Software Developer / Senior Software Developer

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We encourage Software Developers to apply, as we potentially are also looking to recruit Software developers with a salary of £50K, ideally you may not be as experienced or have proficiency in all technologies, but you are a master of one or two of them, ideally Python

Background

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons is the statutory regulator for the veterinary profession in the UK, thanks to the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966, and also has a range of roles that are supported by our Royal Charter, including regulation of the veterinary nursing profession.

As a regulator, we set, uphold and advance veterinary standards. As a Royal College, we promote, encourage and advance the study and practice of the art and science of veterinary surgery and medicine. We do all these things in the interests of animal health and welfare, and in the wider public interest.

We strive to behave with clarity, courage, compassion and confidence, and our vision is to be recognised as a trusted, compassionate and proactive regulator, and a supportive and ambitious Royal College, underpinning confident veterinary professions of which the UK can be rightly proud.

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, 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 

Have been working with at least one of the two: Django, React 

Desirable Skills

React, React Native 

Django, Django REST 

SCSS, Bootstrap 

Azure cloud infrastructure, AWS (especially AWS) 

Nginx 

Bash scripting 

PostgreSQL 

Containerisation tools (Docker, Kubernetes) 

Microservices infrastructure experience (service mesh etc) 

Experience of configuring and using Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery pipelines (Github action, ArgoCD, Gitops) 

General

The post holder will have access to confidential information that may only be disclosed to parties entitled to receive it e.g. staff and donor records and will therefore be fully conversant with GDPR / Data Protection Act / Bill.  

Seek opportunities for appropriate skills transfer to colleagues and be receptive to undertaking learning in both core and supporting IT knowledge areas in support of the organisation's Digital needs. 

Any other duties commensurate with the post as requested by the Chief Digital Officer. 

Risk Management

As an employee of the College you are required to be risk aware, readily able to identify risks faced by you and by the College in the course of your day-to-day employment.  Where a new risk is identified it is to be reported through your line manager. 

This job description is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities, and the post holder may be required to undertake other duties as required. 

We reserve the right to ask you from time to time to undertake any other reasonable duties as required within this role. 

The organisation

Here at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, improving animal health and welfare by advancing the ethical, professional, and clinical standards of the veterinary professions is at the heart of all our work. We also strive to advance veterinary standards with programmes of work around mental health, leadership, environmental sustainability, diversity, and innovation.

We set the standards for and monitor the quality of veterinary education; we hold Registers of those vets and veterinary nurses who are qualified to practice; we set professional standards for vets and veterinary nurses, and we help practices raise their standards through our Practice Standards Scheme.

Team benefits

We're pleased to offer an attractive benefits package to all members our team.

Remote working

Season ticket loan

Cycle to work scheme

An additional day off at the end of the year

Two days of paid volunteering per year

Private medical insurance