Staff Specialist Engineer (Web & Flutter) - Leap

Permanent/Full Time

Department: Engineering

Reports to: Engineering Manager

Salary: £80,000 - £90,000

Closing Date: 04 December 2024

We are looking for an experienced and focused developer to join our engineering team to deliver well-architected and high-quality products and applications for our clients.

About Us 

AKQA Leap are digital product specialists within the AKQA Group network (WPP), with studios in London and Bristol.

We believe that quality is the fastest path to success. So whether we're launching, fixing or scaling a product, we get it right the first time. Some call it the magic touch. We call it quality at speed.

For over a decade, we’ve been designing, developing, and launching quality digital products for businesses like Google, Spotify and Vodafone.

People-focused. Curious. Always growing. These are just some of the values AKQA Leap upholds to cultivate an open, committed, and inclusive studio where you can be you. From the moment we meet, we’ll do our best to get to know you and understand what drives you. Our goal? To empower you to thrive and develop.

We aspire to push boundaries and craft purposeful products that people love. What truly matters is what you create, not where you create it—whether you feel in the flow working from home, or seek some company at our London or Bristol studios, we give you the freedom to work in a location and in the way that inspires you most.

To find out more about us visit https://www.akqa.com/leap/

About the Role

Staff roles at AKQA Leap represent high levels of experience. As a Staff Specialist Engineer (Web & Flutter) your role will primarily be focused on building web and mobile applications to the highest standards. You understand that building things with solid foundations leads to better outcomes for users, clients, and developers.

Accountabilities

• Take ownership of the architecture and implementation of client projects, ensuring they are scalable and aligned with the future project roadmap.
• Prioritise quality in all aspects of development, maintaining codebases that follow best practices with robust automated testing and deployment systems. Ensure code is clean, understandable, and maintainable.
• Lead and mentor fellow Engineers, supporting their technical growth and career development through guidance, feedback, and shared learning opportunities.
• Share knowledge directly with team members or through external and internal talks, workshops, blogs, and social media contributions.
• Focus on accessibility, security, and internationalization during product development and discussions.
• Be accountable for the technical excellence and scalability of software products.
• Architect and build solutions using Open Source tools and platforms wherever applicable, contributing to shared tools and libraries.
• Actively support Open Source projects and engage with the Open Source community.
• Create technical content for external blogs and social media to showcase expertise and share insights.

About You

We expect developers at AKQA Leap to be able to find creative solutions to technical problems and user needs, whilst also finding opportunities to optimise and simplify software. 

For this role, we’re looking for someone with long-term proven experience in developing complex applications in multiple languages and across multiple platforms.

You must have an excellent understanding of best practices including; testing, security, accessibility, internationalisation and code quality.

You understand the advantages of building products on open source tools and platforms and regularly contribute back to the open source projects that you use.

You Should Have

• 5+ years experience building complex software applications as part of a team 
• Proven experience building mobile applications using Flutter for both Android, and iOS
• Experience in web development, ideally using Python and/or Javascript
• Detailed knowledge of your chosen programming languages or platforms
• A working understanding of systems design concepts and design patterns
• An understanding of common security vulnerabilities and how to prevent them
• Experience building inclusive applications for users with a focus on accessibility and internationalisation
• Good knowledge of best practices such as unit and integration testing, and have experience building CI solutions for complex projects
• Experience using modern development tools (e.g. Git, Jira, Bitbucket, GitLab or GitHub etc.) within a development team

Ideally Also

• A track-record of contributing to open source libraries and projects
• Experience building applications for scale (e.g. high-traffic, big data, large feature sets)
• Familiarity with Agile methodologies

We know that no candidate will be the exact match for all we’ve listed, so we would encourage you to apply if you feel you might be close but not a perfect match for all of the role’s requirements. 

What We Offer

We work hard to be a great employer - a place where our people are proud to work. In the past, we were officially recognised as a Best Company to Work For, named within the Top 100 Best Small Companies to Work For.

Here are some of the benefits we offer: 

• Flexi leave (within reason), plus Birthday Off
• Enhanced Maternity & Paternity Pay
• Paid Parental Bereavement leave
• Volunteering Days
• Flexible benefits package (cash sum per month)
• Private medical and dental insurance
• Enhanced competitive pension scheme
• Annual learning budget
• A financial contribution to a tech purchase 
• Mental Health and Wellbeing Support
• Employee Assistance Programmes
• Occupational Sick Pay
• Life Assurance
• Income Protection Assurance

What Happens Next

If this role and AKQA Leap sounds like a good fit please apply and someone from our People Team will be in touch shortly.  

Inclusivity

We want to make our hiring as inclusive as possible; this job description has been reviewed by a range of employees and has passed a neutral language check. We have also reviewed our hiring process to make sure it offers flexibility to candidates who need it.

We welcome you to inform us confidentially at peopleteam@akqaleap.com if you require any accommodations to be able to fully participate in our recruitment process. 

We're trying to do better and would love your feedback. If you think there's anything we could improve or places you think we should advertise, then please let us know.

Location: Our office is based in London and we anticipate this role to be hybrid with a mixture of remote and office based work.