Front-end Web Developer - Python / Flask / Javscript

We are an agile (small ‘a’) team of software engineers in the heart of the City, building a best-in-class insurance platform.

We are looking for a versatile web developer who understands the full software development lifecycle and knows very well how to separate web application tiers. You will be expected to take on the role of developing our customer facing web applications and our back-office web application using Javascript, HTML5 and CSS3 (using Less). The types of challenges you will face will be to build responsive web sites, apply UX principles to improve existing systems and provide insights on how to do things better.

You will take on the responsibility of contributing to the development of our main website (http://policyexpert.co.uk) and instilling the right mentality within a small group of smart, passionate and pragmatic developers.

Having perhaps captained your own team in the past, you will progress into a leadership role and turn this front-end development team into the envy of all the other East end tech startups.

Our Philosophy

• No Project Managers – we believe in hands-on delivery, not managing expectations.
• No hierarchy – we are flat in structure and everyone has the same opportunity to step up!
• No hiding places – Production is the ultimate phase in the SDLC and we are proud of our code.
• No mainframes – Greenfield platform, just under 2 years old built with the latest tools and technologies.
• Agile – We are re-evaluating all the time, incorporating new ideas, ditching old ones. Don’t expect to sit still for too long…
• No doors – An open space work environment where people can wheel around their chair and have a quick chat with the CTO
• High barrier to entry – Expect to code, pair and whiteboard during your application. If you do well and it’s Friday you might also get to play Team Fortress.

What We Offer

• Brand new 27” iMac’s – We invest in excellence in both people and tools.
• Amazon AWS – Highly scalable initial architecture proving it’s worth in Amazon data centres.
• Top drawer performance – Proud of our Google Page Speed result, millisecond quote engine calculations, 85% code coverage and 11/12 on the Joel Test.

Our Stack

• AWS, Linux, Puppet, Capistrano, Ruby, Continuous Integration / Deployment, Java 6, MySQL, Tomcat 7, Apache 2.2, Hibernate, Spring, GitHub, Maven, Nexus, OSSEC, Ajax, JavaScript, IntelliJ, TeamCity.

You Have

• 3+ years experience developing web applications with templating in Python, Ruby or Java.
• 2+ years wrangling HTML and Javascript while taming cross-browser compatibility issues.
• Recent experience with technologies like Backbone.js, Mustache, MooTools, Less, HTML5, CSS3.
• Built web apps with a variety of frameworks such as Flask, Sinatra or Flatiron.
• Experience with mobile development and responsive design.
• Experience writing standards-driven, unobtrusive Javascript & semantically marked up HTML.
• A solid grasp of how REST works and written code that consumes a public API before.
• Used Linux or Mac as your primary development OS.
• A university degree in Computer Science or related field.

You Are

• Passionate about the latest technology trends and follow them on your Twitter account.
• Inquisitive, curious and bold when it comes to tinkering and finding out how things work.
• Active in the community and have a portfolio with web development sample projects.
• Comfortable dropping down to a shell prompt and SSH’ing to a server.
• Able to do a bit of design if the job calls for it.

About the Company

We’re passionate about insurance (yes, really) and we wanted to improve the way people thought about and bought their insurance cover.

We wanted to go further than any comparison site and do more for customers than simply provide quotes.

So, in a nutshell, we wanted to make buying insurance an easy, refreshing experience where everything was taken care of from start to finish.

After putting our heads together, we decided to form Policy Expert. An online service that would look after each customer from their first quote right through to making a claim.

We didn’t want to help people just buy a policy. We wanted to help them find just the right policy for them.

We got together with lots of talented people and carefully designed our service to make it simple, quick, upfront and full of handy features. We also set up a dedicated customer service team to offer expert help every step of the way.

Customer satisfaction is always at the heart of everything we do. It’s important to us that you feel absolutely confident in the level of insurance you’ve bought – that’s our priority.