Lead Frontend Software Engineer (Point of Sale Systems)

Boost inc levels up the unattended retail industry: optimising efficiency and driving sustainable growth. We provide unparalleled concepts for unattended retail by creating stand-out experiences that combine hardware, software, and a deep understanding of the needs of operators and end users. Boostbar AG is one of our product brands and the fastest growing vending operator in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zurich, Boostbar is committed to leading the transition towards healthy, sustainable and personal refreshment choices at work and on-the-go. With a team of over 130 employees across Europe, we are proud to drive progress in our industry by delivering cutting-edge solutions that empower operators, equipment manufacturers, and brands.

To support our ground-breaking operations in the UK, we are looking for an experienced, proactive, forward-thinking developer with good leadership instincts to lead our frontend point of sale (POS) team. At the moment, we’re designing the architecture for an industry-leading smart vending machine frontend, which will ultimately have global reach. We are looking for a strong engineer to join us in delivering this vision. 

Responsibilities

• You will be responsible for the software development lifecycle (SDLC) for the majority of our Point of Sale (POS) front-end applications, leading a small team of engineers to deliver robust, scalable and innovative solutions across multiple projects and clients.
• You will take ownership of our work to build out architecture-level plans for the evolution of the code base (both new features and enhanced maintainability).
• You will also work closely with other functions of the business to plan the delivery of new features, expand on our current automation (from build and deployment to automated testing), and plan a longer-term roadmap across the full technology stack.
• Take responsibility for end-to-end delivery of device (POS) frontend applications from project kick -off to delivery to clients. This includes excellent communication with internal and external stakeholders at all levels (including other engineers, product team members and our UI/UX team), and ensuring projects are well organised using basic project tools and methodologies. Including - but not limited to - building out an organised Jira board / backlog; sprint technical planning; ensuring the status of current technical tasks is communicated to other lead engineers and the product team in a timely way, and so on.
• Manage your team effectively, setting a clear vision, defining goals, undertaking all performance management related activities, providing training, and – where needed - assigning and monitoring the progress of specific tasks. Our ethos is to give our staff autonomy and space to learn and develop their skills - you will need to be comfortable balancing a trust-based approach, with providing sufficient support and feedback to ensure that your team’s work stays on track and quality standards continue to be met.

Requirements

Our ideal candidate will have a core of technical knowledge that means they can quickly and confidently step in and take the lead on our front-end POS development work. They’ll be an effective, independent, hands-on developer, comfortable taking responsibility for the entire end-to-end process. And they’ll be a natural leader of people, able to work collaboratively and effectively with colleagues from a range of backgrounds, as well as building and leading a small team.

Ultimately, we’re looking for someone who is self-motivated, collaborative, and gets satisfaction from building beautiful experiences. Someone who takes pride in the quality of their team’s work, and is able to produce exceptional results in a fast-paced environment. If this sounds like you, then we would love to hear from you!

Please note that this is primarily an in-person role, with an expectation that the successful candidate will be able to travel easily into our offices and workshop in Woolwich (SE London).

Essential Criteria

• 8+ years relevant experience 
• Javascript & Typescript (the application runs within a chrome web browser). Specifically, experience of modern Javascript frontend methodologies (such as VueJS or React)
• HTML / CSS and Precompilers (general web application layout knowledge)
• Git source control
• Git actions (CI pipelines)
• Good understanding of HTTP REST APIs.

Additionally, you will:

• Have a keen eye for performance optimisation. You’ll be able to spot what’s going well and what’s not, and you’ll care deeply about continually improving our offer (while keeping the codebase clean, readable and maintainable for the foreseeable future). 
• Be experienced with Test Driven Development (TDD), Behaviour Driven Development (BDD), or have a strong Unit Test / Agile philosophy.
• Be a strong communicator, able to work both independently and with others.
• Fluent spoken English, and good written English skills - must be able to communicate clearly with colleagues and clients from all over the world.
• Demonstrate leadership potential. You may not have formal line management experience, however you will be able to demonstrate that you are able to effectively mentor, motivate, and monitor performance. 

Desirable

• Experience working with touch-based applications running in chrome webviews (kiosk mode)
• Understanding of VueJS (specifically Vue 3 - composition API)
• Understanding of WebSocket communication protocol
• Comfortable working in Linux (our front-end applications are deployed within a Linux environment)

Please include a link to an up-to-date portfolio of work, either in your CV, or by email to hannah@boostinc.com

We strongly encourage applicants from a range of backgrounds to apply for our roles. If you are interested and think you have what it takes to do this job, then please get in touch! We are very interested in talking to candidates with the right mindset, attitude and approach, even if you don’t meet every single requirement on our list. We can provide some training as needed.

 Our offer

• Attractive remuneration
• Private health insurance subject to successful completion of probation (6 months)
• Free fruit, snacks and discounted in-office healthy meals (and some less healthy ones!)
• Exceptional learning opportunities. You will be part of a fast growing scale-up with a dynamic team, with the opportunity to learn from a highly talented group of people. 
• On-site parking
• Relaxed dress code in the office

Location: Woolwich, East London. Please note that there is an expectation that the role-holder will be comfortable being on site in line with business need – while there is some flexibility, due to the nature of the role there are weeks when you may need to be in the office every day. We are therefore looking for someone based within the Greater London area. We are not offering sponsorship for overseas candidates at this time. 

Salary: £70 – 80k depending on experience.