Tbilisi, GE · Open to remote

GiorgiKakabadze.

Q: How do I hire a senior PHP / Laravel developer in Georgia?

Email giokakabadze50@gmail.com with a brief: scope, timeline, and ideal start date. I reply within 24h. I'm based in Tbilisi, Georgia and work with clients across Europe, the US, and the Caucasus. Engagements typically start within 1–2 weeks.

Q: Are you available for full-time remote roles?

Yes — for senior or lead full-stack roles, retained consulting (3+ months), and selective product work. Tbilisi-based, fluent async, comfortable across CET/UTC/EST timezones.

Q: What kind of projects do you take on?

Production Laravel + Vue/React systems, IoT and realtime platforms (MQTT, WebSockets, ESP32, Raspberry Pi), Laravel Octane performance work, REST/OpenAPI design, migrations off legacy jQuery/PHP, and team-lead engagements with 2–5 engineers on cycle-based delivery.

Q: What is your experience and track record?

9 years shipping production software. At Casatrade (Lead Architect, since 2021) I designed and built the GPSControl API from scratch — 4,000+ concurrent API users — and work on gps.ge, a fleet platform handling 26,000+ concurrent device connections for TBC Bank, Bank of Georgia, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Skytel. I also built Casatrade's facility access-control platform, deployed at McDonald's. At Quiet Light I lead a 3-engineer squad modernizing legacy Laravel products. Before that: Skytel (ISP billing) and All Digital (security integrations).

Q: Where are you based and what languages do you speak?

Tbilisi, Georgia. Georgian (native), English (C1), Russian (B1). All client meetings, code reviews, and documentation in English by default.

Q: What is your typical engagement structure?

Cycle-based delivery: 2-week or 6-week cycles with a clear scope, daily async updates, end-of-cycle demo. Contracts in USD or EUR, invoiced monthly. Available for hourly, fixed-scope, or retainer arrangements. NDAs and standard MSAs welcome.

Senior PHP / Laravel Product Engineer & Team Lead. Building production SaaS, realtime platforms, and APIs for 9 years.

Start a project See the work Download CV

0

years in production

0k+

concurrent devices

0k+

concurrent API users

0+

apps on shared services

Systems I’ve built or worked on serveTBC BankBank of GeorgiaCoca-ColaPepsiSkytelMcDonald's

scroll

01 / About

Senior engineer, team lead, builder.

9 years building and evolving production SaaS, realtime platforms, APIs, and customer-facing apps. Deep PHP fundamentals — PHP 7/8, Laravel 8–12, Octane/Swoole, Symfony — and a track record of leading small, high-output teams.

At Quiet Light I lead a 3-engineer squad modernizing legacy Laravel products and consolidating two outdated systems into one platform. At Casatrade I’m Lead Architect: I built the GPSControl API from scratch and work on gps.ge, a fleet platform handling 26,000+ concurrent device connections.

I work AI-first: most implementation is generated with Claude Code, then reviewed by engineers and guarded by PHPUnit and Playwright suites. End-to-end ownership, from schema to UI.

~ / giorgi @ hackerman

Tbilisi, GE·Open to remote·BSc Computer Science·English C1 · Russian B1 · Georgian native

02 / Services

What I can do for you.

Senior hands for the hard parts of a PHP product. Every line below is backed by something already running in production.

Laravel products, 0 → 1
SaaS, internal tools, and customer apps on Laravel with Vue, React, or Inertia — from schema to deploy, including mobile and desktop builds with NativePHP.
Proof → Tempo Hub, MyClock, and Prava — all shipped from the first commit.
APIs & integrations
Versioned REST APIs with OpenAPI docs, token-scoped auth, and caching — plus integrations with banks, payment providers, telecoms, and hardware vendors.
Proof → GPSControl API: built from scratch, 4,000+ concurrent users, passed TBC and BOG security reviews.
Legacy modernization
Untangle aging jQuery / Laravel codebases, consolidate duplicate systems, and move databases without taking the business offline.
Proof → Two legacy systems → one platform at Quiet Light; zero-downtime MySQL 8 migration.
Performance rescue
Slow endpoints, timing-out reports, overloaded queries. I profile, fix the data access, and add caching that invalidates correctly.
Proof → Reports cut from minutes to under 3 s; API ~60% faster; endpoints 2–3x faster.
Realtime & IoT
WebSockets, SSE, and MQTT backends that talk to real devices — ESP32 controllers, NFC readers, Raspberry Pi edge nodes.
Proof → 26,000+ concurrent device connections on gps.ge; access control deployed at McDonald’s.
AI-assisted delivery
Set up Claude Code for your team the right way: skills, commands, and repository rules that follow your standards, with tests as guardrails.
Proof → ~90% of implementation AI-generated at Quiet Light — reviewed, and covered by PHPUnit + Playwright.

Have one of these problems?

Start a project

03 / Work

Selected projects.

Things I've shipped or actively run. Mix of professional work, side projects, and the family business.

FlagshipLiveCasatrade · built from scratch

GPSControl API

Designed and built the GPSControl API — Laravel 11, Octane/Swoole, PostgreSQL, Redis — replacing a fragile socket-based integration layer. It exposes realtime positions, trips, geofencing, alerts, and reports to B2B consumers, passed security reviews by TBC Bank and Bank of Georgia, and backs gps.ge, the fleet platform trusted by TBC, BOG, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Skytel.

Laravel 11
Octane / Swoole
PostgreSQL
Redis
OpenAPI
WebSockets

Explore the API

concurrent device connections: 26,000+
concurrent API users: 4,000+
reports, down from minutes: <3s
faster API responses: ~60%

Trusted by · gps.ge

TBCBOGCoca-ColaPepsiSkytel

Case study · GPSControl API

Replacing a fragile socket layer with the GPSControl API

Before

Legacy socket integration

After

gps.ge fleet platform

26,000+ connected devices

GPSControl API

Laravel 11 · Octane / Swoole

PostgreSQL

Redis cache

Mobile apps
B2B partners & banks
Internal apps (5+)

The problem

Customers and partners reached the fleet platform through a legacy socket-based integration layer. It was fragile, hard to extend, and stood in the way of moving customers to mobile.

What I built

A new API from scratch — Laravel 11 on Octane / Swoole, PostgreSQL, and Redis.
Token-scoped authorization, versioning, and OpenAPI documentation for external consumers.
Redis-backed caching with granular invalidation; shared services behind 5+ apps and integrations.
Realtime positions, trips, geofencing, alerts, and reports exposed to B2B partners.

The result

4,000+ concurrent API users at last measurement.
Enabled a broad customer migration to mobile.
Passed security reviews by TBC Bank and Bank of Georgia, opening new B2B integrations.

02 · Casatrade · IoT platform · built from 0

Facility Access Control

PHP backend orchestrating MQTT-connected ESP32 controllers with NFC / Wiegand readers and Raspberry Pi edge services — bookings, access policies, audit log. Deployed at McDonald's among other sites.

Laravel
MQTT
ESP32
NFC / Wiegand
Raspberry Pi
FastAPI

Trusted byMcDonald's

Walkthrough on request

03 · Laravel 12 · React 19 · NativePHP

Live

Prava — Driving Test Georgia

Georgian driving-license test prep, shipped from one codebase to Android, web, and desktop. Published on Google Play and featured in the official NativePHP Mobile Showcase.

Laravel 12
React 19
NativePHP
Android
Desktop

Open the web app

04 · Family business · founder / operator

Live

alldigital.ge

Shopify storefront for our family-owned digital goods business. I run the operations end-to-end — catalog, payments, customer support, and the surrounding infrastructure.

Shopify
Liquid
Ops
Payments

Visit store

05 · Open source · 79 stars · 17 forks

Open source

Project Zomboid Server Manager

Self-hostable panel for Project Zomboid dedicated servers — 40+ API endpoints, queues, RCON and Docker integrations, backups, auth, and admin tooling. Laravel 12 + React / Inertia.

Laravel 12
React 19
PostgreSQL
Docker
RCON

View on GitHub

06 · tempohub.casatrade.ge · built from 0

Live

Tempo Hub

Internal Casatrade product I led end-to-end — from data model and API to the Vue UI. Live in production at tempohub.casatrade.ge.

Laravel
Vue 3
MySQL

Open Tempo Hub

07 · myclock.casatrade.ge · built from 0

Live

MyClock

Casatrade timekeeping app — schema, backend, and frontend mine from the first commit. Lives at myclock.casatrade.ge.

Laravel
Vue 3
MySQL

Open MyClock

More on GitHub

All repositories

04 / Experience

Where I’ve been building.

Nine years on production systems — lately in lead roles, owning the architecture, the team, and the delivery.

Quiet Light
Aug 2024 – Present
Senior PHP Developer / Team Lead
- Lead a 3-engineer squad modernizing legacy jQuery / Laravel products — architecture, sprint planning, delivery decisions, and code-review standards.
- Orchestrating the consolidation of two outdated systems into one modern platform without breaking critical business workflows.
- AI-first workflow: ~90% of implementation generated with Claude Code, then engineer-reviewed. I authored the skills, commands, and repository rules that keep it on Laravel and project standards.
- 2–3x faster critical endpoints through SQL and data-access tuning; led a zero-downtime migration to MySQL 8.
- Laravel
- MySQL 8
- PHPUnit
- Playwright
- Claude Code
Casatrade
Sep 2021 – Present
Senior PHP Developer / Lead Architect
- Designed and built the GPSControl API from scratch (Laravel 11, Octane/Swoole, PostgreSQL, Redis), replacing a fragile socket-based integration layer — last measured at 4,000+ concurrent API users.
- Work on gps.ge, a realtime fleet platform processing 26,000+ concurrent device connections for TBC Bank, Bank of Georgia, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Skytel. Passed security reviews by TBC and BOG.
- Report and export generation cut from minutes to under 3 seconds; API responses ~60% faster.
- Built a facility access-control IoT platform from zero — MQTT-connected ESP32 controllers and Raspberry Pi edge services, deployed at McDonald’s. Mentored 2 junior engineers.
- Laravel 11
- Octane / Swoole
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
- MQTT
- ESP32
- Vue 3
Skytel
May 2021 – Sep 2021
Middle PHP Developer
- Co-led a Phalcon-based ISP billing system for 5,000+ subscribers.
- Led a mobile-first web app + REST API for field installation teams, with a workflow engine for service orders and technician assignment. 3–5x faster queries.
- Phalcon
- REST
- SQL tuning
All Digital
Sep 2016 – May 2021
Lead Software Engineer · part-time
- Enterprise security integrations — CCTV, fire alarms, intrusion detection — on PHP 5/7, plus custom access-control software for 2 hardware vendors.
- Designed and deployed network infrastructure for 50+ commercial installations.
- PHP 5 / 7
- CCTV & alarms
- Networking

Education

Graduate Program, IT Management
Caucasus University
2023 – Present
BSc Computer Science
Caucasus University
2018 – 2022
Front-end Development (React / Vue)
TBC Academy
2018

05 / Stack

What I reach for.

Framework-agnostic. These are the tools I lean on most often — picked for fit, not fashion.

Backend

PHP 7 / 8
Laravel 8–12
Octane / Swoole
Symfony / Doctrine
Phalcon
Redis queues

Frontend

Vue 3
React
TypeScript
Inertia.js
Tailwind CSS
NativePHP

APIs

Versioned REST
OpenAPI / Swagger
Sanctum / JWT / OAuth
Banks & payments
Telecoms

Data

MySQL 5.x / 8
PostgreSQL
Redis
SQL tuning
Caching
Zero-downtime migrations

Realtime

WebSockets
SSE
Laravel Echo
Laravel Reverb
MQTT

Testing

PHPUnit
Playwright
Vitest
Regression suites
CI quality gates

DevOps

Docker
GitLab CI/CD
GitHub Actions
Linux
Cloudflare
Caddy

Hardware / IoT

ESP32
Raspberry Pi
NFC / Wiegand
FastAPI edge

AI-assisted engineering

Claude Code
Custom skills & commands
Repository rules
AI-assisted review

06 / Hire

Hire a senior PHP developer in Georgia.

დაიქირავე სენიორ PHP დეველოპერი თბილისიდან.

Available for new engagements

→ Based in Tbilisi · open to remote
→ 9 years in production · team lead
→ Cycle-based delivery · USD / EUR
→ English C1 · Georgian native

Send a project brief LinkedIn

or message me on WhatsApp Viber

How do I hire a senior PHP / Laravel developer in Georgia?

Email giokakabadze50@gmail.com with a brief: scope, timeline, and ideal start date. I reply within 24h. I'm based in Tbilisi, Georgia and work with clients across Europe, the US, and the Caucasus. Engagements typically start within 1–2 weeks.

Are you available for full-time remote roles?

Yes — for senior or lead full-stack roles, retained consulting (3+ months), and selective product work. Tbilisi-based, fluent async, comfortable across CET/UTC/EST timezones.

What kind of projects do you take on?

Production Laravel + Vue/React systems, IoT and realtime platforms (MQTT, WebSockets, ESP32, Raspberry Pi), Laravel Octane performance work, REST/OpenAPI design, migrations off legacy jQuery/PHP, and team-lead engagements with 2–5 engineers on cycle-based delivery.

What is your experience and track record?

9 years shipping production software. At Casatrade (Lead Architect, since 2021) I designed and built the GPSControl API from scratch — 4,000+ concurrent API users — and work on gps.ge, a fleet platform handling 26,000+ concurrent device connections for TBC Bank, Bank of Georgia, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Skytel. I also built Casatrade's facility access-control platform, deployed at McDonald's. At Quiet Light I lead a 3-engineer squad modernizing legacy Laravel products. Before that: Skytel (ISP billing) and All Digital (security integrations).

Where are you based and what languages do you speak?

Tbilisi, Georgia. Georgian (native), English (C1), Russian (B1). All client meetings, code reviews, and documentation in English by default.

What is your typical engagement structure?

Cycle-based delivery: 2-week or 6-week cycles with a clear scope, daily async updates, end-of-cycle demo. Contracts in USD or EUR, invoiced monthly. Available for hourly, fixed-scope, or retainer arrangements. NDAs and standard MSAs welcome.

Start a project

Tell me what you’re building. It comes straight to my phone, and I reply within 24 hours.

1
Send a brief
I reply within 24 hours, usually sooner.
2
30-minute call
Scope, risks, and a rough estimate. No charge.
3
First cycle
A 2-week cycle with daily async updates and a demo at the end.

07 / Contact

Let's build something good.

Open to senior / lead engineering roles, retained consulting, or interesting product work. Tbilisi-based, fluent async, comfortable across timezones.

Replies usually within 24h.·English · Russian · Georgian.

08 / Play

Stick around for a round.

Three quick games to kill 30 seconds while you decide whether to email me. The shader you've been staring at gets a little louder while you play.

Top 10 · try to beat themscore

No scores yet. Be first.

Snake

Arrow keys, WASD, or swipe on touch. Eat the cyan dot.

Best · —

Score 0 Speed 140 ms/tick Best 0

GiorgiKakabadze.

Senior engineer, team lead, builder.

What I can do for you.

Laravel products, 0 → 1

APIs & integrations

Legacy modernization

Performance rescue

Realtime & IoT

AI-assisted delivery

Selected projects.

GPSControl API

Replacing a fragile socket layer with the GPSControl API

The problem

What I built

The result

Facility Access Control

Prava — Driving Test Georgia

alldigital.ge

Project Zomboid Server Manager

Tempo Hub

MyClock

More on GitHub

Where I’ve been building.

Quiet Light

Casatrade

Skytel

All Digital

Education

What I reach for.

Hire a senior PHP developer in Georgia.

Start a project

Let's build something good.

Stick around for a round.