Senior Software Developer

Job title: Senior Software Developer

Department: Software Development

Location: Remote

Hours: 37.5 hours per week

Salary: Competitive

We're looking for a Senior Software Developer to be part of our success story.

Listed in the 2022 Sunday Times 100: Britain's fastest-growing private companies.
Great career development opportunities - grow with us.

About the role

We are seeking an experienced Senior Software Developer to join our team. This role combines hands-on development with technical leadership, requiring both strong coding skills and the ability to mentor junior team members. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in full-stack development and a proven track record in SaaS environments.

Key responsibilities

Development (70%)

• Design, develop, and maintain high-quality software solutions using .NET 8 and React
• Write clean, scalable, and maintainable code following best practices
• Develop and optimize database solutions using MySQL and MSSQL
• Implement message-driven architectures using RabbitMQ
• Build and maintain search functionality using Elasticsearch
• Contribute to microservices architecture and containerization efforts
• Participate in code reviews and ensure code quality standards
• Troubleshoot and debug complex technical issues
• Utilize AI-powered development tools (e.g., Claude) to enhance productivity
• Implement comprehensive observability solutions for production systems
• Design and maintain logging, metrics, and distributed tracing strategies

Technical Leadership (20%)

• Mentor and guide junior developers through pair programming and code reviews
• Provide technical guidance on architecture and design decisions
• Contribute to system architecture discussions and decisions
• Champion best practices and coding standards within the team
• Lead technical initiatives and proof of concepts

Collaboration (10%)

• Work closely with cross-functional teams following Agile methodology
• Participate in sprint planning, standups, and retrospectives
• Collaborate with Product Owners to refine requirements
• Communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders

Skills and experience

Note: While proficiency in the Core Technologies listed below is required, we recognize that candidates may not have experience with every technology in the Infrastructure & DevOps and Additional Technical Skills sections. We're looking for candidates who have experience with some of these technologies and are eager to learn others.

Core Technologies

• Backend: .NET 8 (C#) - 5+ years experience
• Frontend: React with modern JavaScript/TypeScript - 3+ years experience
• Databases: MySQL and MSSQL - Strong proficiency in both
• Message Queue: RabbitMQ experience
• Version Control: Git proficiency

Infrastructure & DevOps

• Container technologies: Docker and Kubernetes
• CI/CD pipelines, preferably Azure DevOps
• Cloud platforms experience (Azure preferred)
• Infrastructure as Code concepts
• Observability practices: logging, monitoring, tracing, and alerting
• Experience with observability tools (e.g., Application Insights, Grafana, Prometheus)

Additional Technical Skills

• Python scripting capabilities
• RESTful API design and development
• Microservices architecture
• SaaS application development experience
• Security best practices
• Performance optimization techniques

Required Soft Skills

• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Collaboration: Proven ability to work effectively in team environments
• Problem-Solving: Strong analytical and troubleshooting abilities
• Mentoring: Experience and passion for developing junior talent
• Leadership: Ability to influence without authority
• Adaptability: Comfortable with changing priorities and technologies

Experience & Education

• Experience: 5-8+ years of software development experience
• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
• Industry: Previous experience in SaaS environments highly desirable

Working Methodology

• Agile/Scrum experience required
  
• Comfortable with iterative development
  
• Experience with sprint planning and estimation
• Focus on continuous improvement

Benefits

• 33 days holiday (including bank holidays)
• Personal health cash plan - claim back the cost of things like dentist and optical check ups
• Enhanced maternity / paternity / adoption / shared parental pay
• Life assurance: three times basic salary
• Free breakfasts and fruit
• Birthday surprise for everybody!

What you can expect from us

At Activate Group, looking after team members is a major priority. Whether you're at our smart Halifax or Peterborough offices, one of our AAR sites or working from home, we'll make sure you have all the support you need to succeed.

From benefits that put your health and wellbeing first, to impressive rewards for our employee of the month, and little perks like free fruit and cereal, we'll go out of our way to show how much we appreciate you.

A bit about us

Named by the Sunday Times as one of the UK's 100 fastest-growing private companies, we employ more than 700 team members nationwide.

We work with some of the UK's largest fleets and insurance companies, supporting drivers that have been involved in a road incident at our contact centres in Halifax and Peterborough.

We look after every step of the repair process, repairing vehicles at our own Activate Accident Repair body shops, and through a UK-wide network of independent repair partners.

Want to know what it's like to work with us? Take a look at our purpose and values. They define who we are, and how we work with team members, customers and suppliers:

Purpose: Make someone's bad day better

Values:

• Make it happen - Be accountable. Take the initiative, work fast, and do a great job.
• Strive for better - Be bold. Challenge the norm - make small improvements often.
• Win together - Be a team-player. Win together, learn together, respect each other.