Full-Stack Laravel Developer – Subscription Video Platform (Takeover & Improvements)

About the Project We're looking for an experienced Laravel developer to take over and improve an existing subscription-based video streaming platform for a major content creator with millions of followers. The site is live, has paying subscribers, and serves 200+ exclusive video episodes via HLS streaming. This is a handoff from the current dev team — you'll be given full access to the codebase and infrastructure, and we need someone who can hit the ground running with minimal oversight. We don't have time to manage this closely, so we need someone who can own the entire process from onboarding through delivery. The Site: What You'll Be Working With The existing stack is well-established and documented. Here's what you're inheriting: Framework: Laravel (PHP), deployed via Laravel Vapor (Docker) on AWS Hosting: AWS (Vapor + Laravel Forge) Database: MySQL Video Storage & Delivery: S3 bucket (~1.7TB of media), HLS streaming via AWS MediaConvert + CloudFront, Lambda functions for automated video conversion Payments: Till Payments (payment gateway) Email: Mailgun Auth: Laravel's built-in authentication Repo: GitHub (you'll be invited to the repo on hire) Staging: Existing staging environment on Laravel Vapor Deployment: vapor deploy production-docker (local CLI) Scope of Work Codebase onboarding & audit — Clone the repo, get it running locally (php artisan serve), and familiarize yourself with the existing architecture, database schema, and deployment pipeline. We expect you to do this independently. Fix the cancel-payment flow — There's a known bug where the subscription cancellation flow isn't working correctly due to a Till Payments API issue. Diagnose and resolve this. General maintenance & improvements — Once onboarded, handle ongoing bug fixes, feature requests, and performance improvements as needed. Video pipeline familiarity — Understand how new content is uploaded (S3 → Lambda → MediaConvert → HLS) and how episodes are published via the admin panel. You won't need to rebuild this, but you need to know how it works. Who We're Looking For This isn't a guided project. We need a self-sufficient developer who can take full ownership of this platform A to Z — someone who can dig into an unfamiliar codebase, figure things out independently, communicate clearly when something comes up, and deliver without needing to be managed. Specifically: Strong production experience with Laravel (non-negotiable) Comfortable working with AWS services (S3, Lambda, CloudFront, MediaConvert, Vapor) Familiar with MySQL and Laravel's Eloquent ORM Experience with payment gateway integrations (Till Payments experience is a plus, but similar gateway experience works) Proven ability to work with existing codebases — reading other people's code, understanding it quickly, and making clean changes Experience with HLS video streaming or media delivery pipelines is a strong plus Comfortable with Laravel Vapor deployments or willing to learn quickly Nice to Have Previous experience maintaining or building subscription/membership platforms Familiarity with Mailgun or similar transactional email services Front-end skills (the site has a custom front-end, not a template) How This Will Work You'll be invited to the GitHub repo on hire AWS and admin credentials will be provided There's an existing staging environment for safe testing The current dev is available for a brief handoff if needed We're looking for someone who can become the go-to dev for this project long-term, starting with this initial 2–3 week engagement To Apply Please include in your proposal: Relevant Laravel project experience (links or descriptions) Your experience with AWS services Your availability over the next 2–3 weeks