.
Senior PHP Developer
Architecture and mentorship
For technical ownership: architecture, standards, upgrade planning, incident response, and raising the level of everyone around them.
Junior PHP Developer
Hire for reasoning, not resume
For a first engineering hire onto an existing team, with the review structure spelled out and the pay-threshold trap flagged.
Contract / Freelance
Defined scope, defined end
A scope of work rather than a job posting: deliverables, acceptance criteria, IP assignment, and the misclassification warning up front.
Template 1: PHP Developer
The default mid-level posting: server-side features, database design, APIs, and deployment, with the exemption note built into the document.
PHP Developer Job Description
PHP DEVELOPER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Engineering Lead / CTO / Founder]
Employment type: Full-time, W-2 employee
Work model: [On-site / Hybrid / Remote within the United States]
FLSA status: Exempt under the computer employee exemption (see note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year
ABOUT [COMPANY NAME]
[Company Name] is a [industry] company in [City, State] with a team of [number].
Our product runs on [PHP version, framework, database, hosting], and we are
hiring a PHP developer to own server-side development as the application grows.
POSITION SUMMARY
The PHP Developer writes and maintains the server-side code behind our
[application / website / platform], designs and queries the database, builds and
consumes APIs, and keeps the system fast, secure, and deployable.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Build and maintain server-side features in PHP [version] using [framework]
•Design database schemas and write efficient SQL against [MySQL / PostgreSQL]
•Build and integrate REST or GraphQL APIs and third-party services
•Write tests, review code, and keep the codebase covered and readable
•Debug production issues and own fixes through to deployment
•Improve performance: query tuning, caching, and background job processing
•Apply secure coding practices for input validation, authentication, and
authorization, and keep dependencies patched
•Work with [front-end developers / designers / product] on scope and delivery
•Keep technical documentation current for the parts of the system you own
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years building production applications in PHP
•Working command of [Laravel / Symfony / CodeIgniter / no framework: choose]
•Strong SQL and relational database design
•Git, code review, and a CI or deployment pipeline
•[Bachelor’s degree in computer science or equivalent practical experience]
•Clear written communication in a [distributed / in-office] team
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE (read before posting)
A full-time PHP developer whose primary duty is the design, development,
documentation, testing, or modification of computer programs generally qualifies
for the FLSA computer employee exemption when paid at least $684 per week on a
salary basis or at least $27.63 per hour. The exemption turns on actual duties,
not on the job title. State law can set a higher bar: California requires a
significantly higher rate for the computer software exemption, so a developer
who is exempt federally may still be non-exempt there. Include an intellectual
property assignment and a confidentiality clause in the offer so the company
owns the code that gets written. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, [benefits summary], [equity]
To apply, email __ with your resume and links to code you
have written or shipped.
Template 2: Backend PHP Developer, Laravel or Symfony
For a modern framework application: domain logic, migrations, queues, versioned APIs, and a test suite you expect to stay green. Compare it against the software developer templates if the role is broader than the web tier.
Backend PHP Developer, Laravel or Symfony Job Description
For agency and publisher work: custom themes, plugins, integrations, patching, and performance across a portfolio of sites. If the role is mostly building sites rather than writing custom PHP, the web developer templates fit better.
WordPress / CMS PHP Developer Job Description
WORDPRESS / CMS PHP DEVELOPER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Owner / Agency Director / Marketing Lead]
•Apply core, plugin, and PHP version updates on a scheduled cadence
•Harden sites against common web vulnerabilities and clean up compromises
•Improve page speed: caching, image handling, and database cleanup
•Run staging, backups, and deployments across [number] sites
•Support [content team / clients] with training and clear handover notes
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years of PHP development in a [WordPress / Drupal] environment
•Custom theme and plugin development, not page-builder configuration only
•MySQL, Git, and a local-to-staging-to-production workflow
•Familiarity with [WP-CLI / Composer / build tooling]
•Comfort supporting non-technical stakeholders on deadlines
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Be honest about the primary duty here, because this title covers two different
jobs. Someone writing custom PHP, designing programs, and modifying systems
generally meets the duties test for the computer employee exemption at $684 per
week on salary or $27.63 per hour. Someone whose day is content entry, template
configuration, and site updates inside an administrative interface is usually
performing operational work, not systems analysis or programming, and is more
likely non-exempt: hourly, with overtime past forty hours in a week. Classify on
the work, track hours for anyone non-exempt, and check your state threshold.
This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per [year / hour], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and links to sites or
plugins you built.
Template 4: Senior PHP Developer
For technical ownership: architecture, standards, upgrade planning, incident response, and mentoring the developers around them.
Senior PHP Developer Job Description
SENIOR PHP DEVELOPER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [CTO / VP Engineering / Founder]
Employment type: Full-time, W-2 employee
Work model: [On-site / Hybrid / Remote within the United States]
FLSA status: Exempt under the computer employee exemption (see note)
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year plus [equity / bonus]
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] is hiring a Senior PHP Developer to take technical ownership of
[application name]. The codebase is [age] years old, runs on [PHP version and
framework], and serves [scale: users, requests, transactions]. You will set the
technical direction and raise the standard of everything shipped around you.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Senior PHP Developer owns architecture and technical decisions for the
server side, leads the hardest work personally, reviews the team’s code, and
plans the upgrades and refactors that keep the system maintainable.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Own the architecture of the PHP application and document the decisions
•Lead complex features end to end: design, build, test, release
•Set and enforce standards: coding style, testing, review, release process
•Plan and execute PHP version and framework upgrades with a migration path
•Reduce technical debt on a schedule instead of on an emergency basis
•Mentor [number] developers through review, pairing, and design discussion
•Own performance, reliability, observability, and incident response
•Advise [founders / product] on scope, feasibility, and technical trade-offs
•Take part in hiring: technical screens, take-home review, and interviews
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number]+ years of professional PHP development, including [framework]
•Demonstrated architecture ownership of a production system at real scale
•Deep relational database skill: modeling, indexing, and query optimization
•Experience leading a version or framework upgrade on a live application
•Security fundamentals for web applications and dependency management
•Mentorship experience and the judgment to choose boring solutions
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
A senior developer at this level is exempt in nearly every case, either under
the computer employee exemption or, where the role is primarily managing a team,
under the executive exemption. Do not treat the exemption as automatic because
of seniority: it still rests on the actual primary duty. If the role carries
production access, credentials, and customer data, make the intellectual
property assignment, confidentiality, and access-revocation terms explicit in
the offer, and put the credential handover into onboarding and offboarding.
This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ to $_ per year, [equity], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a description of a
system you owned from design through production.
Template 5: Junior PHP Developer
For a first engineering hire onto an existing team, with the review structure spelled out and the pay-threshold trap flagged. The junior developer templates cover the language-neutral version.
Junior PHP Developer Job Description
JUNIOR PHP DEVELOPER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Senior Developer / Engineering Lead]
Employment type: Full-time, W-2 employee
Work model: [On-site / Hybrid: junior roles benefit from in-person time]
FLSA status: Confirm against the pay thresholds before you post (see note)
Compensation: $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] is hiring a Junior PHP Developer to join a team of [number]. You
will work on [product area] with a senior developer reviewing your code and a
structured path from small fixes to owned features over your first [number]
months. We hire for reasoning and curiosity, not a long resume.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Junior PHP Developer builds small features and fixes under review, learns
the codebase and our standards, and grows into independent ownership of a
product area.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Implement small features and bug fixes in PHP under code review
•Write tests for the code you ship and keep the suite passing
•Learn [framework], our conventions, and the domain the product serves
•Ask questions early and share progress before a task goes quiet
•Write clear commit messages, pull requests, and short technical notes
•Pair with senior developers on larger changes
•Handle support escalations that reach engineering [rotation details]
•Basic SQL and an understanding of relational data
•Git basics and willingness to work in a review culture
•Evidence of building something: coursework, personal projects, internship,
bootcamp portfolio, or open source contributions
•[Degree optional: state clearly whether one is required]
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Junior roles are where classification actually gets tested. The FLSA computer
employee exemption requires $684 per week on a salary or fee basis, or $27.63
per hour, in addition to the duties test, so a junior developer paid below that
level is non-exempt and owed overtime past forty hours in a week. State
thresholds can be far higher, and California in particular sets a computer
software rate that most junior salaries do not reach. Track hours for any
non-exempt developer, including remote hours. If the role is a paid internship,
apply the Department of Labor primary beneficiary test before treating it as
unpaid. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [benefits summary], [learning budget]
To apply, email __ with your resume and anything you have
built, however small.
Template 6: Contract / Freelance PHP Developer
A scope of work rather than a job posting: deliverables, acceptance criteria, intellectual property assignment, and the misclassification warning stated up front.
Classification: 1099 independent contractor (see note before you commit)
Compensation: $_ per [hour / milestone / project]
ABOUT THIS ENGAGEMENT
[Company Name] needs a PHP developer for a defined piece of work: [describe the
deliverable, for example a payment integration, a version upgrade, a rescue of
an inherited codebase, or a new module]. The existing system runs on [PHP
version, framework, hosting], and the work is expected to take [duration].
SCOPE OF WORK
The contractor will deliver [specific deliverable] against the acceptance
criteria below, working independently and setting their own schedule and method.
DELIVERABLES AND ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA
•[Deliverable 1] accepted when [testable condition]
•[Deliverable 2] accepted when [testable condition]
•Source code delivered to [repository] with a readable commit history
•Documentation covering setup, configuration, and known limitations
•Handover session with [named person] before the final invoice
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Demonstrated PHP work of a comparable type, with references or code samples
•Command of [framework / CMS / integration] relevant to this scope
•Ability to work from a written brief with limited supervision
•Own equipment, own tools, own working hours
•Current business insurance where your policy or client requires it
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE (read this before you sign)
Contract PHP work is where small businesses most often misclassify. Whether
someone is an independent contractor turns on the economic reality of the
relationship, not on the contract label or the fact that you send a 1099. If you
set the hours, direct the method, supply the equipment, and keep the person on
indefinitely alongside your employees, you are describing an employee, and the
back taxes, penalties, and unpaid overtime exposure land on the business.
A genuine contractor engagement has a defined scope, an end point, contractor
control over how the work is done, and the freedom to serve other clients.
Get the intellectual property assignment in writing, because for a contractor
the default rules do not automatically hand ownership of the code to the client.
This is general information, not legal advice.
TERMS
•Payment schedule: [milestones / net terms]
•Intellectual property: all deliverables assigned to [Company Name] on payment
•Confidentiality: [NDA reference]
•Access: credentials issued at start and revoked at handover
•Termination: [notice period and kill-fee terms]
HOW TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL
Email __ with your rate, availability, a comparable past
project, and any questions about the scope above.
Overtime and the Computer Employee Exemption
Most full-time PHP developers are exempt from overtime under the computer employee exemption, but it is not automatic and it is not granted by the job title. It rests on the primary duty and on a pay threshold that has two different doors.
The rule sits in the federal regulation on computer employees, and the Department of Labor explains it in Fact Sheet #17E. An employee qualifies when the primary duty is systems analysis or the design, development, documentation, testing, creation, or modification of computer programs, and pay is at least $684 per week on a salary or fee basis, or at least $27.63 per hour. That hourly option does not exist for the other white-collar exemptions, which makes it worth knowing for part-time and contract-to-hire developer arrangements.
The computer employee exemption has two pay routes
Most exempt roles clear a weekly salary floor and nothing else. Computer employees get a second door. An employee whose primary duty is systems analysis, or the design, development, documentation, testing, creation, or modification of computer programs, can be exempt when paid at least $684 per week on a salary or fee basis, or at least $27.63 per hour. The hourly route is unusual in the exemption rules and it matters for PHP work, because contract-to-hire and part-time developer arrangements often pay by the hour. Two limits worth writing down. The exemption does not reach employees who manufacture or repair hardware, and it does not reach work that only uses computers rather than building programs, so a site administrator clicking through an admin panel is not automatically exempt. Duties decide it, not the title on the posting. This is general information, not legal advice.
Your state can set a much higher bar
The federal thresholds are a floor, not a ceiling, and a developer who is clearly exempt under federal law can still be non-exempt where you actually operate. California is the sharpest example: its computer software employee exemption carries its own compensation rate, set annually by the Department of Industrial Relations, that runs far above the federal $684 per week. For calendar year 2026 the state rate is $58.85 per hour, $10,214.44 per month, or $122,573.13 per year, which is above what many small businesses pay a mid-level PHP developer. Miss it and you owe overtime to someone you believed was salaried and exempt. Other states have their own salary tests for white-collar exemptions. Check the state where the developer physically works, which for a remote hire is not necessarily the state your company sits in. This is general information, not legal advice.
Contract PHP work is the misclassification hot spot
PHP has an unusually deep freelance market, and that is exactly why small businesses get this wrong. Whether someone is an independent contractor turns on the economic reality of the relationship, not on the label in the agreement or the fact that you issue a 1099. If you set the schedule, direct the method, supply the equipment, and keep the engagement running indefinitely next to your W-2 staff, you have described an employee no matter what the paperwork says, and the exposure is back taxes, penalties, and unpaid overtime. A real contractor engagement looks different: defined scope, defined end point, contractor control over how the work happens, and the freedom to serve other clients. Decide which one you are actually buying before you write the posting, because the two need different documents, different tax treatment, and different onboarding.
Own the code and control the access
Two clauses save more money than anything else in a developer offer, and both are routinely left out. First, intellectual property assignment. For a W-2 employee, work created within the scope of employment generally belongs to the employer, but the boundary is not always clean, and for an independent contractor the default frequently favors the developer unless the written agreement assigns the rights. A founder can pay for a year of development and then discover ownership is contested. Second, access. A PHP developer typically holds repository, database, server, and payment credentials, so document what is issued, to whom, and when it is revoked, and tie revocation to the offboarding checklist rather than to memory. Neither clause is expensive to add at offer time and both are painful to add afterward. This is general information, not legal advice.
Any developer outside the exemption needs hours tracked and overtime paid past forty in a week, remote hours included. If you are unsure which side a role falls on, our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification works through the tests.
Remote Hires Are Classified by Where the Developer Sits
The state test follows the employee, not the company. If your business is registered in Texas and your new PHP developer works from Sacramento, California wage and hour law reaches that employment relationship, including the computer software exemption rate. The same logic applies to paid sick leave, final paycheck timing, and pay transparency in the posting itself. Confirm the rules for the state the developer physically works in before you set the salary, not after the first payroll run. This is general information, not legal advice.
What to Screen For
Require what your system actually uses and mark everything else preferred. The core is stable across every PHP role: object-oriented PHP, strong SQL, Git and code review, testing, and secure coding practice. The stack-specific items belong in a separate, shorter list.
Overloading the required section is how small companies filter out the people they most want. A capable developer who has used Symfony rather than Laravel will be productive in a month, but will not apply to a posting that lists your framework as mandatory alongside twelve other packages.
Requirement
How to handle it in the posting
Object-oriented PHP
Require it, and state the PHP version your system runs on
SQL and schema design
Require it; this separates developers from configurators faster than anything else
Framework
Name yours, then mark comparable framework experience acceptable
Git and code review
Require it; a candidate who has never had code reviewed will need more support
Testing
Require the habit; name your tools as preferred rather than mandatory
Security practice
Require input validation, authentication, and dependency patching by name
Composer and dependencies
Require it for any modern codebase; skip it for a genuinely legacy system
Degree
Mark preferred or drop it; equivalent practical experience widens the pool considerably
Legacy judgment
Write it as a responsibility, not a skill, and screen with a real example
For the interview itself, a small paid exercise against a real problem from your codebase tells you more than any question list. If you are hiring your first developer and cannot evaluate the output yourself, our guide to finding developers for a startup covers how to borrow technical judgment without hiring for it.
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There is no federal occupation for PHP developers, and none for any single programming language, so benchmark against the three nearest classifications and pick the one that matches the actual work. The gap between them is wide enough to change the whole budget.
The Three Nearest Federal Classifications
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), national median annual wages were $135,980 for software developers, $100,390 for computer programmers, and $92,650 for web developers. The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile range ran $82,460 to $214,670 for software developers and $48,100 to $162,290 for web developers (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates).
Classification
Median (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
10th to 90th percentile
Which PHP work it fits
Software developers
$135,980 per year
$82,460 to $214,670
Framework product engineering, senior and architecture roles
Computer programmers
$100,390 per year
$57,710 to $160,460
Legacy maintenance and build-to-specification work
Web developers
$92,650 per year
$48,100 to $162,290
Agency, CMS, and site-building roles
Direction of travel matters too. Federal projections for 2024 to 2034 have software developer and web developer employment growing much faster than average, from bases of about 1,693,800 and 86,000 jobs, while computer programmer employment is projected to decline from about 121,200. Read that as a pricing signal: product engineering competition is getting tighter, and maintenance-heavy roles are the ones where a small business can still hire well.
Set your range from the work rather than from a single national figure, and publish it. Where pay transparency laws apply, a good-faith range in the posting is a legal requirement, and everywhere else it is still the cheapest way to stop interviewing people whose expectations you were never going to meet.
Hiring a Developer Without an HR Department
Small business developer hiring fails in three predictable places: the posting is too vague to filter, the hiring manager cannot evaluate the technical work, and the paperwork and credentials land in one uncoordinated week. Each has a fix that costs nothing but structure.
The posting says PHP developer, and six different people apply
PHP is one title covering four jobs: framework product engineering, agency CMS work, legacy maintenance, and e-commerce customization. A posting that lists PHP, MySQL, and good communication skills attracts all four groups and lets you sort them out later, which costs you a screening round per candidate. Name the version, the framework, the database, and whether the work is new build or careful change to old code. That single paragraph filters harder than any list of requirements, and it also tells strong candidates that the person who wrote the posting knows the system. Vagueness in a technical posting reads as a company that has not decided what it needs, and experienced developers skip those.
You are the founder, the product owner, and the hiring manager at once
At a small business the first developer hire is usually made by someone who cannot fully evaluate the code. That is survivable, but only with structure. Write the job description around outcomes you can verify rather than technologies you cannot judge. Ask for a small paid exercise on a real problem instead of a whiteboard test. Bring in one technical person you trust for a ninety-minute conversation with your finalist, which is cheap compared to a bad first engineering hire. And decide the pay range before the first call, because negotiating a technical salary you have not benchmarked with a candidate who has is a losing position.
The offer, the paperwork, and the credentials all land in the same week
A developer hire creates a burst of admin that a general onboarding flow handles badly: the signed offer, the intellectual property assignment and confidentiality agreement, the equipment record, the repository and server credentials issued and logged, tax and payroll forms, handbook and security policy acknowledgments, and a first-week plan that gets to a shipped commit rather than a stack of reading. FirstHR was built for that burst. The onboarding wizard runs the same sequence for every hire, built-in e-signature covers the offer and the IP assignment, document management stores the signed agreements against the employee profile, and training modules deliver the security policy before access is granted. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider.
While the search is open, keep candidates in one list with dated notes rather than in an inbox, because a technical search runs longer than most and the details of a screening call three weeks ago will not survive in memory. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Once the offer is signed, the work shifts to a repeatable onboarding checklist, and for engineering hires specifically our developer onboarding guide covers the sequence from signed agreement through the first shipped commit.
Key Takeaways
PHP developer is one title covering four different jobs: framework product work, CMS and agency work, legacy maintenance, and e-commerce, and the posting has to say which one.
There is no federal occupation for PHP developers, so benchmark against software developers, computer programmers, or web developers depending on the work.
National medians (BLS OEWS, May 2025) run $92,650 for web developers, $100,390 for computer programmers, and $135,980 for software developers, a spread wide enough to change the whole budget.
The computer employee exemption requires $684 per week on a salary or fee basis or $27.63 per hour plus a duties test, and the hourly route is unique among the white-collar exemptions.
State law can set a much higher bar, and it follows the developer: California requires $58.85 per hour or $122,573.13 per year for calendar year 2026.
Include an intellectual property assignment and a credential handover plan in every developer offer and every contractor agreement, because both are painful to add after the fact.
A developer hire creates a burst of paperwork and access that a general checklist handles badly. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence for every hire, with e-signature for the offer and the intellectual property assignment, document storage for signed agreements, and training modules that deliver your security policy before credentials go out. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a PHP developer do?
A PHP developer writes and maintains the server-side code behind a website or web application: the logic that runs on the server, the database queries behind it, the APIs that other systems call, and the deployment that puts changes into production. In practice the work splits four ways. Framework product work means building features in Laravel or Symfony with tests, migrations, and queues. CMS and agency work means custom themes, plugins, and integrations on WordPress or Drupal across a portfolio of sites. Legacy maintenance means careful change to an older codebase that still runs the business. E-commerce work means checkout, payments, and tax integrations where correctness beats speed. The four look nothing alike day to day, they pay differently, and they attract different candidates, which is why one generic posting tends to draw the wrong applicants.
Is there a Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation for PHP developers?
No. The federal occupational classification system has no PHP developer category, and no category for any single programming language. PHP work is distributed across three nearby occupations depending on what the job actually is. Software developers covers framework and product engineering. Web developers covers the site-building and CMS side. Computer programmers covers writing and maintaining code to a specification, which is often where legacy maintenance work sits. That matters when you set pay, because the three occupations report very different national medians for what a job board might list under the same PHP developer title. Benchmark against the classification that matches the work you are hiring for, then adjust for your local market and the seniority you actually need, rather than pulling a single national number and treating it as the market rate.
How much does a PHP developer cost to hire?
Anchor to the nearest federal classifications rather than to a single number. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), the national median annual wage was $135,980 for software developers, $100,390 for computer programmers, and $92,650 for web developers. The spread inside each is wide: web developers ran from $48,100 at the 10th percentile to $162,290 at the 90th, and software developers from $82,460 to $214,670. A PHP role built around a framework product team benchmarks toward the software developer figures, while agency CMS work and site building benchmark toward the web developer figures, which is a gap of roughly $43,000 at the median for two jobs that can carry the same title. Set your range from the work, the seniority, and your local market, and publish it where pay transparency rules require.
Is a PHP developer exempt or non-exempt under the FLSA?
Most full-time PHP developers are exempt under the computer employee exemption, but it is not automatic and the junior end is where it breaks. The exemption applies when the primary duty is systems analysis, or the design, development, documentation, testing, creation, or modification of computer programs, and the employee is paid at least $684 per week on a salary or fee basis or at least $27.63 per hour. The hourly route is unusual among the white-collar exemptions and it matters for part-time and contract-to-hire developer arrangements. Two traps. A junior developer paid below the threshold is non-exempt and owed overtime past forty hours in a week. And several states set a higher bar than the federal one, including California, whose computer software exemption rate is $58.85 per hour or $122,573.13 per year for calendar year 2026. Classify on the actual duties and the state where the person works. This is general information, not legal advice.
Should I hire a PHP developer as an employee or a freelance contractor?
It depends on how much control you intend to exercise, not on which is cheaper. PHP has an unusually deep freelance market, and for a defined piece of work with a clear end point, a contractor is often the right call: a payment integration, a version upgrade, a rescue of an inherited codebase. That is a genuine contractor engagement when the developer controls how and when the work is done, uses their own equipment, and can serve other clients. If you set the schedule, direct the method, provide the equipment, and keep the person working indefinitely alongside your employees, you have an employee regardless of what the agreement says, and the risk is back taxes, penalties, and unpaid overtime. Decide before you write the posting, because a scope of work and a job description are different documents. Either way, get the intellectual property assignment in writing, since the default rules for contractors do not automatically hand code ownership to the client.
What skills should a PHP developer job description require?
Require the things your system actually uses and mark everything else preferred. The reliable core is object-oriented PHP, strong SQL and relational database design, Git and a code review habit, testing, and secure coding practices for input validation, authentication, and authorization. Beyond that, be specific to your stack: name the PHP version, the framework if you use one, the database, the caching layer, and the deployment pipeline. Composer and dependency management belong on almost every list. If the role is CMS work, ask for custom theme and plugin development rather than page-builder configuration, because those are different skills and the posting rarely distinguishes them. For legacy roles, the real requirement is judgment: the ability to change code that has no tests without breaking the business. Write that as a responsibility, not a technology, and screen for it with a real example from the candidate.
Is PHP still worth hiring for?
Yes, on the evidence of where the web actually runs. W3Techs, which surveys server-side technology across public websites, reported in August 2026 that PHP was in use on 70.3 percent of sites whose server-side language is known, ahead of every other language by a wide margin. That installed base is the practical argument: if your business runs on WordPress, WooCommerce, Drupal, Magento, or a custom application written any time in the last two decades, PHP is what maintains it, and rewriting a working system in another language is rarely a business decision that pays. The hiring implication is a deep and reasonably priced candidate pool, especially for maintenance and CMS work. Write the posting around the system you have rather than the stack you wish you had, and be honest in it about how much of the job is maintenance, because candidates who want only new build will leave anyway.
What is the difference between a PHP developer and a back end developer?
A PHP developer is defined by the language, a back end developer by the layer, and the two overlap almost completely when the language is PHP. Posting for a PHP developer signals that you have an existing PHP codebase and want someone productive in it from week one, which narrows and sharpens the applicant pool. Posting for a back end developer signals that you care about server-side engineering ability and are open to someone who will learn your language, which widens the pool and lengthens the ramp. Use the PHP title when you have a live system, a deadline, and no time for a language transition. Use the broader back end title when you are hiring for a new build, for seniority, or in a market where PHP-specific candidates are thin. If the role also covers the interface, a full stack posting fits better than either.
