$re = '/(?<=(?:[^()]|(?<a>\()|(?<-a>\)))+(?(a)(?!)))e/mx';
$str = 'e+e+e+e+e++e+e+e+(e)+e+e+(e+e+e+e)+(((e)+e)+e)+e+e+e+(e+e+e+(e+(e+e+(e)+e)))+e+e+e+e+e+(((((((e)e+e+e';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php