Senior Frontend Developer

About Springer Nature

Springer Nature is one of the leading publishers of research in the world. We publish the largest number of journals and books and are a pioneer in open research. Through our leading brands, trusted for more than 180 years, we provide technology-enabled products, platforms and services that help researchers to uncover new ideas and share their discoveries, health professionals to stay at the forefront of medical science, and educators to advance learning. We are proud to be part of progress, working together with the communities we serve to share knowledge and bring greater understanding to the world. For more information, please visit about.springernature.com and follow @SpringerNature.

At Springer Nature, we recognise that great talent develops through many different paths. We encourage applications from individuals with strong transferable skills, provided they are supported by relevant experience that shows how those skills have been successfully applied in practice. Our hiring approach balances skills, experience, and potential to ensure each role is fulfilled with both short term effectiveness and long term growth in mind.  

About the Brand 

SN Digital (SND) is a technology division of Springer Nature. We are responsible for maintaining and delivering millions of articles used by researchers, scientists and students around the globe. 

There are c.330 of us in London, Berlin, Pune, New York, Madrid, Dordrecht, Heidelberg. We work in collaborative, multi-disciplinary delivery teams, developing digital products and services that answer user problems and support business goals. 

• The work is interesting and meaningful. 
• Our culture is collaborative and friendly. 
• We encourage and support growth, both personal and professional. 

This is a terrific opportunity for friendly, inquisitive people who want to get involved in our work, who love to learn, who will embrace and develop our culture, and help make SN Digital a place where people and ideas can thrive. Having a good command of English is important; collaboration is important in our day-to-day work, so being able to communicate your ideas and understand others’ is key. 

We are intentionally looking to create teams that are diverse and inclusive. Diversity is the mix of culture, background, experience and personality that we all bring; inclusion is getting the mix to work better together. We want every member of our teams to contribute to our common goals while respecting each other's skills, knowledge and needs.  

About the Role

We are looking for skilled and passionate software developers to help us build the best products that enable the research community to advance the progress and understanding of science.

We’re looking for a Mid to Senior level Frontend Developer to join a cross-functional delivery team with different nationalities, backgrounds and experience levels. All team members collaborate to deliver solutions that best satisfy the needs of our business and we are working to create a culture that encourages new ideas and innovation but within the boundaries of the technologies that best suit the vision that Springer Nature has defined.

The team sits within the Health & Professional domain in Springer Nature, and is responsible for building tools and services for doctors and professionals and support the business partners to achieve their goals.

We strive to continually improve user journeys; allowing customers to discover, access, and consume content and using elearning in a way that suits them. Our customer-centric approach is fundamental to the way we work.

The job is based in Berlin and you will routinely work remotely with colleagues in Lisbon, London, Berlin and Dordrecht.

Please visit the SND homepage to learn more about who we are and what we do. To gain an understanding of frontend development and our approach to accessibility at Springer Nature, browse our Frontend Playbook.

Role Responsibilities

• Your background will have been in frontend development, having gained knowledge of a wide range of methodologies and technologies.
• Familiarity with Node.js and Express is a plus but not a requirement for the role - our primary focus is always the user, not the technology.
• You should be comfortable working at scale on complex, long-lived systems (where robustness and maintainability take priority over the latest technology), providing incremental improvements to existing applications as well as designing and building new features - both within our Node.js applications and the browser via UI components. Experience working with design systems is a plus.
• You will regularly be communicating and collaborating with multiple teams, seeking out the areas you can provide the most value. Working with your peers in the Frontend community, you will contribute to frontend practices and technology that improve user experience across the business.
• You should be experienced working with people from different backgrounds and seniority levels, and be comfortable having conversations around technology choices; being able to influence those discussions with knowledge of, and reference to, good frontend practices and ways of working.
• Participating in (very brief!) team standups.
• Participating in team and discipline slack channels.
• Participating in other channels related to your key area(s) of expertise.
• Participating in retrospectives (and post-incident review meetings, if they occur).

What you’ll be doing

Within 3 months

• Get to know the product teams across Health & Professional and start to build good working relationships with them.
• In code contributions and discussions demonstrate understanding of, and harmony with, the constraints, goals, and strategy of frontend development at Springer Nature.
• Identify and complete tasks related to your areas of technical expertise, in collaboration with your team and other frontend developers.
• Participate in code reviews within your product team, as well as reviewing pull requests from other teams.
• Start to gain an understanding of the users of your products through collaboration with your team, especially User Researchers.
• Understand the architectural direction of frontend development at Springer Nature, and gain an understanding of how aligned to this direction the products in your domain are.
• With guidance, contribute to meetings & discussions with other disciplines to gain an understanding of how we integrate & engage with the wider business. These discussions should be conducted with patience, tolerance and empathy.
• Spread knowledge of techniques outlined in the frontend playbook (e.g. progressive enhancement, accessibility, etc) in contributions and peer reviews.
• Build a relationship with your peers in the Frontend discipline, gaining insight into collaboration and technology across the business.
• Make your first tentative contribution towards our open-source frontend playbook.
• Get to know the Frontend Enablement team (who will provide you with expertise related to performance, accessibility and architecture).
• Work with your manager to identify and undertake training to aid your professional development.

Within 6 months

• Continue to develop relationships within your team and the wider domain.
• Foster a wider understanding of our goals & technologies by demonstrating effective communication in meetings & discussions.
• Contribute to technology discussions within your product area, helping to provide solutions embodying our development practices.
• Become familiar with our design system.
• Gain a more complete understanding of the users of your products through continuing collaboration with your team, attending User Research sessions where possible.
• Identify and complete tasks related to your areas of technical expertise, with minimal supervision.
• Continue contributing towards the frontend playbook.
• You might find yourself contributing to domain-wide meetings and discussions outside of your specific team, where you will be able to talk about the technological landscape within your domain. You will be comfortable summarising these discussions with the frontend leadership team.
• Start to identify possible problems within your various domain-specific codebases, be able to describe and demonstrate those issues to the wider team, and then be able to propose solutions that conform with our preferred ways of working.
• Continue to work with your manager to identify and undertake training to aid your professional development.

Within 12 months

• Continue to spread knowledge of, and implement, techniques outlined in the frontend playbook (e.g. progressive enhancement, accessibility) in contributions and/or informal code reviews via pull requests.
• Work closely with people in Product, engaging at a very early stage in the product cycle, to help build robust products that align with the techniques in frontend playbooks.
• Demonstrate good knowledge of technology across the Health & Professional domain.
• You will be capable of advising more junior developers across the business, giving technical advice and providing constructive criticism.
• You should be helping to showcase good practices for frontend architecture within your domain.
• You should be identifying areas of the codebase within your domain where you can make improvements, in order to mitigate problems arising in the future.
• You might find yourself contributing to discussions around complex solution design tradeoffs, referencing frontend architectural requirements, and enabling a wider understanding of user needs.

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