For over 40 million people in the UK, spectacles are the first thing reached for in the morning, and the last thing taken off at night. Even the overworked smartphone can’t seize pole position.
But the optical industry hasn’t changed in over three centuries. Products are tired, standards are poor, and glasses wearers have got used to sub-standard experiences.
We’re changing that.
Our technology ambitions extend far beyond e-commerce, store POS systems and international expansion. We seek to redefine the way our customers interact with opticians. We’ll do this by using technology to simplify and reduce the many complex touchpoints involved in buying a set of completely bespoke spectacles with just the right prescription and measurements for you. Our R&D over the last two years has made breakthroughs in head scanning and face measurement technology, enabling high fidelity augmented reality digital frame trials and to eventually reduce the steps that have to be performed in store.
The role
You will play an essential part in a newly created technology function as the first full time development hire.
As our Full Stack Engineer, you will have the opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge projects and be an integral part of the software development life cycle. Your expertise will drive the success of our products. Working along with our soon-to-be-hired tech lead, you will both play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our technology initiatives.
What you’ll do
Architecture and Design: Collaborate with the development team to create efficient and scalable application architecture, emphasising reusability and maintainability.
Continuous Improvement: Stay updated with the latest industry trends, technologies, and tools, and recommend improvements to existing processes and methodologies to enhance development efficiency.
Project Management: Take ownership of development projects, participate in project planning, set realistic timelines, and meet project milestones and deadlines.
Bug Fixing and Maintenance: Troubleshoot and resolve complex issues and bugs, ensuring optimal performance and seamless user experience.
Collaboration: Work closely with cross-functional teams, including designers, other developers & agencies, gathering requirements, offering technical insights, and contributing to the overall product development process.
Quality Assurance: Implement best practices for testing, code quality, and security, ensuring the delivery of robust and reliable software solutions.
Documentation: Create and maintain technical documentation, including design specifications, architecture diagrams, and API documentation.
Code Optimisation: Optimise application code for performance, scalability, and responsiveness, improving the overall user experience.
Our Technology:
Shopify website based on Liquid Ruby framework
AWS cloud based integration and transformation (EC2 & Lambdas)
Innovations lab management software
Sylius - Symfony PHP based order management system
Python infrastructure connecting various API services
Amazon Redshift data warehouse, Redis & MySQL
Vue.js Point of sale system
Amazon Redshift data warehouse
iOS app - Swift
Requirements
3+ Years of experience in Full stack development
Knowledgeable in security / personal data protection principles and GDPR
General experience building, launching and maintaining web stores, as well as general knowledge of the admin systems (order, customer or inventory).
Experience managing an agile development team, including sprint planning, retrospectives, and continuous improvement.
Strong technical background with proficiency in including but not limited to React, Next.js, Ruby on Rails, Python, PHP, Apache, SQL and AWS.
Solid understanding of any of the following: e-commerce/manufacturing/medical industry trends and challenges.
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with cross-functional teams.
Experience with DevOps practices, CI/CD practices and tools, such as (Docker and Kubernetes), is an advantage.
Experience with Shopify and the wider e-commerce ecosystem would be an advantage
Experience with ecommerce, inventory managment and production management and Sylius (Symfony PHP) would be an advantage.
Experience working with 3rd party services and APIs
Ability to communicate well, giving proactive feedback to peers and team matched with essential organisation skills
Benefits
Some nice things you’ll get
Complimentary spectacles/sunglasses
Bespoke holiday allowance
Personalised training and development with exclusive access to the YCN platform