UI/UX Developer

Department: Engineering

Employment Type: Contract

Location: Bristol, UK

Reporting To: Dec Rogers

Compensation: £450 - £500 / day

Description

We’re building the next UK-headquartered engineering powerhouse.

There is a gulf between the needs of mission-focused organisations and the development and delivery of the critical technology they rely on. The consequences of this are felt acutely by underserved frontline operators, demanding a new breed of engineering enterprise to bridge this divide.

Rowden exists to meet this need. We design and build systems, infrastructure, and applications to deliver mission advantage to those working to protect the security of the UK and its allies. Rowden is setting a new standard in government technology provision: hyper-efficient engineering, better customer relationships, and rapid assimilation of commercial technology.

We’re looking for a talented UI/UX Developer on a 12-month contract to design and develop a web-based application to support our exciting new software defined radio (SDR) project, aiming to rapidly deliver capability into the hand of users. This role requires a good foundation in UI/UX design and a strong technical understanding of front-end development, to support the design and development of our application.

You’ll join a diverse team of multi-disciplinary engineers at Rowden, with specialisms in RF, electronics, systems, software, DevOps, and hardware prototyping. You’ll contribute to a hands-on engineering culture, sharing knowledge and lessons with the wider engineering team, and learn some new things yourself along the way.

Key areas of responsibility

As a UI/UX Developer at Rowden, you’ll be responsible for:

Capturing User Requirements and Flows: Collaborate with stakeholders and end-users to gather detailed user requirements, map out user flows, and ensure the application meets the practical needs of its users.
Designing and Developing Intuitive Web Interfaces: Lead the design and Development of a user-friendly, responsive web application interface to control the system, with a focus on seamless user flow, reliability and efficiency of the implementation.
Reusing Our Tech Stack: Collaborate with the development team to reuse and integrate existing tech stack components, ensuring consistency and efficiency across the application.
Optimising for Local Hosting: Develop a lightweight, secure and efficient web application that runs seamlessly on a resource constrained processor, with optimised performance for local hosting and access via USB/Ethernet.
Collaborating with Project Team: Work closely with the hardware engineering team to understand the SDR’s capabilities, ensuring clean and functional integration between the web application and the device.
Ensuring Quality Assurance: Work closely with the QA team to develop and execute testing plans, identify and resolve issues, and ensure the application meets the highest standards of quality and reliability.

Key skills, experience and behaviours

We’re looking for a technology enthusiast who is passionate about honing their skills and staying at the forefront of the industry. In this role, you’ll have endless opportunities to learn and grow, but you should already have:

Technical Front-End Expertise: Strong proficiency in JavaScript, TypeScript and React, with a deep understanding of component-based architecture, state management and performance optimisation.
Hardware Interface Experience: Experience in developing web applications that interface with hardware devices, particularly through USB connections or similar protocols.
User-Centred Design Mindset: Evidential experience in designing UI/UX that meets the needs of both technical and non-technical users, simplifying complex configurations and controls.
Security Consciousness: Understanding of web security practices, especially in the context of locally hosted applications interacting with hardware.
Collaborative Approach: Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively with hardware and software engineering teams. Experienced working in an agile environment including the use of Jira for ticket management and Git for version control.
Performance Optimisation: Experience in optimising web applications for performance on devices with limited resources.

Desirable Experience:

Styled Components Experience: Knowledge of creating and managing styled components using CSS-in-JS within React, with a focus on reusing and building maintainable and scalable UI elements.
RF and Wireless Systems Insight: Appreciation of RF and wireless systems including SDRs will give you an understanding of the project early on.
Military and Government Design Experience: Any experience working with military UI/UX would be beneficial, especially during user flow creation and UI implementation.
Backend Knowledge: Understanding of back-end processes, especially how they interact with front-end interfaces in locally hosted environments.

About you

The ideal candidate will have a strong balance of technical skills and experience, and the behavioural competencies that we believe are key to success in the role are as follows:

Self-Motivated and Confident: You take charge of your work, trusting in your abilities to deliver exceptional results.
Passion for Impact: You thrive on tackling interesting and complex projects that directly support and benefit the end-user.
Solution-Oriented Thinker: You have a knack for identifying optimal solutions and can clearly communicate their impact to the team.
Team Player with Independence: While you excel working individually, you’re also a strong contributor to a multidisciplinary engineering team.
Adaptable and Resilient: You’re comfortable in a fast-paced environment, quickly adjusting to changing demands and challenges.
Eager Learner: You have a thirst for knowledge and are always ready to dive into new technologies and project needs.

Working at Rowden

We are committed to building a flexible, inclusive, and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills, experience, and backgrounds, so please apply and come as you are!

We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible, hybrid-working model, with an average 4 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility, part-time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants.

Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company, and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.

Finally, if you feel that you don’t meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience, we’d still love to hear from you!

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