The Organisation:

We are currently working with an innovative global university who help over 2,000 businesses to grow quicker each year. They proudly partner with organisations to deliver a spectrum of educational and commercial projects and have campuses and partners all-round the UK and overseas.

Job Purpose: Responsible for front-end development and support of web platforms and applications providing technical leadership, design and development of software solutions to provide effective and appropriate information systems for our staff and students

• To be the lead on the development and building on the web & collaborative applications, system enhancements and system and data integration interfaces as required and allocated and according to agreed university priorities.
• To be responsible for providing technical specialist advice and as leadership in  relation to university web-based projects,
• Work in an agile environment to develop and deliver useful and intuitive digital services that will assist in the engagement, conversion and retention of students. Converting requirements into stories and tasks, help define acceptance criteria and provide estimates for delivery.
• Collaborate closely with our UX Design team and Agency partners to develop in-browser prototypes, living style guides, pattern libraries and re-usable UI components.
• Collaborate closely with our UX Design team and Agency partners to develop in-browser prototypes, living style guides, pattern libraries and re-usable UI components.
• To make a significant contribution to the establishment and continuous improvement of development standards and act as mentor/lead to other Solution Developers as required.
• In collaboration with product owners, designers, marketing stakeholders, Business Analysts and Solution Architects to undertake requirements gathering, analysis and solution design and apply data analysis and data modelling techniques, based upon a detailed understanding of the corporate information requirements. 
• To oversee and ensure any solutions developed are effectively transitioned into operation whether as part of a project or service enhancement, by ensuring appropriate testing, user acceptance and support processes are in place.
• To manage the process and ensure developments are carried out in-line with agreed architecture and development standards.
• Ensure appropriate version control and documentation in solution development.
• Ensure any 3^rd level support requirements are resolved at appropriate priority in accordance with agreed service levels.
• Work with IT infrastructure & IaaS colleagues and suppliers to build and maintain development and test environments.
• Have a strong and effective customer focus that models the university’s values, and enables IT Services to deliver excellence.
• Form alliances and relationships with key stakeholders/ contacts across and outside the university to enable effective delivery of services, raising the profile of IT Services and ensuring clear, effective and communication with internal and external stakeholders.
• Stay abreast of all relevant industry and technological developments in the marketplace and provide advice to the ITS Senior Management on how to take advantage of these to support the development of initiatives that deliver business objectives.
• Represent the university on external and internal groups as appropriate.
• Work in compliance of all our University policies and procedures and take local responsibility for implementation, e.g. Health and Safety.Carry out such other duties temporarily or on a continuing basis, as may reasonably be required, commensurate with your grade.
• Deputising for the Head of Solution Development as required.

Experience:

• Experience of developing on Sitecore platforms, especially Sitecore versions 8.1+
• Extensive knowledge and experience of HTML5, CSS, .NET, JavaScript.
• Demonstrable experience of working with interaction designers
• Practical experience of mobile-first responsive design techniques
• Strong JavaScript skills (modular self-executing code, unit testing, npm and node)
• Prior experience of using JavaScript-based task runners such as Gulp, Grunt etc to automate the build pipeline and understanding of source control tools e.g. Git
• Experience of integrating front-end code with back-end systems
• Demonstrable working knowledge of accessibility and the ability to write code to standards such as WCAG 2
• A confident problem solver, trouble shooter and debugger in both development and production environments
• Previous experience of working in an agile development team
• Ability to work to tight deadlines and under pressure on own initiative

Desirable Knowledge & Skills

• Experience of developing on Sitecore versions 9.0+
• Helix or SXA experience
• Sitecore Experience Marketing / DMS experience
• Experience of developing for and using cloud-based delivery platforms (e.g. Azure)
• Knowledge of site performance and optimisation
• Understanding of SEO principles