REST API Development
Well-structured RESTful APIs in PHP/Laravel following MVC and clean resource design — consistent responses, sane versioning, and documentation your frontend team can actually work from.
Open to new opportunities
Hi,I’mPola
BackendEngineer
I build the backends products run on — clean, well-tested REST APIs in PHP and Laravel, backed by MySQL schemas that stay fast as the data grows.
Cairo, Egypt
Available for backend & full-time roles
REST API DesignLaravel & PHPMySQL OptimizationClean Architecture
0+
Years Experience
0
Products Shipped
0+
Technologies
Get to know me
About Me
I'm a Backend Engineer with 2+ years of experience building and scaling web applications and RESTful APIs in PHP and Laravel. I care about the part users never see: the schema that holds up, the endpoint that stays fast, the job that retries correctly when something upstream fails.
My day-to-day is API design, MySQL schema and query optimization with Eloquent, and third-party integrations — payment gateways, external REST services, webhooks and callbacks — with authentication, authorization and role-based access control wired in properly rather than bolted on.
I write clean, testable code against SOLID principles and design patterns, review other people’s code, and work inside Agile teams across the full development lifecycle. I’ve also carried a pager: diagnosing and fixing production incidents taught me more about writing resilient backends than any tutorial did.
Clean, testable codeSOLID by defaultTested with PHPUnitDocumented
Quick facts
- Focus
- Backend & REST APIs
- Core Stack
- PHP · Laravel · MySQL
- Experience
- 2+ Years
- Location
- Cairo, Egypt
- Languages
- Arabic, English
What I do
Services & Expertise
Backend engineering, end to end — the APIs, data layer, integrations, and tests that a product runs on.
Database Design & Optimization
MySQL schema design and normalization, Eloquent ORM modelling, migrations, and the indexing and query tuning that keeps response times flat as tables grow.
Payments & Integrations
Third-party service and payment gateway integrations with secure authentication, webhook and callback handling, and error handling that fails loudly instead of silently losing data.
Auth & Access Control
Authentication and authorization done properly — JWT, OAuth 2.0, and role-based access control (RBAC) mapped to real business rules rather than scattered permission checks.
Queues & Background Jobs
Moving heavy work off the request cycle with queues and background jobs — faster API responses, better throughput, and retries that make the system resilient to upstream failures.
Testing & Code Quality
PHPUnit unit and integration tests, test-driven development, code review, and debugging — plus SOLID principles and design patterns so the codebase stays maintainable.
My toolkit
Skills & Technologies
The languages, frameworks, and tools I reach for to design, build, and ship reliable backend systems.
Stack
Deep on the backend.
From schema to endpoint, I go deep rather than wide. PHP and Laravel are where I'm strongest — API design, data modelling, integrations, and the queues and tests that keep a backend dependable once real traffic hits it.
- Backend specialist — PHP & Laravel, with REST API design at the core
- MySQL schema design, indexing & query optimization via Eloquent
- Payment gateway and third-party API integrations with secure webhooks
- Queues, background jobs, and PHPUnit-tested business logic
01
Languages & Frameworks
- PHP
- Laravel
- SQL
- JavaScript
- OOP
- MVC
- SOLID
- Design Patterns
02
Databases & Caching
- MySQL
- Eloquent ORM
- Redis
- Schema Design
- Query Optimization
- Indexing
03
Backend & APIs
- REST APIs
- JWT
- OAuth 2.0
- RBAC
- Queues & Jobs
- Webhooks
- Payment Gateways
04
Testing & Quality
- PHPUnit
- Unit Testing
- Integration Testing
- TDD
- Code Review
- Debugging
05
DevOps & Tools
- Git
- GitHub
- GitLab
- Bitbucket
- Docker
- CI/CD
- Linux
- Nginx
- Composer
- Postman
06
Practices
- Agile / Scrum
- Microservices Concepts
- Version Control Workflows
- Technical Documentation
Career path
Experience & Education
Where I’ve built, shipped, and learned the craft.
Backend Engineer
Refilex
Aug 2024 — Jul 2025 Cairo, Egypt · Full-time
Developed and maintained RESTful APIs and backend services in PHP/Laravel supporting core product features and third-party client integrations.
- Designed and optimized MySQL schemas, queries, and migrations using Eloquent ORM to improve data integrity and query performance
- Integrated third-party services and payment gateways with secure authentication, webhook and callback handling, and robust error handling
- Implemented queues and background jobs to offload heavy processing, improving API response times and overall system throughput
- Collaborated in an Agile team — code reviews, coding standards, and SOLID principles for maintainable, testable code
- Diagnosed and resolved production incidents, improving application stability, performance, and reliability
PHPLaravelMySQLEloquentRedisREST APIs
Backend Engineer
Kickstart Interactive
Jul 2023 — Aug 2024 Cairo, Egypt · Full-time
Built and maintained scalable web applications and RESTful APIs with PHP/Laravel across multiple client projects.
- Implemented authentication, authorization, and role-based access control (RBAC), along with core business logic and application modules
- Developed and consumed third-party REST APIs and integrations, ensuring reliable data exchange and comprehensive error handling
- Wrote clean, reusable, and testable code, contributing to improved development workflows, Git branching practices, and deployment processes
- Partnered with cross-functional teams to translate business requirements into technical solutions delivered on schedule
PHPLaravelMySQLREST APIsGit
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Cairo Higher Institute for Computer Science
2018 — 2024Grade: B+ — Very Good
Selected work
Products I've Built Backends For
Real client products where I engineered the backend — the APIs, data models, and integrations behind them. Every one is live in production.
SaaS · Bookings · FinOps FeaturedSalon Management SaaS — Egypt
Lumora
A bilingual salon-management platform built for the Egyptian market — bookings and calendar with conflict detection, staff commissions and payroll, inventory that deducts stock automatically from services and retail sales, invoicing, and a financial dashboard that resolves revenue, expenses, COGS, and net profit on one screen. I worked on the backend behind it: the data model, the booking and invoicing logic, role-based access for owners, receptionists, and stylists, and the WhatsApp/SMS confirmation and reminder integrations.
- Arabic + English, full RTL
- Bookings → invoices → payroll
- WhatsApp/SMS reminders
PHPLaravelMySQLEloquentQueuesREST APIs
On-Demand · Marketplace · Mobile FeaturedMulti-Vertical Delivery Super-App
Quick
A bilingual Egyptian delivery super-app where one cart spans five verticals — grocery, pharmacy, real estate, services, and pet supplies — across multiple vendors. I contributed backend work on the APIs powering it: the multi-vendor cart and order flow, the seven-state live order tracker, prescription upload for pharmacy orders, and push notifications fanning out to three distinct roles (customer, shop, driver), each with their own permissions and their own view of an order.
- 5 verticals, one cart
- Customer · shop · driver roles
- Seven-state live tracking
PHPLaravelMySQLREST APIsPush Notifications
HealthTech · Catalog · CorporateMedical Equipment Catalog & Distribution
Nilemed Egypt
The web platform for a specialised medical-equipment distributor representing international manufacturers across urology, gastroenterology, pelvic floor treatment, gynaecology, and critical care. I built backend features for it in Laravel — the nested clinical-category product catalog and its detail pages, the directory of represented principals, and the quote-request lead flow that routes enquiries to the sales team.
- 6 clinical areas
- 9 international principals
- Quote-request lead flow
PHPLaravelMySQL
HealthTech · Catalog · CorporateMedical-Device Distributor Platform
Biotechnology Egypt
The web platform for a Cairo medical-device distributor operating since 2007, representing international brands across cardiology (ECG, Holter, stress-test systems), pulmonology (spirometry, PFT, CPET), neurophysiology (EEG, TMS, nerve monitoring), and physiotherapy. I worked on the Laravel backend — the nested multi-category product catalog, per-product detail pages, service pages, and the "Get a Quote" lead flow.
- 4 clinical equipment categories
- Distributor since 2007
- Nested category catalog
PHPLaravelMySQL
Let’s connect
Get in touch
Have a project in mind, a role to fill, or just want to say hi? My inbox is always open.
Let’s build something great.
Available for backend & full-time roles. I usually respond within a day.