Full Stack Developer role description

Full Stack Developer

Summary

We are looking for a Mid Level Full Stack Developer to join our Platform Team to create the world’s first digital social care platform co-op.

The opportunity is to help create a groundbreaking product, initially working to develop and release our Minimum Viable Product, then with the team continuing to develop features and maintain the platform over the long term, co-designing with the members and stakeholders who will use the service to ensure it always meets their needs.

We have ambitious plans for the platform and we are looking for someone who can share our vision of creating a relationship-centred approach to care and support - one that shares power and makes caring abundant, plentiful and community-led. We’re trialling a better way of providing care for those who need it, and a better experience for those who provide it. Using the power of technology you can help us to shape the Equal Care Co-op Platform into a truly world class product.

How to apply

Please send an email to jobs@equalcare.coop with a covering letter, your CV and a link to a portfolio of your work. If possible we’d also like to see any code samples that you can provide.

There is no official deadline for applications. However, we are holding rolling interviews and will recruit as soon as we find someone brilliant, so apply soon if you want to go for it! We will fill up interview date slots on a first come first served basis so the sooner your application goes in the more likely it is that we'll be able to interview on the first date.

Interviews will be held in our office in Halifax, however, we are happy to conduct first interviews over a video call.

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The basics

Salary	£25,000 - £32,500 dependent on experience and qualifications
Full-time or part-time?	Full-time (but flexible for the right person)
Flexible working okay?	Yes, of course, though be mindful you will be leading a team and will need to be around to support them.
Job share allowed?	Ideally not but there are certainly circumstances where we can consider this (e.g. you have childcare commitments or a disability that means you can't work full-time)
Can I combine it with other roles in Equal Care Co-op?	Yes, absolutely, let's talk about it.
Where is it?	Initially we are expecting you to work from home, however, when some normality returns we will mix this with working at our offices at the University Business Centre, 27 Horton St, Halifax HX1 1QE. Currently the Platform Team is meeting in person one day each fortnight at our offices.
Do I need a car?	No need.
Key Circle (i.e. main team)	Platform
Link Person (i.e. main person to support you)	Adam McNichol (Platform), Giles Dring (Technical) and Emma Back (Pastoral)
Your Links	As agreed with your circle
Circle Roles	You may be nominated into these as part of your work.
Disabilities, neurodiversity and differences welcome?	More than welcome - actively welcome. Please apply! We're disability confident and a mindful employer and we're committed to doing our bit to erode the disability employment gap. We are also happy to offer help during the application process.
Disclosure and Barring Service check?	Yes. We will need an Enhanced Check as part of a conditional offer for this job. We follow the Code of Conduct for these.

What you'll be doing

We like and support dynamic and emerging work roles. Each section below should be treated as a mini-role in its own right and the share of time you spend on each will change. Significant changes are agreed as part of the consent process with your circle and you lead on your role review at least biennially. You will act upon the role, helping to sculpt it and shape the experiences of developers who will follow in your footsteps.

Develop the front and back end of the Equal Care Platform

Working with our Technical and Platform Lead, UX and UI designer, Front End Developer and Product Owner and key member stakeholders you will be developing the Equal Care Platform to MVP and beyond.

Work with our Technical Lead to build upon the strategic product planning, prototyping and technical scoping that's already taken place
Work with the Platform Lead to define and prioritise tasks, building the development timeline.
Be our primary back end developer, creating the platform APIs and tying them to the front end elements.
Mentor our front end developer.
Collaborate with our designer and developer to create an easily implemented best in class user interface design.
Operate in an Agile manner to deliver working increments of the Platform.
Test your work to ensure the highest functionality and code quality possible.
Document your approach, and report accurately your progress.

Offer support

Emotional labour is often unrecognised and is often the most exhausting part of a job. Your emotional and compassionate engagement is an active part of the role (even though you'll be in front of a screen most of the time!) and so we’re including it in the job description. You're joining an organisation with a relationship, human-centred priority and we want to emphasise that emotional processing is work.

Provide emotional support to your colleagues and to circle members, with especial focus on those people not being paid for their contribution to the circle
Do your best to recognise and say when you need support yourself, understanding that this will fluctuate according to circumstances both in your personal and professional life
In order to keep a direct connection with the core work of Equal Care Co-op, at least 5% of your working hours will be giving support to someone getting social care (note this is not charged to people and is part of the co-operative’s voluntary offering) - this can be any form of support that feels right to you. For example, it may be helping someone set up video conferencing to speak with far-off friends and family. Or it may be unrelated to your 'obvious' skillset!

Collaborate with those contributing to the design of Equal Care’s digital service

We're building technology that fits our purpose, our ethos and our goals. Co-design and ownership are core to our work, you'll help ensure that user voice is heard throughout the development of the platform (for the receiving and the giving perspectives especially and also our other key perspectives around arranging and monitoring support).

Engage with people testing out new versions you build and support routes for new / improvement ideas and feature requests
Listen to feedback and learn from difficulties people encounter in their engagement with the platform
Participate in design and user testing days

And finally, co-create your own role

Although a lead developer role for building a new product is fairly clearcut, we still expect that there will be some role-shaping involved to ensure that this role works for you.

We want to ensure that your work remains deeply connected to the day to day experiences people have in care and support. There are a variety of ways to do this and we need your help to ensure we find what's most effective for you.
We expect a lot of the tools and processes you use and participate in your day-to-day work will change and evolve. We need your active participation in shaping these. We apply design thinking to our internal processes just as much as we do our 'product-focussed' ones.

What you're like

You are a calm, communicative, kind person, with a passion for creating technology that changes lives for the better in collaboration with the people it affects. People feel safe around you and you inspire trust in others. You are relationship-focussed and able to empathize with several perspectives. Your working style prioritises giving your colleagues a voice, listening and understanding their issues and needs, even when the pressure is on.

You are self-directed, adaptable and focussed on solutions, and able to lead a team to promote those same qualities.You’re fine with ambiguity, seek clarity, and if you don’t find it work to create it. You are imaginative and good at seeing many possible outcomes, able to gain consensus on the correct solution, then implement it well. You see people in terms of their potential and strengths.

As our full stack Developer you’ll be…

Passionate about using technology to help people, with collaboration and co-design at the heart of your values.
A craftsperson who takes great pride in what you do.
Passionate and inquisitive about digital, someone who likes to play with new tools and drive innovation.
A creative but practical thinker, who not only comes up with great ideas but also has the ability to deliver them.
A problem solver who is solutions oriented, a flat “no” isn’t going to cut it!
A natural leader with management skills - of both people and projects.
An excellent written and oral communicator.
Extremely organized, yet flexible.
Someone who sees problems as challenges not barriers.
Adept at educating your team and the wider organisation on tech best practice.
Able to communicate to all audiences in the organisation about technology.
Interested in creating best in class user experiences co-designing with stakeholders, graphic design and UX disciplines.

And you’ll need to have...

Great communication skills.
A creative & collaborative approach to development.
Columbo style attention to detail.
The drive to push yourself and your team to deliver bigger and better work.
Experience of delivering successful digital projects.
A track record of team development and mentoring.

Your experience & qualifications

We’re not looking for someone that has absolutely everything, so if you’ve had about 70% of these experiences that’s great, the rest can be learned (and we'll help provide which ever training is the right fit for you).

Skills and experience…

Knowledge of best practice in full stack development.
Expertise in at least one mainstream development language: we’re using JavaScript/TypeScript, but experience in Ruby, Python or Java and a willingness to learn will stand you in good stead.
Practical experience of database technologies, particularly NoSQL and Graph Databases (specifically Neo4J).
Experience of backend service API implementation, particularly GraphQL APIs.
Skills in front-end technologies such as HTML5/CSS/JavaScript.
Strong skills in Software Engineering approaches including configuration management with Git and techniques such as pair programming.
Experience in delivering using Agile project approaches, including prototyping.

Familiarity with web standards and technologies, with an understanding of where and when to use them (devices, browsers etc).
Intimate knowledge of accessibility standards, best practice and implementation.
Experience using automation to optimise your your workflow
Understanding of concepts such as progressive enhancement and graceful degradation.
Experience building against 3rd party APIs.
Planning and executing testing across defined quality requirements.

You’ll get brownie points for…
Practical knowledge of Graph and Ledger Databases.
Applied knowledge of Test-Driven and Behaviour-Driven Development.
Use of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery.
Cloud and container-based deployments.
Knowledge of server and client-side frameworks.
Experience of working on “for good” digital projects.
Previous experience with Social Care.

Qualifications

Having a related qualification to the role would be great but is not necessary. We welcome those who have taught themselves, learnt on the job or come to development later on in their career.