Graduate Software Developer

Kerridge Commercial Systems (KCS) is a market leader in the development and provision of trading and financial software environments for specialist Distribution, Wholesale, Merchant and Retail industry sectors, addressing single or multi-branch operations, as well as catering for organisations with 'point-of-sale' showrooms and warehouses.

We are experiencing significant growth in markets across North America, Europe and Africa, and indeed beyond. Some great opportunities are being created as a result of this for the right candidates, with the right aptitude for innovating some great products for our much-valued customers.

You will perform the role of a key member of a team of Software Developers / Engineers and Quality Assurance Test Engineers who work closely with Solution Designers in transforming requirements in to deliverable solutions, your primary focus within the team will be designing and engineering suitable, scalable and maintainable software solutions which meet the demands of our customers and internal stakeholders.

Teams are responsible for decomposing and refining requirements, identifying acceptance criteria, designing solutions, building them and testing them. They also spread knowledge of their solutions to other stakeholders across the business in the form of demonstrations and documentation.

You would contribute positively to all of these activities.

You will work with senior members of the team to ensure your solutions conform to KCS design standards and technical solution stack.

The role reports to the Delivery Manager of the relevant R&D team, and is based in either our Gateshead or Hungerford (Berkshire) office. We operate a hybrid working policy on completion of probation.

The role involves working in distributed teams based in several different countries. Your communication skills will be a key contributor to your close collaboration with team mates based in multiple locations.

This graduate role will fall into the KCS University Foundations Development Programme - enabling opportunity and growth within the business.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

As a graduate software developer you will...

• Assist in - and sometimes lead - the refinement and decomposition of high level requirements (epics).
• Contribute positively to team planning activities for releases and sprints.
• Collaborate with team members to estimate backlog work.
• Ensure excellent solution designs with full consideration for quality and performance.
• Develop solutions for functionality and non-functional requirements (stories).
• Provide timely fixes to defective code.
• Provide unit tests for developed code.
• Assist in code reviews for other developers.
• Contribute positively to team retrospectives and embrace continual improvement initiatives.
• Demonstrate your completed work during Sprint Reviews.
• Keep abreast of changes within the areas of the system that your team is responsible for and the wider K8 product.
• Build solutions that are technically sound, meet acceptance criteria and which achieve their business objective.
• Contribute to the team building a comprehensive suite of UI automation for the areas your team is responsible for.
• Evolve strong stakeholder relationships globally.
• Work well within the team.

Experience and Education

• Preferred, 2:1 Upper second-degree Bachelors in a relevant discipline. 2:2 Lower second will also be considered if evidenced project
• Demonstrates suitable technical and design abilities.
• Experience of agile approaches to engineering solutions would be an advantage.
• Experience in the following, or similar, would be an advantage:
  • A good understanding of VB, or the React framework. REST-API design
  • .NET 4.5.2+, ASP.NET, C# or similar
  • React/JavaScript/TypeScript/Xamarin/PHP,
  • Restful Service Design, WebAPI

Skills & Qualities

• A true team worker with a constant focus on the goals and objectives of the team.
• Good problem solving and troubleshooting skills
• Able to communicate both verbally and in writing, articulating clearly and concisely complex technical issues.
• Have a desire for continual improvement.
• Develop solutions that are technically viable, scalable and testable.
• A deep care for the quality of your work and a drive towards excellence, even under pressure.
• Having a positive ‘can do’ attitude towards the day to day challenges your team faces.
• Be committed to self-development. This role requires you to keep on top of the latest developments in technology.
• Work with the team to introduce new approaches and techniques to deliver on your team's goals and objectives.

Knowledge

• Object-oriented programming concepts.
• Awareness of how an ERP solution supports a business to reduce time and cost, and to increase revenue and profitability.
• Working understanding of agile software development approaches would be an advantage.
• A proactive approach to understanding problems.

We are looking for candidates who are available to start in September 2023, to be based in either our Gateshead or Hungerford (Berkshire) office. We will be completing recruitment activity in June, interviewing in July. Apply now to kick start your career with KCS!