We are recruiting for Front-end developer (mid-level) with the CCID Team

Overview

Nesta’s Centre for Collective Intelligence Design helps create new ways for communities to use technology to harness their insights, ideas and power to act on the problems that matter to them and create the futures they want. 

Our mission is to design digital tools and products that allow communities to respond collectively to challenges, and that help public and voluntary sector institutions strengthen trust and collaboration with citizens. Potential CI products could range from a mobile app, to a game, or online platform.  

We work with Nesta’s mission teams and external partners to help them understand where and how collective intelligence approaches can help address the problems they’re working on. We apply collective intelligence design - which brings together insights from diverse groups of people, with new sources of data (such as sensor or mobile phone data) and digital technologies (including AI) - to develop bespoke solutions to those problems. We use rigorous research methods to test, learn and evaluate each solution. 

We are a welcoming team in an equal-opportunities organisation, and aim to keep our working environment free from discrimination, harassment or any forms of bullying.

The role

Nesta is looking for a front-end developer/software engineer to join a small team as we build prototypes / MVPs / and production-ready collective intelligence solutions.

As a mid-level developer you will work directly with the team’s senior developer, and collaboratively with the team’s product designers, researchers, and managers to rapidly prototype, build and adapt tech solutions for complex social and environmental problems across a variety of projects. This is a chance to use your skills for social good, and make a positive impact on the world. 

We’re looking for someone who is confident working on front-end development, conversant in backend technologies, and has hands-on experience of agile development processes such as Scrum, and Kanban. This role will suit you if you enjoy getting your hands dirty writing code, and seeing your work put to good use.

You will ideally have demonstrable experience working as a junior and/or mid-level developer, and feel ready for a new challenge. A curiosity about how to harness the power of collective intelligence for social good through new products and technologies is also desirable.

Tech stacks

Our current front-end applications are built in React with Typescript. The data scientists we work with primarily use Python, and we occasionally support their work too.

Our production backends are templated using AWS SAM and deployed to AWS as CloudFormation stacks, with lambda functions implemented in either C# or Typescript. In the future we may build our backends with alternative technologies, depending on the requirements of the application.

We aim to select the most appropriate tools for each new piece of work - assessing the various choices that would allow us to prototype quickly, or develop robust production services as required. You will be a part of that conversation, helping to investigate tools, languages, libraries, and existing technologies to determine if they meet our needs. A flexible mindset will help with this, alongside a willingness to learn and use appropriate technologies for each task.

You will be responsible for:

• Collaboratively planning development work for internal and partner-led projects

• Assessing specifications and breaking them down into development epics and development tasks

• Developing high quality, clear, reusable code in a team environment, through a number of methods:

  • Technical design exercises

  • Collaborative task planning

  • Collaborative task estimations

  • Peer code reviews

  • Individual development tasks

  • Pair programming tasks

  • Writing automated tests

  • Supporting manual testing exercises

  • Regular retrospectives

• Documentation of the technical aspects of project work as you go

• Developing rapid prototypes to help test a new concept

• Assessing existing technologies against project requirements

• Adapting existing technologies where appropriate

• Working collaboratively with Nesta’s product designers, researchers, data scientists data engineers, and freelance developers where necessary

• Contributing to the planning of consultancy engagements and activities

• Connecting into wider networks of collective intelligence technologists and practitioners to keep your finger on the pulse of new applications, methodological advances and identify opportunities for our own experimentation 

• Contributing to the overall direction, and delivery of projects within the Centre for Collective Intelligence Design

• Assisting and contributing to “all-team” business development activities - helping to win work, and shape the technical components of our proposals, specifications, and new work

Experience, Skills and Mindset - essentials:

• Demonstrable experience as a junior or mid-level developer, with time spent working on front-end software development

• Demonstrable experience of working with agile project methodologies, and test-driven development

• Web development experience

• Experience with React and Typescript

• Ability to produce rapid prototypes, with a flexible approach towards the choice of appropriate technology, and a willingness to pick up the right tool for the job

• Excited to learn about new technologies as needed

• A BSc, or MSc in computer science, engineering, or related discipline; or relevant experience in academia or industry demonstrated by a portfolio of projects

• Excellent time management - able to work on tasks across multiple projects

• Willing and able to explain complex concepts to less technically experienced members of the team

• Unafraid to report and help to manage issues as they arise

• Comfortable giving and receiving kind, constructive feedback

• A collaborative person with a curious and open mindset, a willingness to learn from and with others, and ability to carry out self-directed research and learning

• A motivation to tackle social problems, and a personal commitment to the principles of data justice and community empowerment

• A supportive colleague

Experience, Skills and Mindset - desirable:

• Conversant in backend development and technologies

  • Eg. cloud computing - AWS / Azure / GCP

  • Eg. relational and other types of databases

  • Eg. uses of CI (continuous integration) and CD (continuous deployment) pipelines

  • Eg. the uses for serverless / microservice / monolith architectures

  • Eg. containerisation (such as Docker)

• Knowledge of one or more of the following:

  • Machine learning tools and techniques

  • Data visualisation libraries

  • API / web service development and consumption

• Examples demonstrating a strong interest in technology, experimentation with technologies, or coding for fun

What we offer

Salary: circa £48,000 plus array of benefits, including private medical insurance, dental insurance, the ability to buy and sell annual leave, eyecare vouchers and more .

Location: This role is based in London, Blackfriars, hybrid working arrangement with a minimum of two days in the office

Term: Permanent

Hours: This is a full-time role but we offer a range of flexible working arrangements and encourage our people to take advantage of them. Many do. 

Making an application 

To apply for this role, please submit your application before 08.00am on 28th May 2024. 

Interviews will take place w/c 3 June 2024.

At Nesta, we believe that a diverse workforce leads to an organisation that is more innovative, more creative and gets better results. 

We want our workforce to represent the diversity of the people and communities we serve. We also want our workplace to be one where different experiences, expertise and perspectives are valued, and where everyone is encouraged to grow and develop. 

This means that when we are recruiting, we actively seek to reach a diverse pool of candidates. It also means that we are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that potential employees may need to in order to be successful. 

We recognise the importance of a good balance between work and home life, so we do everything we can to accommodate flexible working, including working from home, compressed or part-time hours, job shares and other arrangements.   

Please just let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process (and beyond) if these are options you’d like to explore.