Mid / Senior Software Engineer JavaScript - News and Weather
- BBC
- 24/09/2022
Full time
Information Technology
Telecommunications
Job Description
Job Introduction
The BBC's News and Weather Apps are two of the most well-known, well loved and widely used apps in the UK, with many millions of daily users on each platform.
This is your opportunity to work with us on the next generation of these products.
Historically the app development team has worked alongside a number of backend teams that provide content driving the app. However, we are changing to adopt a new app architecture strategy closely aligned with the Backend For Frontend pattern. This means we are expanding the team to be truly cross-functional with app and backend engineers working alongside each other.
This role is to join our growing team of Javascript developers to help us shape our new backend for the BBC News and Weather apps
What's our challenge?
We face a problem of changing news consumption habits, especially with younger news readers. We know that our current users, those millions we talked about earlier, absolutely love the BBC News app, and that it serves their needs fantastically well. So far, so great...
But, we also know that for millions of others the way they consume news is completely different now and that the existing app does not meet their needs. So, the "next generation" of our app will be our answer to not just discovering, and meeting the needs of this new audience, but to bringing both existing and new users together through a well considered, thoroughly tested, highly personal experience.
Of course, this is no trivial thing to achieve and will require us to rethink everything from the features of the app, to the way it's architected and importantly the backend that is driving content to the app. This has led us to rethink how we architect our apps backend and we are now beginning to take that forward.
Now do you see why we need you to join us? :-)
How do we work?
The team is formed into groups of developers concentrating on streams of work to meet different audience needs. A wider staff group made up of technical, delivery, product design and UX are there to support the developer groups.
As a team we value constant feedback and self improvement. Not sure we're doing things as well as we could? Then just tell us. Everything from Lint rules to how/if/why we write JIRA tickets has been raised and debated and changed.
This is your team and we have found that it runs best when everyone believes that we are all doing the best job we can, given the knowledge at hand, our skills and abilities, and the resources available.
We value work/life balance as a crucial part of a healthy team, so you can expect some concerned looks if you start opening Pull Requests on a Sunday morning or firing off emails on a Friday night. We also have trained Mental First Aiders in the department if you need them and a private support line if that suits you better.
What we are looking for
First and foremost you'll have got to this point and be wanting in on what you've read so far.
You'll be excited and enthused by the opportunity to work on a project of this scale and be ready to contribute in shaping a brand new system that will drive the next generation of the BBC News Apps.
You will have a good understanding of modern Javascript stacks, strong vanilla Javascript expertise and be comfortable in use of Javascript for backend and API development. Our development environment leverages an in-house business layer ( FABL ) built on serverless technologies, providing all the support necessary to ensure developers can get on with the task of creating business logic for products that reach audiences at truly great scale.
But you'll also know that the best teams are not just about the code. If you enjoy a culture offering many opportunities to contribute back - whether that's to improve our ways of working or having the chance to teach others - then you're probably going to like it here a lot.
You will be working with people not co-located with you, as the team is split across multiple BBC sites. We are remote-working friendly and therefore being comfortable working with distributed working practices is important.
What do you get in return?
We offer competitive salaries, flexible hours, remote working that emphasises the importance of work life balance.
The BBC puts great value into learning and development and you'll have the chance to attend conferences as well as immediate access to online material such as LinkedIn Learning membership.
We also offer unique opportunities to grow your career and skills through the BBC Academy - a treasure trove of online and classroom courses (some with accreditation) that can teach you anything from Building Microservices on AWS to Big Data And Machine Learning Ethics to How To Write A News Article .
We care about your personal development. It can be hard to set aside time to develop new skills. That's why we introduced Learning Day. Every fortnight we set aside an entire day to allow you to explore your own ideas and career development. Want to get deeper into AWS or delve into GraphQL, this is your chance.
We take our responsibility as a public service very seriously and so we take our time to not just talk about things like accessibility, localization, ethics, privacy and security, but to do them to the best of our ability.
You'll also get to work with a team that is genuinely diverse, within a supportive organisation. We encourage and celebrate that diversity and champion inclusivity in everything that we do. For example, we've written about how we created our Team Charter and the different Communities we are building within the team and business.
As part of that commitment we offer placements to people on the BBC's Graduate and Trainee programs providing those still in the early phases of their career a chance to contribute and learn with us. If you join us you can help by offering mentoring, buddying, pairing and/or coaching.
There is also a wide community of practice around web technologies for sharing ideas. We travel to meet each other in our respective cities, we attend (and sometimes speak at) internal/external conferences together, chat on Slack and comment on Pull Requests on GitHub.
Role Responsibility
You will be involved with all aspects of the software development lifecycle and be proactive in contributing to help formulate, influence and articulate on all technical matters relating to the team. You will have the skills to be able pair and be supportive in coaching and mentoring other team members and be active in promoting best practices within a software development discipline.
Are you the right candidate?
You may have experience of some, but not necessarily all, of the following:
Package Description
Band: C / D
Contract type: Permanent
Location: London
We're happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application . There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.
About the BBC
We don't focus simply on what we do - we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you've read about our values and behaviours in the document attached below.
Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.
We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC - whether that's to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.
We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background..... click apply for full job details
The BBC's News and Weather Apps are two of the most well-known, well loved and widely used apps in the UK, with many millions of daily users on each platform.
This is your opportunity to work with us on the next generation of these products.
Historically the app development team has worked alongside a number of backend teams that provide content driving the app. However, we are changing to adopt a new app architecture strategy closely aligned with the Backend For Frontend pattern. This means we are expanding the team to be truly cross-functional with app and backend engineers working alongside each other.
This role is to join our growing team of Javascript developers to help us shape our new backend for the BBC News and Weather apps
What's our challenge?
We face a problem of changing news consumption habits, especially with younger news readers. We know that our current users, those millions we talked about earlier, absolutely love the BBC News app, and that it serves their needs fantastically well. So far, so great...
But, we also know that for millions of others the way they consume news is completely different now and that the existing app does not meet their needs. So, the "next generation" of our app will be our answer to not just discovering, and meeting the needs of this new audience, but to bringing both existing and new users together through a well considered, thoroughly tested, highly personal experience.
Of course, this is no trivial thing to achieve and will require us to rethink everything from the features of the app, to the way it's architected and importantly the backend that is driving content to the app. This has led us to rethink how we architect our apps backend and we are now beginning to take that forward.
Now do you see why we need you to join us? :-)
How do we work?
The team is formed into groups of developers concentrating on streams of work to meet different audience needs. A wider staff group made up of technical, delivery, product design and UX are there to support the developer groups.
As a team we value constant feedback and self improvement. Not sure we're doing things as well as we could? Then just tell us. Everything from Lint rules to how/if/why we write JIRA tickets has been raised and debated and changed.
This is your team and we have found that it runs best when everyone believes that we are all doing the best job we can, given the knowledge at hand, our skills and abilities, and the resources available.
We value work/life balance as a crucial part of a healthy team, so you can expect some concerned looks if you start opening Pull Requests on a Sunday morning or firing off emails on a Friday night. We also have trained Mental First Aiders in the department if you need them and a private support line if that suits you better.
What we are looking for
First and foremost you'll have got to this point and be wanting in on what you've read so far.
You'll be excited and enthused by the opportunity to work on a project of this scale and be ready to contribute in shaping a brand new system that will drive the next generation of the BBC News Apps.
You will have a good understanding of modern Javascript stacks, strong vanilla Javascript expertise and be comfortable in use of Javascript for backend and API development. Our development environment leverages an in-house business layer ( FABL ) built on serverless technologies, providing all the support necessary to ensure developers can get on with the task of creating business logic for products that reach audiences at truly great scale.
But you'll also know that the best teams are not just about the code. If you enjoy a culture offering many opportunities to contribute back - whether that's to improve our ways of working or having the chance to teach others - then you're probably going to like it here a lot.
You will be working with people not co-located with you, as the team is split across multiple BBC sites. We are remote-working friendly and therefore being comfortable working with distributed working practices is important.
What do you get in return?
We offer competitive salaries, flexible hours, remote working that emphasises the importance of work life balance.
The BBC puts great value into learning and development and you'll have the chance to attend conferences as well as immediate access to online material such as LinkedIn Learning membership.
We also offer unique opportunities to grow your career and skills through the BBC Academy - a treasure trove of online and classroom courses (some with accreditation) that can teach you anything from Building Microservices on AWS to Big Data And Machine Learning Ethics to How To Write A News Article .
We care about your personal development. It can be hard to set aside time to develop new skills. That's why we introduced Learning Day. Every fortnight we set aside an entire day to allow you to explore your own ideas and career development. Want to get deeper into AWS or delve into GraphQL, this is your chance.
We take our responsibility as a public service very seriously and so we take our time to not just talk about things like accessibility, localization, ethics, privacy and security, but to do them to the best of our ability.
You'll also get to work with a team that is genuinely diverse, within a supportive organisation. We encourage and celebrate that diversity and champion inclusivity in everything that we do. For example, we've written about how we created our Team Charter and the different Communities we are building within the team and business.
As part of that commitment we offer placements to people on the BBC's Graduate and Trainee programs providing those still in the early phases of their career a chance to contribute and learn with us. If you join us you can help by offering mentoring, buddying, pairing and/or coaching.
There is also a wide community of practice around web technologies for sharing ideas. We travel to meet each other in our respective cities, we attend (and sometimes speak at) internal/external conferences together, chat on Slack and comment on Pull Requests on GitHub.
Role Responsibility
You will be involved with all aspects of the software development lifecycle and be proactive in contributing to help formulate, influence and articulate on all technical matters relating to the team. You will have the skills to be able pair and be supportive in coaching and mentoring other team members and be active in promoting best practices within a software development discipline.
Are you the right candidate?
You may have experience of some, but not necessarily all, of the following:
- Experienced in JavaScript development, preferably for backends
- Experienced in developing clean, well structured, well tested code that is maintainable by others
- Familiarity with a range of test frameworks including Jest
- Experience of an agile environment, pairing and working within a collaborative team
- Familiarity in developing mobile optimised APIs
- Familiarity with Node.js
- Familiarity with AWS
- Familiarity with building and/or managing microservice based architectures
- Continuous Integration/Delivery.
- Experience architecting and developing backends for consumption by mobile apps.
- Comfortable working in an environment that moves fast and being able to adapt to changes and seek out ways forward.
- Comfortable with distributed working practices and making a success of cross-site work.
Package Description
Band: C / D
Contract type: Permanent
Location: London
We're happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application . There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.
- Excellent career progression - the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.
- Unrivalled training and development opportunities - our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.
- Benefits - We offer a competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 26 days (1 of which is a corporation day) with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.
About the BBC
We don't focus simply on what we do - we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you've read about our values and behaviours in the document attached below.
Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.
We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC - whether that's to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.
We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background..... click apply for full job details
About BBC