[LRUG] [JOBS] RoR Ninjas Need for New In-house Development Team

[Ray Beaumont]

Hi All

I'm the Technology Director at Schoolblazer Ltd and I'm recruiting RoR Developers to create a permanent, in-house, development team.  The positions will be based either in our offices near Peterborough (PE8 6UT) or Mansfield (NG19 0FN), or remote working from your home, whichever you prefer.  Salary will depend on your skills, experience and current package, rest assured we will not disappoint you!

So who are Schoolblazer? Over the last 10+ years we have become the UK leader in designing, manufacturing and selling high quality school uniforms & sportswear.  We have disrupted the schoolwear marketplace by offering a level of service, quality and competitive pricing not seen before.  Our success results from the combination of an exceptionally talented, hardworking, multi-disciplinary team and great IT systems, many of which are custom-built to our design.  We love software, but we have learnt, the hard way, that software houses find it difficult to grasp the complexities of our business and do not always deliver systems that meet our expectations.  Consequently we are building an in-house development team and looking for talented analyst-programmers to join us.

Working at Schoolblazer is challenging and rewarding in equal measure. It is a fast-paced, intellectually demanding business, where you will need to work hard and "think on your feet". It is also a business where you can make a real difference, where everyone's view counts and where we genuinely all pull together.  At the end of each day you will be tired, but smiling, and will head home with the satisfaction of a job well done and well appreciated!

Our software development team will be led by me.  I've been designing and coding business systems for longer that I would like to admit.  If I tell you that my first job was writing systems in FORTRAN you will get the picture!  Over the years I've been: a professional analyst/developer using (amongst others) C, Object-Pascal, Java EE & Ruby; a technical architect; development manager; business analysts; and CTO.  I've  worked in industries as diverse as Civil Aviation, Publishing, High-street & Online Retailing and Financial Markets.  As for apps, I've built everything from EPOS and Logistics systems to Bespoke ERP and e-Commerce platforms. So, in short, I know my stuff, I understand the software development process and I'll be able to support your work effectively and free you from the problems and distractions that stop you from giving your best.

I need at least 2 skilled analyst programmers, who can use their creativity, knowledge and experience to deliver systems that fuel business growth and efficiency.  Being a small team everyone will be responsible for planning, architecture, design, testing & code-review. We will be self-sufficient, self-directed and self-motivated, drawing strength and inspiration from the skills and experience of each individual.  I need people who are professional, passionate & skilled software engineers. People who can take complex, interrelated business requirements and build reliable and extensible software to meet them, or even better - to exceed them!  I need developers who can: talk to anyone and everyone in the business; listen, question and understand; see the immediate need and recognise the hidden opportunity; propose solutions; create well engineered technical designs; implement them with stylish, easy to understand and efficient code. You'll have to be able to focus in on specific business issues without losing track of the bigger picture, always looking for the opportunity to innovate, but never losing sight of the fact that early and frequent delivery is key to success. 

As an analyst and a developer you will have a deep appreciation of good software engineering principles, best-practices and patterns.  Object Orientation, MVC & Relational Database Design will be second nature.  Concepts such as DRY, Decoupling, Cohesion & Test-Driven-Development should be part of your "developer-DNA".   My ideal candidate will probably be a graduate and given the complexity of Schoolblazer's business will most-likely have worked in a medium-to-large development department or Software House, where you will have contributed to the design and implementation of some big/complex projects.  Maybe, you're looking for an environment where you can help to steer the ship rather than just man the engines? A position with the freedom and satisfaction that comes with working in a small, autonomous team, with challenging problems, in a business that appreciates your work?  If so Schoolblazer could be your ideal job!

Our in-house systems are all written using:
* Ruby on Rails (v3), with a mixture of erb and haml
*Javascript with JQuery
* MySQL (v5.5)
* Ubuntu (12.04)

We are adopting 
* Ruby on Rails v4 
* SASS
* Coffescript
* AngularJS

Source code control is Git, with the central repositories in GitHub, and we host on AWS OpsWorks, using Chef for deployment

If you're interested in these positions please get in touch with me at ray.beaumont at schoolblazer.com sending over a CV and some explanation of why you think Schoolblazer might be the right place for you.

Many thanks

Ray Beaumont