--- title: "Senior Software Engineer · Lead PHP Magento Developer - José DA COSTA" description: "Lead PHP Magento Developer & Technical Supervision" locale: "en" canonical: "https://portfolio.josedacosta.net/en/journey/senior-software-engineer-lead-php-magento-developer" source: "https://portfolio.josedacosta.net/en/journey/senior-software-engineer-lead-php-magento-developer.md" html_source: "https://portfolio.josedacosta.net/en/journey/senior-software-engineer-lead-php-magento-developer" author: "José DA COSTA" type: "journey" slug: "senior-software-engineer-lead-php-magento-developer" generated_at: "2026-06-02T15:37:19.531Z" --- # Senior Software Engineer · Lead PHP Magento Developer **Organization:** Smile Open Source Solutions **Period:** July 2017 - September 2017 **Type:** experience **Status:** Permanent contract (CDI) **Responsibility:** Lead PHP Magento Developer & Technical Supervision ## Company vision Smile was a formative experience, but not for the right reasons. The industrialized processes of an ESN of this scale allowed me to level up on enterprise e-commerce standards. However, I mainly observed the limitations of this model: **the high developer turnover on projects created considerable technical debt**, with each developer having completely different skill levels and techniques. Projects were understaffed: **the Fleurance Nature redesign, planned for a team, was assigned to me alone**. This experience mainly taught me what not to do in a technical organization, but also **the importance of rigor, consistency in code standards, and meticulousness in deliveries**. Leading a project solo when it was planned for a team, although difficult, proved **my ability to absorb the workload and deliver with quality**. ## Overview Senior Magento developer at Smile, Europe's leading open-source integrator. Delivered complex e-commerce features on Magento Enterprise Edition for major retail clients. - Delivered Fleurance Nature redesign solo, planned for a full team - Led code reviews and enforced Magento/PSR standards - Worked on enterprise clients: Bricorama, GIFI, Cultura ## Related skills (10) - **[Leadership & Team Management](https://portfolio.josedacosta.net/en/skills/leadership-team-management.md)** (confidence 4/5) _(soft)_: Technical guidance and code review within the project team. - **[Project Piloting & Agile Methodologies](https://portfolio.josedacosta.net/en/skills/project-piloting-agile.md)** (confidence 3/5) _(soft)_: Coordinating technical deliverables for an e-commerce platform redesign project., Interface between the technical team and business stakeholders at the client. - **[Problem Solving & Adaptability](https://portfolio.josedacosta.net/en/skills/problem-solving-adaptability.md)** (confidence 5/5) _(soft)_: Solving complex technical issues on a high-volume e-commerce project., Quick integration into the Smile environment and ramp-up on the client project. - **[Communication & Collaboration](https://portfolio.josedacosta.net/en/skills/pedagogy-communication-collaboration.md)** (confidence 4/5) _(soft)_: Collaboration with the Smile team and the Fleurance Nature business teams. - **[Software & System Architecture](https://portfolio.josedacosta.net/en/skills/system-architecture-design.md)** (confidence 3/5) _(technical)_: E-commerce architecture design on Magento Enterprise, custom modules., Applying Magento MVC patterns, extension modules, observers, and plugins. - **[Fullstack Development](https://portfolio.josedacosta.net/en/skills/fullstack-development.md)** (confidence 4/5) _(technical)_: Fullstack development on Magento Enterprise Edition, Fleurance Nature e-commerce integration. - **[DevOps, Cloud & Production Industrialization](https://portfolio.josedacosta.net/en/skills/devops-cloud-production.md)** (confidence 5/5) _(technical)_: Functional and regression testing on the e-commerce platform.. Application performance monitoring and e-commerce metrics tracking.. Continuous deployment and production operations for the platform. - **[Data, AI & Machine Learning](https://portfolio.josedacosta.net/en/skills/data-ai-machine-learning.md)** (confidence 4/5) _(technical)_: MySQL optimization for product catalog, index management and complex query tuning. - **[Application Security & Compliance](https://portfolio.josedacosta.net/en/skills/application-security-compliance.md)** (confidence 3/5) _(technical)_: E-commerce transaction security, customer data protection. - **[Innovation & Technology Watch](https://portfolio.josedacosta.net/en/skills/innovation-tech-watch.md)** (confidence 3/5) _(soft)_: Monitoring the Magento ecosystem and open source practices. ## Missions - **Technical debt audit and mapping** on each client project, prioritization of remediation work - Analysis of functional and technical requirements, documentation of architecture decisions and coding conventions - **Development of complex features on Magento Enterprise Edition** (advanced content manager, catalog price rules, customer segments, advanced promotions) - Development of **custom Magento modules to meet each client's specific needs** - Code review and validation for other engineers, dissemination of best practices and PSR standards - Bug fixing and application maintenance (TMA) for enterprise clients - Mentoring junior and intermediate developers, **pair programming** - Collaboration with the project manager to translate requirements into technical specifications - Production deployment, monitoring and incident diagnosis (**New Relic**) - Continuous improvement proposals and contribution to the **technical roadmap** ## Featured client projects #### Bricorama **Description:** Application maintenance on the Bricorama e-commerce platform, a **catalog of tens of thousands of DIY and gardening product references**. Resolution of complex bugs related to price rules and cross-category promotions. Performance optimization on high-traffic product listing pages. **Name:** Bricorama **Type:** Application Maintenance #### Cultura **Description:** Major **Elasticsearch search engine project with millions of products** to index and complex search queries to implement. Performance and relevance optimization of search results across the product catalog. **Name:** Cultura **Type:** Application Maintenance #### Fleurance Nature **Description:** **Complete redesign of the Fleurance Nature e-commerce website** on Magento Enterprise Edition. This project covered HTML integration, product attribute configuration, custom widget development, and a **full sales funnel overhaul**. The shopping cart was the most complex challenge: managing multiple promo codes, catalog price rules, multi-carrier shipping, tax calculations, and the advanced promotions engine. **Initially planned for a team of developers, ultimately delivered solo** with **commendations during QA testing**. The **version developed at that time is still in production today** on the website. #### Highlights - Complete redesign delivered solo, originally planned for a team - Complex sales funnel: promo codes, price rules, multi-carrier shipping - Commended during QA: very few corrections required, version still in production today - Cleanup and reorganization of legacy code left by numerous developers: existing code audit, prioritization by business impact, progressive refactoring module by module to avoid regressions - Page load optimization, caching, and SEO indexing improvements - Custom widgets: advanced search filters, product carousels, third-party integrations **Name:** Fleurance Nature **Type:** Complete redesign #### Gifi **Description:** Application maintenance on the GIFI e-commerce platform, a **home decor and furnishing retailer with a network of over 500 stores**. Bug fixes on the checkout funnel and stock availability calculations. Feature enhancements to improve synchronization between the website and the physical store network. **Name:** GIFI **Type:** Application Maintenance ## Company presentation Smile is **Europe's leading open-source integration and managed services company**, founded in 1991, with approximately **2,000 employees across 9 countries** and a group revenue of approximately **160 million euros**. As an **ESN (IT Services Company)**, Smile operates on a multi-client model with dedicated project teams, industrialized development standards and regular developer rotation between assignments. The group brings together specialized brands: SensioLabs (Symfony), Alter Way (Cloud), UX-Republic (Design), creativestyle (E-commerce). The Bordeaux agency had approximately 45 experts, initially located at 2 rue du Jardin de l'Ars. ## Global objectives - Ensure technical quality and scalability of e-commerce platforms - Deliver smooth user experience: performance, ergonomics, speed - Contribute to best practice standardization within the Smile agency - Support e-commerce growth for major clients (Fleurance Nature, Bricorama, GIFI, Cultura) ## Positioning Within the Smile Bordeaux agency, I was positioned as **Lead PHP Magento Developer** and **responsible for technical supervision of the e-commerce team**. My scope covered both redesign project development and application maintenance (TMA) for **multiple enterprise clients in parallel**. In this ESN context, I navigated between **client delivery deadlines**, **Smile's internal processes** and the **code quality expected on high-traffic e-commerce platforms**. My direct contacts: the Smile project manager, business teams at each client (Fleurance Nature, Cultura, Bricorama, GIFI) and the agency's technical management. Alongside the Fleurance Nature redesign carried out independently, I handle **technical leadership and team supervision**: code review, Magento and PSR standards enforcement, technical planning and workload estimation, ticket tracking and reporting via Redmine. **Team leadership:** Supervision and mentoring of a Magento development team. **Systematic code review**, enforcement of best practices and Magento and PSR (PHP Standards Recommendations) standards. Technical planning and workload estimation management. Ticket tracking, reporting to the project manager, **ensuring quality and on-time delivery**. Regular self-training and knowledge-sharing sessions organized to maintain a high level of technical competency within the team. ## Related achievements - [refonte-ecommerce-magento-fleurancenature](https://portfolio.josedacosta.net/en/achievements/refonte-ecommerce-magento-fleurancenature.md) Full interactive version with timeline navigation: https://portfolio.josedacosta.net/en/journey/senior-software-engineer-lead-php-magento-developer