All Things Urban

Open Systems Lab is a non-profit R&D lab working on open digital innovation for industry and society. We are currently working to transform architecture, construction and cities. We work with private, public and third sector organisations to design and deploy 21st century systems that work for everyone.

We are currently focusing in particular on a project to improve the planning system; building digital tools and products that can make planning simpler, more transparent, more effective and more democratic. You would be joining the team at an early stage, and will have a key role in helping realise our ambitious (but practical) vision to transform housing and planning in the UK and globally, and to shape the future not just of our platform but of industry and government in the 21st century.

We are looking for a talented, collaborative, self-motivated individual to join our friendly team. In this role you will:

• participate in the development of our wider strategy and contribute to decision-making.
• collaborate with the product team to help identify and prioritise tasks on the backlog.
• work with the lead developer to design and maintain a lean, secure, scalable, robust stack.
• write clean, well-organised code, including bug-fixes, new features and prototypes.
• help to keep live products running smoothly by responding to issues, anticipating problems and optimising the codebase.
• respond calmly, quickly and professionally to unforeseen technical problems.
• constantly look for ways our products can be improved, for example by capturing and responding to usage analytics.
• look for and suggest ways to improve team workflow and communication.
• coordinate contributions from a network of freelancers and/or contributors in the case of open source repositories

Ideally you will be London-based, but we are open to proposals for flexible-working. What matters most to us is that you are able to enjoy life, and we are able to enjoy working effectively together on great technology.

Must-haves:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent working knowledge of JavaScript and HTML - ability to write well-organised code using modern user interface libraries such as React or Vue
• Some experience working with a state management library e.g. Redux, MobX, Apollo
• Comfortable collaborating on projects using Git
• An instinct for working in an agile, rapid way; building working MVPs, then continuously iterating and improving them.
• Ability to show leadership and sensitivity in suggesting ways to improve our tools, team processes, and knowledge.
• A passion for building and operating the best possible services and infrastructure.
• A passion for work with purpose.

Beyond the technical, we are looking for friendly, flexible, smart, practical, collaborative, can-do people who are not daunted by complexity or uncertainty, and enjoy working in a great team on things that matter.

Nice-to-haves:

• Some experience with testing front-end code (Jest, Mocha, Cypress etc)
• Experience working with databases (SQL and/or NoSQL)
• Experience deploying projects to production (e.g. AWS, Azure, Heroku)
• Experience with continuous Integration testing (e.g. CircleCI, Travis)
• Any previous experience working with Ruby on Rails and/or developing APIs
• Any experience managing infrastructure with code (e.g. Terraform, Serverless, AWS AppSync)
• Passion for being part of a team that develops interfaces and experiences that are simple, beautiful and delightful to use.

We know that one-size-doesn’t-fit-all. Roles can sometimes be split or shared. So even if you feel that you don’t precisely qualify for the position or that you may qualify for multiple roles, please get in touch anyway. Your talent, ability, attitude, motivation and work matter more to us than your formal credentials.

£40-45k

We’re not fully sure whether this role is open to international candidates. If you would need visa sponsorship or work authorisation, we recommend checking directly with the employer before applying.