Junior Backend Developer (Laravel / PHP)

Junior Backend Developer (Laravel / PHP)
Japan Awaits - Remote, Vietnam-based
About Japan Awaits
Japan Awaits is a travel company crafting tailor-made trips to Japan for international travelers. From hidden ryokans in the countryside to the neon-lit streets of Tokyo, we help our clients experience Japan the way they have always dreamed of. Our team is international, fully remote, and growing fast - and tech is at the core of how we scale.
Our CTO is based in France, and our product team operates across Europe and Asia. You will be joining a small but ambitious engineering team where your work will have direct impact on the travel experience of thousands of customers.
The Role
We are looking for a Junior Backend Developer to help us build and maintain the backbone of our booking, itinerary, and customer management platform. You will work closely with our CTO and the frontend team to deliver reliable APIs and scalable backend services powered by Laravel.
This is a great opportunity for a junior developer who already has a solid grasp of PHP and wants to grow into a strong Laravel engineer within an international, product-driven environment.
What You Will Do
Develop and maintain backend features using Laravel (controllers, services, jobs, migrations, Eloquent models).
Design and implement RESTful APIs consumed by our web frontend and internal tools.
Write clean, tested, and well-documented PHP code.
Work with MySQL to design efficient schemas and optimize queries.
Integrate third-party services (payment providers, booking APIs, email, etc.).
Participate in code reviews and contribute to improving our engineering practices.
Collaborate daily with the CTO (France) and frontend developers on feature delivery.
Must-Have Requirements
1+ year of professional experience with PHP (internships or freelance work count).
Good understanding of OOP, MVC architecture, and basic design patterns.
Experience with Laravel - or a strong desire to specialize in it, with another PHP framework background (Symfony, CodeIgniter, etc.).
Comfortable with Git and collaborative workflows (pull requests, code review).
Knowledge of relational databases MySQL and basic SQL.
Working proficiency in English (reading, writing, and meetings).
Available to work 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM Vietnam Time (mandatory overlap with the French CTO).
Nice to Have.
Exposure to automated testing (PHPUnit, Pest).
Basic understanding of REST API best practices and authentication (JWT, Sanctum, OAuth).
Interest in travel, Japan, or the tourism industry.
Working Conditions
Location: 100% Remote (Vietnam-based)
Contract type: Full-time contractor
Working hours: 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM (Vietnam Time) - required to ensure overlap with our France-based CTO and European team
Language: Working English (written and spoken) is required. French is a plus but not mandatory.
Why Join Japan Awaits?
Join a young, international team passionate about travel, culture, and technology.
Real ownership: your code ships to production and directly impacts real travelers.
Learning-friendly environment with regular code reviews and mentorship from senior developers.
Competitive salary, performance bonuses, and annual leave aligned with Vietnamese public holidays.
Team-building events and opportunities to travel (yes, including Japan).
How to Apply
Fill your information and submit your CV into this form: Joboko/v8gE4FVVUubVgBUy7
We review applications on a rolling basis and aim to reply within 5 working days.
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: 10,000,000₫ - 15,000,000₫ per month
Work Location: Remote