Senior Full Stack Dev (Laravel / Python / Rails) — Long-term, Immediate Start

# Senior Full Stack Developer — Laravel / Python (Long-term, Immediate Start) We're a project studio with a steady flow of complex builds, and we need one senior developer to take ownership of work that's already in flight. This is not a junior role and not a learning opportunity — we need someone who can get across an existing codebase quickly, understand the objectives, and start producing. ## What we need - **Laravel and Python** — genuine mastery of both, not passing familiarity. You will be tested. - 8+ years of senior full stack experience on production systems. - The ability to pick up an existing codebase — read other people's code, understand the intent, and carry it forward rather than rebuild from scratch. - Responsive and reachable during agreed hours — quick to reply, quick to flag blockers, no going quiet mid-task. - Working hours that overlap meaningfully with Sydney (AEST) business hours. - Comfortable with a deliberately low-hours, long-term engagement. This suits someone who wants a steady ongoing gig alongside other work — not a full-time contract, and not a high-volume burn. - Fluent written and spoken English for technical discussions and handovers. - Comfortable using Claude (Anthropic's AI) as a core part of your workflow to roughly halve delivery time. We can provide an account. Candidates not willing to use AI tooling are not a fit. ## What you'll be working on The core system is largely built and close to complete. The role is ongoing maintenance plus finishing off some remaining development, worked through one item at a time. What's still outstanding: - Automated outreach email flows via Brevo - Adding gross-profit reporting to the company page - Extending the client database and wiring new functions into our internal portal - Phase Two: organisational / companies structure build-out - Refactoring the quote template to read payment terms from company configuration - Extending the existing email → chat → task-generation automation - Hardening and cleaning up the security layer ## The reality of this role - This project is meant to tick over steadily, not sprint. We are budget-conscious and deliberately keep the weekly hours modest — some weeks are busier than others, but this is not a full-time or high-volume role. If you need heavy, consistent hours, this isn't the fit. - Because the hours are limited, every one has to count. That's exactly why we want someone senior: enough judgment to move a milestone forward efficiently without burning time or budget getting there. - You bill only for hours worked, and we watch the budget closely. Pragmatic scoping matters — we're after the right result for the constraint, not gold-plating. - The work runs in cycles: periods of active development, then quieter periods of maintenance. - Immediate start. The first task is a handover and walkthrough to get you across the current code. - We've recently had costly failures from developers whose final code quality was fine but whose process, judgment, or communication broke down mid-project. We screen hard for reliability, technical judgment under pressure, and clear communication — not just clean code at the finish line. - If you manage this well, the relationship is long-term. Our previous lead developer worked with us from 2016 until the war disrupted things; we'd like to find that kind of partnership again. ## How to apply In your reply, please include: 1. Two or three projects in Laravel or Python where you owned the work end-to-end. Link to code, or describe the architecture and your specific contribution. 2. A short example of how you've used Claude or similar AI tooling to ship faster — what you delegate to it, what you don't, and where it has failed you. 3. Your hourly rate and your normal working hours in UTC. 4. The word "pipeline" somewhere in your reply, so we know you've read this in full. Generic portfolios and AI-generated cover letters will be ignored.