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Senior Front End Software Engineer

We are looking for a UK-based highly experienced Front End Senior Software Engineer with 5+ years of professional experience in front end engineering to join our team working exclusively on our Department for Education project. This role would suit a person with a background in web development, a passion for accessibility and user experience, and the ability to work hand-in-hand with key stakeholders. The role will be for a 2 year fixed term contract with the opportunity for extension.

Please note that as part of the requirements for this role, the successful candidate will be required to undergo a BPSS check. We recognise the importance of supporting people with a criminal record back into the workplace, so if you have a spent conviction this should not stop you applying, or if you honestly declare any unspent convictions we can then discuss this with the Department for Education who may decide the risk is acceptable under their specific criteria.


The application closing date is 11.59pm on the 23rd August. We expect initial application review to be completed by 4th September and you should hear from us that week as to whether you were successful for moving to the next stage or not.

an illustration of an arrow representing a process flow

Role

As an experienced Senior Front End Software Engineer, you will be responsible for producing high-quality code whilst collaborating closely with the project's product owner, other front end engineers and our UX team to understand a concept and turn visual designs into code whilst considering accessibility, user interactions and responsive design.

You will work closely with the wider development team to integrate your code with backend systems. As part of your day-to-day, you will need to communicate your ideas and findings effectively and be expected to participate in code reviews to help ensure quality. As part of this role’s responsibilities, you may support other team members to grow their experience and skill set.

We’d also love for you to be interested in following industry trends, best practices, emerging technologies and tools. We’d like you to participate in the evolution of the company’s software development culture and improve the way we do things.

Skills

Key Skills

The ideal candidate for this role will have the following skills and experience:

Essential Skills:

  • Comprehensive knowledge of HTML / CSS / SASS - able to write markup and styling to implement designs efficiently
  • Very comfortable writing TypeScript that follows given coding standards, alongside modern front-end frameworks such as React
  • Experience writing tests using frameworks such as Jest and Testing Library
  • Passionate about accessibility - able to identify and fix accessibility issues to meet WCAG standards
  • Passionate about good UX, and the ability to design user journeys and implement responsive UIs for different devices
  • Can produce code that closely follows given designs or a style guide e.g. the GOV.UK Design System
  • Proficient using code collaboration tools such as Git and GitHub / GitLab, including the mentoring and support of others through code reviews and pair programming
  • Good problem-solving skills with an ability to diagnose and troubleshoot bugs
  • Excellent communication skills and a good ability to present your ideas and findings to audiences of varying levels of technical expertise, including the ability to document your work clearly and concisely
  • Experience working in an Agile environment using collaborative tools such as Jira, Miro and Trello
  • Experience of leading technical meetings and engaging with the client in a professional manner on a regular basis

Desirable Skills or experience:

  • Strong experience using Next.js to build React applications along with libraries such as Tanstack Query and React Hook Form
  • Experience working with automated browser testing tools such as Robot Framework, Playwright, Cypress, etc
  • Experience using Docker and build tools
  • Ability to comfortably use prototyping tools such as Figma and Adobe XD
  • Ability to collaborate with backend engineers to design REST APIs
  • Prior experience using AI coding tools and techniques

If you feel you are lacking in any of these areas, but have a passion to learn, then still get in touch. We love training and developing our people and helping them reach their full potential.

Values

Our core values focus on:

  • Having an inclusive one team ethos
  • Acting ethically and with understanding
  • A love of creative problem solving
  • Always forward thinking and learning new things
  • Being friendly and honest with each other

So if our values match yours, we would love to hear from you.

Our recruitment process

Hive IT is a mindful employer and is dedicated to becoming fairer and more inclusive. We’re beginning to look at how this can be achieved through numerous activities, but as a starting point, we are moving to a blind application recruitment process.

What does this mean?

Simply put, the team in charge of making the decision on who to interview won't receive any personal details as part of your application, only the skills and experience you submit.

We believe that this will help remove any unconscious bias and lead to a fairer hiring process.

Rather than submit a CV, we ask you to complete an application form asking for specific evidence relating to the Essential and Desirable key skills for the role. Use of AI in completing that application form is monitored for. We appreciate that you may want to use AI to improve your sentence structure/formulate your point more concisely - but we will reject applications where AI has been used to answer whole questions or give false examples. Any examples or evidence that you do provide will be questioned further during interviews.

On submission of your application the process will be as follows:

  • Our hiring managers will store any personal information for the period of the recruitment process (personal details will be removed from our database once the job is awarded).
  • They will remove any personal information from your application including name, email address, age, address, educational background and any other personal information or gender identifying language. Only the skills and experience section of your application will be passed on to the team responsible for hiring for the position.
  • The hiring managers will review and score your application and will cross reference experience and review for the use of AI. Any applications where there appear to be indiscrepancies, or the suspected heavy use of AI is found may be rejected. If your application form is rejected, we will be in touch to confirm this and the reasons why.
  • Any anonymised applications which pass screening and reach a minimum score will be invited to attend an initial remote interview, where each candidate will be asked the same questions on which they will be scored.
    • If you are not chosen for an interview, you will be informed of this by our hiring managers, with relevant feedback.
  • If you meet the minimum score criteria from your initial interview you will be invited to complete a skills assessment. In this skills assessment, we appreciate that you may wish to use AI, but we will expect you to disclose which tools you used on submission and during our follow up meeting with you expect you to be able to discuss how you quality check your work and how you have used AI as part of the process.
    • If you are not chosen for a skills assessment, you will be informed of this by our hiring managers, with relevant feedback.
  • Following completion of your skills assessment, you may be invited to a final interview where the team will talk through your assessment with you.
    • If you are not chosen for a final interview, you will be informed of this by our hiring managers, with relevant feedback.
  • Once all final interviews are completed, candidates will be informed of the result of their final interview with relevant feedback given.
  • If you are successful, we will then provide you with an offer of employment letter and begin discussing appropriate start dates, ideally within 4 weeks.

We expect that this full process would be completed within 8 weeks of the closing date. However, we are a small company with no dedicated hiring team and our team members are often busy on projects. This means that whilst we will strive to meet these timeframes, we can not guarantee it.

Please Note: To keep the application process fair, candidates will be asked not to share the skills assessment they undertook with any other candidates. Sharing details of the skills assessment will result in immediate disqualification from the application process.


Salary

£43 - 56k (FTE) per year depending on experience.

This role is expected to be full time, with a 5-day working week, though we are open to flexible working .

Salary negotiations will not be any higher or lower than is advertised. Please do not apply for this position if you are not comfortable with your salary being within the advertised range. We are proud to be a certified Living Wage Employer.


At Hive, we prioritise the well-being and inclusivity of our employees by providing a comprehensive and equitable benefits package. This package includes:

  • Vitality Health Insurance
  • Westfield Health - Level 1 - Foresight
  • PAM Employee Wellbeing Assistance Programme
  • 5 volunteering days
  • 27 days annual leave (FTE)
  • Discretionary Christmas closure without using annual leave
  • Extended Paternity, Maternity and Dependents Leave
  • 5% pension contribution
  • Bike to work salary sacrifice scheme
  • Electric Vehicle Salary Sacrifice Scheme
  • Regular away days or social gatherings

We want to create a supportive and rewarding environment that values the diverse needs of our employees.


Location

You should be based and eligible to work in the UK, and it would be advantageous if you have the flexibility to travel across the country, including to our offices in Sheffield, for project-related needs. We understand the importance of work-life balance, so we offer flexible working hours and the option to work remotely or in a hybrid setup.

We hold monthly company meet-ups that you're welcome to attend, but they're not mandatory unless they directly relate to your work.

Additionally, we love to bring people together and organise social gatherings throughout the year. It's completely up to you whether you'd like to join in and be a part of these events. We value your unique interests and respect your personal schedule.


No agencies please!