Java developer
Love what you do: making software that makes a difference
We’re looking for skilled Java developers with a passion for building well-designed web applications that people will love to use. We solve complex, data-heavy business processes and delight our customers with simple, elegant solutions.
Read on if...
- You have at least a couple of years’ experience of building Java web apps using web frameworks such as Spring Boot, Play, Dropwizard, Ratpack or similar
- You take pride in your work and enjoy seeing it make a difference to real people
- You are motivated by building software that has a positive impact on our society
- You want to join a company that strives to provide its people with opportunities to grow throughout their engineering career
- You want the opportunity to work with talented experts who care as much about their colleagues as they do their customers
What we do
At Fivium we make software that solves the many challenges faced by the UK public sector. Our customers range from central government (think HM Treasury, Ministry of Defence, Department for Education, HMRC) and government agencies, police forces and wider public sector organisations like Network Rail and the Post Office.
Our customers value us because we’re a friendly, trusted partner to help them build great software that saves them time and effort, letting them do their job better. You will work closely enough with these people that you’ll see the benefit your software brings to them.
We work on a huge variety of interesting and important projects for our customers: helping adopted children get access to care funding; making sure the UK oil and gas industry is properly regulated (avoiding spills and marine incidents, whilst raising money for the UK economy); helping government ministers answer their questions in Parliament on time and accurately.
If you’ve never considered working with public sector software, check out our blog post to see why it’s a brilliant and rewarding space to work in.
What you'll be doing
You’ll join our scrum team, working with Lead Developers, UX Designers, User Researchers, Testers and often the users themselves. You'll be taking user stories and implementing them into well-designed Java web applications.
For the frontend we use a mix of HTML templating languages as well as full on frameworks such as Vue.js, so you will need a basic understanding of HTML and Javascript, but we have a dedicated team of experienced frontend developers on hand to help tackle more complex requirements.
You’ll work under a Lead Developer who will give you enough space to make your own decisions, but will always be there to guide and teach you. You’ll work closely with peer-level developers and have opportunities to pair program and share ideas. As you progress through your career with us, you’ll be given your own projects to lead on and have the opportunity to mentor our junior devs.
We’re always looking for ways to improve how we do things and we want you to bring your own experience and ideas with you.
A bit more about us
We were founded in 2006 by Anthony and Matt, two software engineers who met while working for a government department on a student placement program. After graduating they set up Fivium with a mission: to make great software for the public sector, and to create the kind of company they would want to work for - a company that would put its people first, continually investing in them and providing opportunities for growth and personal development.
13 years later and we are achieving that mission on a daily basis. We’re proud to list half of Whitehall’s government departments among our customers (we’re working on the other half as we speak). We have excellent customer satisfaction results, we have very high staff retention and a very happy workplace where people love coming to work. We achieved the Investors in People Gold Standard accreditation at our first attempt - something which is almost unheard of among small businesses.
Our modern and friendly office environment in the heart of Covent Garden is home to engineers of all levels, from placement students, graduates all the way up to seasoned experts. We all work in the same open plan office, sharing knowledge and experience. We also have a great Remote Working setup, so for people working from home it’s as good as being in the office, just without the free fruit bowl, coffee, juices and cake.
As you’d expect with our history, we’re an engineering company at heart. We run hackdays and innovation sessions, invest in mentoring programmes and we provide the best equipment that money can buy.
We are passionate about creating personal development opportunities for our team members. You’ll be given a training budget and encouraged to spend it.We have a high attendance at conferences like QCon and Devoxx, which all feeds our innovative and inquisitive culture.
Don’t just take our word for it, check out our genuine feedback on Glassdoor.
Our recruitment process
We know job hunting isn’t fun and you don’t have endless time to search for your ideal next job, attend interviews and do code challenges. We’ve honed our recruitment process to be as candidate-friendly as possible so we don’t waste your time. We’re a transparent organisation from top to bottom and we believe being honest and sharing information saves everyone time.
- If you send us your CV it will be reviewed by two of our lead developers (no psychologists or psychometric experts here). We’ll be looking for your relevant technology experience as well as anything that shows you’re the kind of person that takes pride in their work and has more to offer than just the code they write.
- If we think you’re the kind of person that will thrive at Fivium then we’ll send you a small technical programming task via GitHub. We’ve worked hard to make the task simple enough that it doesn’t take too much of your time, but challenging enough that you show off your skills. Don’t worry, you’re not going to be rewriting the Enigma machine. Before you do the test we’re happy to put you in touch with one of our devs for a quick call if you have any questions for us about the role, or life at Fivium.
- Next up will be a face to face interview with two of our lead devs. We’ll base it around your code challenge so there’s a readymade conversation that you should feel comfortable with. It’s a two way dialogue, where you get to learn more about us, as well as us learning about you.
We aim to get you through the process as quickly and painlessly as possible. Throughout the process you’re free to ask us questions and we’re always looking for feedback on what we can do better.
We look after our people
We offer a whole host of benefits including annual profit share, flexible working hours, remote working, Bupa health insurance, Simply Health cash plan, critical illness cover, season ticket loan, enhanced maternity and paternity, cycle to work scheme... oh, we also do monthly social outings such as go-karting, urban golf, escape rooms, theatre trips and we have a Friday night bar in the office with guest ales on our beer tap (non-alcoholic drinks also available).
Salary is negotiable depending on skills and experience, but we’re expecting £35-£45,000.
If you’ve read this far then there’s a high chance we’re the type of company you want to work for.
We hope to see you soon...
How to apply
Please email your CV (2-3 pages A4) to careers@fivium.co.uk with "Java Developer" in the subject line.
If you use LinkedIn, Stack Overflow Careers, GitHub, etc. and you want to share your profiles with us, we would love to see them.
All applicants will need to demonstrate permanent eligibility to work in the UK during the application process. Unfortunately, we're not able to sponsor those applicants without the permanent right to work in the UK.
