Developer - Joi Polloi

Developer

Full-time, Permanent, Salary dependent on experience

We’re looking for a sharp, creative problem-solver to join the growing creative technology team at one of the UK’s best independent agencies.

The ideal candidate will have experience in building beautiful user experiences and robust functionality. With a few years of development under your belt, you’ll have a mastery of modern CSS and JavaScript and a solid understanding of PHP and common CMSes and frameworks.

You’ll bring a passion for building things that people love to use, a can-do attitude and an inquiring mind. In return we’ll help you to grow, giving you an unbeatable variety of interesting projects for big name clients, room to learn new tools and technologies, and a friendly, supportive atmosphere to work in.

Apply for this role if you:

  • Want to work in a team of experienced, switched-on developers who and genuinely believe in collaboration 
  • Really care about the quality of the work you do, and can live up to the highly professional aesthetic finish we aim for in all our projects
  • Believe that accessibility matters, and want to work somewhere where people make an effort to live up to industry best practice
  • Like to be an active participant, along with our designers, producers and UX experts, in building seamless user experiences 
  • Want to work somewhere where your ideas are listened to and your expertise valued

Who we are

Four is an award-winning creative agency working for clients of all shapes and sizes in the UK and internationally.  

Our Creative Technology unit, of which this role is part, combines Four’s existing digital business and two strategic acquisitions in 2021 and 2022 – Joi Polloi and Marmelo. In practice this means you get the security and support of a larger agency with the focus and friendliness of a small start-up.

We work with a huge range of clients, and every project is different. We’ve got a particularly impressive track record in the cultural sector (especially museums and heritage), broadcast and media, brands and retail, health, property, tourism and the public sector.  Recently we’ve delivered sites, apps and interactive experiences for the Science Museum, BBC, Amazon, Channel 4, London’s West End, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the University of Sheffield.

We wear our ‘creative technologist’ badges with pride, helping our clients find the right mix of technologies and channels to tell their stories and achieve their goals.  We engage people, transform organisations and elevate brands through unified digital experiences, bespoke platforms and innovative products.

Everyone has the freedom to flourish in their roles whilst allowing you to not just suggest, but to create change and better ways of thinking and doing things.

The day-to-day

Four operates a flexible working policy – you can work from home or wherever you like, unless you have face-to-face commitments such as client meetings and events, team meetings or training. 

For this role we are interested in candidates whose home office would be in the Sheffield in the UK: though we have other offices in London, Cardiff or Aberystwyth.

We invest in making sure our offices are beautiful spaces in interesting locations, where we can collaborate to produce multi-award winning, innovative work.  Regular team drinks and lunches are well-attended, and tea, coffee, fruit and cereal are provided.

The role

In this middleweight developer role, you’ll:

  • Work with designers and producers to turn requirements and concepts into efficient sites, web applications and systems using industry standard technologies
  • Ensure all projects meet our own standards and those of our clients, best practice and usability and accessibility standards
  • Advise producers and designers on the technical challenges and opportunities within a brief
  • Turn your best work into modular and maintainable components to maximise reusability
  • Work with senior developers and our technical director to define the architecture for your projects
  • Collaborate with the designers in the team to develop the best user experience for our customers
  • Keep up to date and contribute to current trends, current thinking and best practice and ensuring our projects follow these 
  • Collaborate with Producers and Designers to ensure design excellence and consistency is achieved.
  • Contribute to learning sessions in the company, thought pieces to the blog and attending/speaking at events
  • Get involved with new business proposals and pitches with technical insights, fresh ideas and smart thinking
  • Contribute to overall strategy and standards for the agency

Skills and Experience

The ideal candidate will have:

  • At least two years development experience 
  • Good experience in:
    • Modern (ES6+) JavaScript, frameworks (especially React, NextJS) and toolchains (e.g. Webpack, Babel)
    • CSS, with a solid understanding of modern layout techniques (flexbox, css-grid) and ideally some exposure to SCSS and/or LESS
    • PHP CMS development (e.g. WordPress or Drupal)
    • Version control via Git
  • Knowledge of or a keen interest to learn:
    • Headless CMS development
    • SSG/SSR techniques for modern front end stacks
    • AWS configuration and administration, including serverless deployment
  • A track record of delivering high quality web projects 
  • Demonstrable interest in contributing to a project’s wider concept, design and strategy 
  • Ability to evidence understanding of client aims, commercial or otherwise, and to then articulate and produce work that supports these
  • Hands-on experience implementing responsive, usable, accessible designs and strategies

Personality

  • Your first idea is never your final idea, you believe in putting in the work to find the best solution
  • You simplify the complex: less is definitely more
  • You can give and receive criticism constructively
  • You understand the measure of your work is the success of the project for the client, and this drives the the commercial success and growth of the agency
  • You will come on the journey with us, and live and breathe our values

Equal opportunities

We are proud of our diverse community at Four and are committed to reflecting the diversity of the world in which we live. We strive to improve our diversity and welcome applicants from all backgrounds, especially those from minority and under-represented groups.

We do not discriminate on the grounds of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, gender identity, marriage, civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (including colour and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief. To the extent possible, we remove this information from CVs submitted to managers during the assessment process.

Benefits

  • Fully flexible working 
  • Company pension contribution
  • GP and mental health priority helplines
  • Training budget and help with CPD 
  • Cycle to work scheme
  • Childcare voucher scheme
  • 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
  • The ability to earn up to 4 extra days off including your birthday
  • Tea, coffee, fruit and cereal available in the office
  • Regular staff social events

How to apply:

Please send a CV and a covering letter – including salary expectation to careers@fourcommunications.com quoting reference ‘Creative Digital – Developer’ in the subject box. 

We thank all applicants for their interest however only those invited for interview will be contacted.

We do not accept CVs from agencies.