PHP / SQL Developer
PHP/SQL Developer with 9+ years of hands-on experience designing, building, and deploying web applications. Led development of mission-critical Symfony applications within the French National Police's forensic laboratory, used daily by 150+ staff. Strong expertise in PHP 7+, Symfony, MySQL/MariaDB, Oracle SQL, and REST APIs. Full project lifecycle ownership — requirements gathering, database design, development, deployment, and maintenance. Additional experience building Discord bots and community tooling. Bilingual French–English.
Work Experience
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PHP/SQL Project Lead & Developer, Digital Forensics @ French National Police
- Project management, design, development, and deployment of multiple Symfony 3+ applications used daily by 150+ staff.
- Communications Tracker (large-scale) — All incoming/outgoing communications (calls, mail, email, meetings). Built-in email with auto-tracking, automatic report distribution, full-text search, per-interlocutor and per-case views. Connected to the LIMS (Oracle SQL) for report status and case data.
- Personnel Access Manager (medium) — Non-lab personnel management: entry/exit timestamping, badge generation, NDA signature, DNA profile lifecycle. REST API for expired profile cleanup.
- User & Role Manager — REST API consumed by other internal apps for authentication and access control.
- Minor contributions to other projects; IT support when needed.
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History
By mutual agreement with the laboratory's director, switched to this role from the previous one at the beginning of 2019 as the former division was scheduled to be transferred out of the laboratory later that year, and the development team could use an additional resource. Left this position in mid-November 2022 in order to relocate to the United States.
Workplace
The workplace is one of the country's six forensic police laboratories, performing all types of forensic analyses (biological/DNA, drugs, ballistics, digital, etc.). About 150 people work there, amongst whom four technicians are developers in charge of the lab's software maintenance, overseen by two engineers, who are also in charge of the lab's network and IT matters.
Projects
Developed and successfully deployed multiple PHP applications (based on the Symfony framework) that are now used on a daily basis by everyone at the laboratory:
- A small application with a REST API used by other applications to manage users and their access roles.
- A medium-sized application used to manage non-laboratory personnel coming in and out of the laboratory (police officers, magistrates, cleaning, and maintenance company personnel, etc.), with entry/exit timestamping, badge generation, NDA signature, DNA profile tracking. The application also tracks DNA profiles for laboratory personnel and stores some information about them for HR purposes. A REST API exposes the DNA profile IDs when their retention period has expired.
- A large-scale application used to track all incoming and outgoing communications (calls, physical mail and email, meetings), with the ability to send emails directly from within the application for auto-tracking of replies in the future, automatic sending or printing of the laboratory's analysis reports, a complete and intuitive search feature, and the ability to display tracked communications per interlocutor or per case. The application is connected to the database of the laboratory's LIMS to manage the reports' sending statuses and to display case information.
Also made minor contributions to other projects, and assisted with IT matters when manpower was needed.
Software
- PHP 7.2 and up for most of the code writing.
- MySQL/MariaDB for Symfony applications.
- Oracle SQL for the lab's LIMS.
- HTML, CSS, JavaScript for the applications' views.
- IDE: PhpStorm (for all the languages above).
- Client: Firefox on Windows 7/10.
- Server: Windows Server 2008 and up, Debian 7 and up (or forks thereof).
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Analysis Operations Manager & Developer, Digital Forensics @ French National Police
- Designed and developed PHP applications for forensic operations, QA, and case management.
- Case Dashboard connected to LIMS · Statistics Engine (volume, analysis time, response time) · QA Automation (auto-generated analysis sheets and partial reports) · Call Tracker (predecessor to the lab-wide system).
- Additional tools: license plate combination generator, case workflow manager, and more.
- Also performed digital forensic operations: file recovery (X-Ways Forensics), CCTV enhancement (Adobe Lightroom, internal software), and analysis reporting.
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History
After passing the competitive examination to become a digital forensics technician, chose to join the digital forensics division of a forensic police laboratory. By mutual agreement with the laboratory's director, switched from this role to the next one at the beginning of 2019 as the former division was scheduled to be transferred out of the laboratory later that year, and the development team could use an additional resource.
Development Projects
Designed and developed PHP applications to facilitate forensic operations, QA processes and the division's case management:
- An application displaying the current cases in a dashboard, connected to the laboratory's LIMS to display case status and other information.
- An application calculating statistics regarding the division's cases (volume, analysis time, response time, etc.).
- An application automatically filling QA documents such as internal analysis sheets, and generating part of the analysis report depending on the operations performed.
- An application used to track incoming and outgoing phone calls, limited to the division (at the next position, developed a laboratory-wide application filling this purpose, with many more features).
Also developed other minor applications, such as a tool for generating all possible license plate combinations based on plausible character sets, and another for listing analysis steps based on a case's status and assigned technician, among others.
Software (Development Projects)
- PHP 5.4 and up for most of the code writing.
- MySQL for PHP applications.
- Oracle SQL for the lab's LIMS.
- HTML, CSS, JavaScript for the applications' views.
- IDE: Notepad++ (for all the languages above).
- Client: Firefox on Windows 7/10.
- Server: Debian 6 and up (or forks thereof).
Forensic Operations
Performed general digital forensic operations, including the enhancement of images and video footage. Also assisted in performing special digital forensic operations such as recovery and analysis of deleted files on various digital storage media. Assisted extensively with drafting the analysis reports that would be sent to the requesting police officers or magistrates.
- X-Ways Forensics for recovery and analysis of deleted files.
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for image enhancement.
- Other internal or third-party specialty software for digital forensics operations.
- UNIX terminal (Debian/Kali Linux) for low-level operations on digital storage hardware.
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Associate Community Manager @ ZAM
- Designed and developed custom Discord bots in PHP for interactive community events across AAA titles (Honor of Kings, PUBG Mobile, NBA Infinite, and more).
- Built bots for game mechanics, event automation, and player engagement using the Discord API and MySQL / MariaDB.
- Community management, social media reporting, and sentiment analytics for 12+ titles; 350k+ Discord members managed.
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English–French Localizer @ ZAM / Wowhead
- Long-term localization of World of Warcraft content — CMS platforms, content pipelines, collaborative workflows.
Strengths
Full Project Ownership
Requirements, design, development, deployment, maintenance — experienced in owning the entire lifecycle independently.
Security-Conscious
Built apps handling sensitive data (DNA profiles, NDA records, law enforcement files) in a high-security government environment.
Systems Integration
Experience integrating with third-party systems (LIMS / Oracle), building REST APIs, and designing interconnected app ecosystems.
Self-Taught & Adaptive
Grew from Notepad++ and PHP 5.4 to PhpStorm and Symfony — continuously improving tools and practices.
Key Projects
| Project | Stack | Scale & Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Communications Tracker | Symfony, MySQL, Oracle SQL | Used daily by 150+ staff; LIMS integration |
| Personnel Access Manager | Symfony, MySQL, REST API | Badge generation, NDA, DNA profiles; REST endpoint |
| User & Role Manager | Symfony, MySQL, REST API | Auth backbone consumed by all internal apps |
| Case Dashboard + Stats | PHP, Oracle SQL (LIMS) | Real-time case status & analytics for the division |
| QA Automation Suite | PHP, MySQL | Auto-generated reports and analysis sheets |
| Elaria Game Bot | PHP, MySQL / MariaDB, Discord API | 900+ players; continuous development since 2019 |
| Community Event Bots | PHP, Discord API, MariaDB | Multiple bots for AAA gaming titles at ZAM |
Personal Projects
Elaria — Custom Pokémon Game Bot (PHP)
Full-stack PHP game bot on a Discord server of 300+ members, 900+ unique players. Implements complex game mechanics (catching, battling, trading, progression) backed by MySQL / MariaDB. Evolved through many major updates — demonstrates continuous development, iterative design, and long-term maintenance.
Volunteer Experience
- Senior Moderator @ French MyBB Support Forums · Aug 2011 – Present
Forum moderation, user support, and French translation of the PHP-based forum software. - Head Administrator @ Bulbagarden Discord · Nov 2014 – Aug 2020
Server administration and moderation. - Trail Watch Volunteer @ City of San Antonio Parks & Recreation · Apr 2023 – Present