Senior Software Developer

Job Purpose

• To work as part of a team developing new, and maintaining existing, cross-platform (web, iOS, Android) applications, services and interfaces covering the entirety of functions required for the College to continue and improve all its current and future members’ services.

• To support all other team members whenever and wherever possible in any and all other aspects of Digital service and / or project delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Write clean, testable code to replace legacy applications or deliver new functionality in line with the RCVS’s strategic requirements.
• Support the organisation’s existing application base.
• Work with stakeholders to write feature specifications for new functionality
• Mentoring less experienced members of the team through pair programming and code reviews.
• Use knowledge of a range of programming languages and frameworks to provide solutions across the entire portfolio of RCVS software, whether back-end or front-end.
• Support the College’s AWS cloud infrastructure.
• Provide technical support for RCVS Knowledge; assist in securing, patching, backing up, and replacing their legacy websites and applications; assist in implementing shared platforms or functionality when appropriate while respecting the charity’s separate nature.
• Implement well-documented APIs to enable exchange of information in standardised formats, including with third parties where appropriate.
• Create and curate intuitive, comprehensive, integrated and secure capability covering the full breadth of all services and functions, internally and externally, for use by both internal and external stakeholders.
• Ensure all development occurs in-line with industry best practice, particularly in regard to; source control, versioning, performance, efficiency, security, and documentation of all development work.
• Maintain a close eye on the latest state of application development best-practice, including new languages, technologies and frameworks, and act as a champion for new / improved approaches within the College. Champion a strong, modern approach to software development at the RCVS, with use of standard, open-source technologies and protocols wherever possible.
• Provide guidance, design, implementation and management of automated workflow type approaches.
• Support colleagues in managing, organising and documenting user groups focusing on new and existing applications.
• Gather user requirements and assist in aligning these with the organisation’s strategic goals.
• Ensure strong UAT / manual / automated testing (as appropriate) of any and all present and future systems.
• Maintain careful and clear records of all user needs and requested features so as to enable efficient delivery of improvements across the organisation’s complete application portfolio.

Essential Criteria

Technologies

Required

• Highly proficient in Python, Django, Javascript, HTML & CSS
• Experience with DB design, and using SQL queries
• Proficient in Git, and using github for collaborative development
• Used to working on mac or linux, with a command line interface
• React, React Native
• AWS

Desirable Skills

• Django REST
• SCSS, Bootstrap
• Azure experience
• Nginx
• Bash scripting
• PostgreSQL
• Containerisation tools (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Experience of configuring and using Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery pipelines (Github action, ArgoCD, Gitops)