EphpicMan | Sina Kuhestani

Senior PHP Engineer | Backend Architect | WordPress Developer
Mashhad, Iran
Open to Senior PHP roles and freelance backend projects

sinakuhestani@gmail.com Linkedin GitHub Website Download CV

PHP Engineering Backend Architecture Laravel WordPress API Development

Senior PHP Engineer with 9+ years of experience building and modernising backend applications and software products. Experienced in software architecture, legacy system refactoring, API development, and performance optimisation across PHP, Laravel, Symfony, and WordPress. I combine hands-on engineering with architectural thinking to build modular, testable, and maintainable systems.

Combining hands-on engineering with architectural thinking, I focus on building modular, testable, and maintainable systems. My work spans commercial platforms, internal management systems, custom CMS solutions, and independent developer tools.

Key Highlights:

Currently open to:

Languages:

Fun fact: I’m actively learning Portuguese and can already handle greetings and basic conversations: Olá, Bom dia, Boa tarde!

Core Expertise

Selected Projects

Numerus Source Code

PHP Extension . In Development

An independent PHP extension project focused on reusable mathematical, statistical, and fuzzy logic operations.

Highlights:

  • Flexible data storage strategies
  • Lazy transformations
  • Matrix operations
  • Probability and statistical operations
  • Iterative optimisation algorithms

Technology stack:

  • C
  • Zend Engine API

EphpicMan Test Suite Source Code

WordPress Plugin . In Development

A WordPress plugin providing a lightweight testing infrastructure for WordPress developers.

Highlights:

  • Built-in unit testing infrastructure
  • Automated test execution within WordPress
  • Developer-focused testing utilities

Technology stack:

  • PHP
  • WordPress Plugin API

RayaPress CMS

PHP Application . Completed

A legacy content management system re-engineered using Symfony, with a modular architecture and modern software engineering practices.

Highlights:

  • Re-engineered legacy code into a modular Symfony application.
  • Achieved over 90% test coverage across the backend codebase.
  • Introduced static analysis using Psalm.
  • Modernised legacy jQuery components.

Technology stack:

  • PHP
  • Symfony
  • MySQL
  • Psalm
  • PHPUnit

ICR Car Rental API

PHP Application . Completed

A RESTful API for car rental operations, developed using Laravel.

Highlights:

  • Refactored backend components using established design patterns.
  • Achieved over 90% test coverage across newly developed code.

Technology stack:

  • PHP
  • Laravel
  • MySQL

TopMart API

PHP Application . Completed

An e-commerce API built on the RayaPars API infrastructure, providing backend functionality for online retail operations.

Highlights:

  • Designed and implemented RESTful endpoints following a consistent API structure.
  • Applied a component-oriented architecture to support modular development and maintainability.

Technology stack:

  • PHP
  • MySQL

IranServer Domain Registration API

PHP Application . Completed

A Laravel-based domain registration service developed as a microservice for IranServer's Gate API, integrating domain registration workflows with the platform's gateway infrastructure.

Highlights:

  • Developed RESTful API endpoints for domain registration workflows.
  • Implemented asynchronous processing using queue and scheduling mechanisms.

Technology stack:

  • PHP
  • Laravel
  • MySQL
  • Redis

Professional Experience

Web Engineer | PersianHotel | Tourism | Freelance | Mashhad | June 2026 – Sep 2026

Restored and stabilised a legacy web application following a major server failure, then improved its performance, reliability, and operational visibility.

Key Responsibilities & Contributions:

  • Recovered and reconfigured the application environment using an outdated backup following a major server failure.
  • Diagnosed and resolved legacy application bugs to restore system functionality.
  • Optimised caching mechanisms and SQL queries to improve application performance.
  • Offloaded computationally intensive search operations to Web Workers, keeping the browser's main thread responsive.
  • Designed and implemented a custom logging/monitoring system (using a service worker) to improve diagnostics and troubleshooting.

Achievements:

  • Restored a previously non-functional production application from a several-year-old backup and established custom logging infrastructure for ongoing diagnosis and maintenance.
  • Improved search processing efficiency through background execution and optimised database queries.

Technologies & Skills:

  • Web Workers
  • Service Workers
  • Backend & Frontend Caching
  • Application Recovery
  • Custom Logging

Senior PHP Engineer | Tcharter | Tourism | Full-time | Mashhad | May 2025 – May 2026

Developed and maintained backend features while improving code quality and system design within an Extreme Programming (XP) environment.

Key Responsibilities & Contributions:

  • Led backend architecture and development for ICR and its API.
  • Designed RESTful APIs and modular services for internal systems and external partners.
  • Improved system scalability, reliability, and long-term maintainability.
  • Streamlined travel agency workflows and partner integrations.

Achievements:

  • Optimised SQL queries and refactored the legacy PHP search algorithm, reducing response time from 40 seconds to 2 seconds.
  • Refactored legacy utility-based business logic into a domain-oriented structure aligned with Domain-Driven Design (DDD) principles.

Technologies & Skills:

  • XP Software Development
  • Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
  • PHP-CS-Fixer

Web Developer | RHSPASU | Other | Full-time | Mashhad | Nov 2023 - Mar 2025

Developed an HMVC PHP application for HR management with flexible fields, unlimited reports and structured data.

Key Achievements:

  • Built flexible reporting and statistical modules.
  • Delivered the project under strict network restrictions and limited infrastructure.

Technologies & Skills:

  • MongoDB
  • Design Patterns

Senior Back-End Engineer | KimiaDP | Software | Full-time | Mashhad | Jun 2022 - Oct 2023

Led a team of eight developers and designers in building a SaaS website builder using Laravel and WordPress, applying rapid application development (RAD) and prototyping.

Key Responsibilities & Contributions:

  • Led backend and frontend architecture and development for commercial products.
  • Designed microservices and WordPress plugins to integrate WordPress with SaaS applications.
  • Developed prototypes and maintained existing products.
  • Implemented GitOps-based CI/CD workflows and development infrastructure.

Key Achievements:

  • Standardised the development process through prototyping, increasing development speed by approximately 1.5×.
  • Standardised the design process by establishing shared design principles, reducing design time by approximately 30%.

Technologies & Skills:

  • RAD
  • GitOps
  • DevOps
  • ADR
  • TDD
  • Psalm
  • PHPStan
  • Node.js
  • Sass
  • TypeScript
  • Gulp

Senior Back-End Engineer | RayaPars | Software | Freelance | Mashhad | Nov 2021 - Apr 2022

Re-engineered the legacy RayaPars CMS using Symfony, introducing a modular, component-oriented architecture and developing core application components.

Key Responsibilities & Contributions:

  • Rebuilt the company’s CMS using Symfony and Docker.
  • Designed a modular architecture to improve extensibility.
  • Applied a component-oriented approach to software development.

Key Achievements:

  • Introduced unit testing practices, helping reduce bugs and support tickets.
  • Improved code quality and deployment reliability.

Technologies & Skills:

  • Symfony
  • Component Oriented Programming (COP)
  • Modular Design

Senior Back-End Developer | IranServer | Software | Full-time | Mashhad | May 2021 - Oct 2021

Developed, documented, and refactored RESTful APIs and WHMCS plugins.

Key Responsibilities & Contributions:

  • Developed RESTful APIs using Laravel.
  • Produced technical documentation for backend components.
  • Applied SOLID principles to improve code structure and maintainability.

Key Achievements:

  • Developed WHMCS modules and RESTful APIs following SOLID principles.
  • Delivered maintainable backend components for hosting and billing systems.

Technologies & Skills:

  • WHMCS
  • Laravel
  • Docker
  • Git
  • Scrum
  • PHPUnit
  • Microservices
  • Design Patterns
  • SOLID Principles

Back-End Developer | RayaPars | Software | Full-time | Mashhad | Jul 2020 - Apr 2021

Developed websites using RayaPars CMS, customising functionality to meet individual clients’ business requirements.

Achievements:

  • Developed a modular page builder for RayaPars CMS.
  • Reduced project delivery time and increased team capacity by approximately 15%.

Technologies & Skills:

  • RESTful APIs
  • Team Collaboration

Back-End Developer | PersianHotel | Tourism | Full-time | Mashhad | Apr 2019 - Jun 2020

Rebuilt a legacy Joomla-based system using a custom PHP MVC architecture.

Highlights:

  • Migrated a legacy Joomla system to a custom MVC-based PHP architecture.
  • Improved critical backend performance by approximately 8× and reduced main-page load times by approximately 3×.

Technologies & Skills:

  • Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
  • Bootstrap
  • SWOP APIs

PHP Developer | Software | Freelance | Mashhad | Oct 2016 - Mar 2019

Developed PHP solutions for clients and organisations through freelance engagements.

Highlights:

  • Delivered PHP and WordPress backend projects for clients.
  • Developed custom applications, plugins, and themes.

Technologies & Skills:

  • PHP
  • JavaScript
  • CSS
  • MySQL
  • WordPress
  • Matlab
  • VB.NET

Engineering Principles

  1. Simplicity Over Unnecessary Complexity
  2. Purposeful Architecture
  3. Maintainability by Design
  4. Engineering Beyond Implementation

Technical stack

Category Technologies
Programming Languages PHP, JavaScript, SQL, C
Backend & Platforms Laravel, Symfony, WordPress, WHMCS
Architecture & Practices OOP, Design Patterns, SOLID, DDD, TDD, Modular Architecture
APIs & Integration REST, JSON, HTTP
Database MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis
Frontend HTML, Pug, CSS, Sass, TypeScript, jQuery
Testing & Code Quality PHPUnit, Psalm, PHPStan, PHP-CS-Fixer
Development Tools Git, GitHub, Linux, Docker
Build & Dependency Tools Composer, Node.js, Gulp

Education

PhD in Agricultural Economics

Specialisation: Production Economics and Management

Ferdowsi University of Mashhad . 2023