The PHP Foundation just opened applications for its 2027 contractors, the paid developers who work on the PHP language itself. The form is open until October 20, 2026, end of day Anywhere on Earth.

Foundation contractors are a big part of how PHP gets maintained. They fix bugs, review pull requests, and keep parts of php-src running that would otherwise have no one looking after them.

Who They're Looking For

This isn't a job writing PHP. PHP is written in C, so the role needs C and systems programming experience. Ideally, you'll have:

  • Pull requests or commits to php/php-src
  • Experience writing PHP extensions
  • Participation in the PHP mailing lists
  • Contributions to other open source projects

The Foundation's fiscal host is Open Source Collective, so you also need to be able to legally receive money from a US-based entity.

The Work

The Foundation lists the areas it wants help with:

  • Security
  • Reviewing pull requests and submitting improvements and bug fixes
  • Triaging and responding to issues
  • Supporting unmaintained or under-resourced core areas and bundled extensions
  • Working with other projects across the PHP world

It's also open to your own ideas, and asks for a detailed description of what you'd work on. Executive Director Elizabeth Barron is clear that new RFCs are a small part of the job. Most of it is regular open source maintenance: triaging issues, reviewing community PRs, fixing bugs, and working down the backlog.

The team is fully distributed. You work from anywhere, at any time, and most communication happens asynchronously over Slack, GitHub, and email, with one call a month.

The Foundation only hires for the core language right now, so documentation, userland packages, websites, and translations are out of scope. It also notes that opening applications doesn't guarantee it will hire anyone new.

How to Apply

If you've been contributing to php-src, this is a paid way to keep doing it. Read the full announcement and apply before October 20. Not ready for that yet? Our guide on how to contribute to PHP is a good place to start.