Software Engineer | Tech Team | Cambridge, UK

Savanta is one of the fastest growing agencies in market research with teams in the UK, Americas, and APAC. The technology you will work on is pivotal in minimising error-prone manual work, maximising data quality and helping our researchers discover and deliver insights. This is how Savanta informs and inspires clients to Make Better Decisions.

We are looking for a Software Engineer with a team focus and capabilities that could be developed into a Senior engineer and beyond when ready.

Our evolving roadmap is full of ambitious and exciting delivery milestones across the full range of our products and services. The Tech team works within a learning and collaborative environment, where empowerment is key to our success, along with developing a culture of innovation and creating an environment where everyone can excel.

Our technology platform, online services, and the products we run on them underpin all of our operations. They enable us to provide a full service offering to our clients, from scripting, fieldwork, and data collection, through to analysis and delivery, including via direct integration with our APIs.

We’re mostly based around Cambridge, UK. For this role, whilst you can work from home, we do ask that you live within a reasonable travelling distance of Cambridge so that you can spend a day per week in the office. You are absolutely welcome to spend more time in the office if you’d like to.

All candidates will be considered equally, however, unfortunately we are unable to offer sponsorship.

Your role as a Software Engineer at Savanta

As a software engineer, you can expect to get hands-on, see the impact of your work very quickly. We’re small and agile: our projects last between two and six weeks and, although we often work on initiatives that run over longer time spans, we always divide these up into smaller projects and aim to ship regularly.

We’ll also give you the room to learn from a supportive and collaborative team, with time set aside that you can use for professional development and more self-directed work on a regular basis.

Day to day, your key focus areas will include:

• Helping to drive & support Project Delivery to ensure the team can deliver across a variety of interesting and challenging projects
• Full stack development, working with distributed systems
• Delivering a great user experience in the products you build
• Finding ways to build fast, scalable, flexible systems without blowing the budget
• Interacting directly with customers, understanding their needs, and generalising them into something that can address the needs of an entire class of users, be they internal or external

We use:

• GitHub for source control
• Azure DevOps and Octopus Deploy for continuous delivery.
• Azure for server hosting.
• A planning process originally based on Shape Up.
• SaaS by default (e.g., Shortcut, Octopus Cloud, Freshdesk)

We’re looking for somebody who has:

• Experience specifically with C# and .NET, in addition to your other OO experience (due to the nature of this role, which will involve helping less experienced developers who may lack a background in .NET). Understanding the functional idioms available in more modern versions of these languages would also be a strong advantage.
• A willingness to learn – new technologies, our business and platform, and ways of working – is an absolute must.
• Strong RDBMS experience and who knows at least one dialect of SQL well: g., you might have spent a lot of time with PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Oracle, and if you have then you’ll pick up SQL Server with no problems.
• Exposure to user experience work is a strong advantage, and you need to be on board with the idea that the user interface, and supporting documentation, training materials, etc., are a key component of any product, and not an afterthought.
• Familiar with modern development practices, and capable of running meetings such as project kick-offs, stakeholder check-ins, and retrospectives.
• Enjoy building and improving products, is comfortable with some ambiguity and shifting priorities in your work environment, and comfortable with managed change.
• Take pride in and stand by your work.

And in return, Savanta offers:

• Salary range: £45,000 - £50,000
• Biannual bonus scheme
• Unlimited annual leave
• Hybrid working
• Flexible working practices
• Health & wellbeing package (Private medical insurance or a flexible, tailored suite of benefits)
• Financial health (pension, life assurance, etc.)
• Team & Company Socials
• Committees for Health & Well Being, Charities & Volunteering and DE&I

Why Join Us

With offices in the UK, US, Canada, and India, nearly 600 staff globally, and ambitious growth plans, Savanta offers the benefits of scale, whilst our specialist teams make life at Savanta feel more like working at a smaller agency. Our client portfolio includes some of the world’s best-known brands, including Microsoft, Deliveroo, Barclays, Sainsbury's, Innocent, Sky, Puma, The Guardian, Heathrow, Toyota, and Sport England.

Part of the vibrant Next 15 Communications Group, we have an entrepreneurial company culture that actively recognises and values its people and offers unrivalled scope for career development.

Savanta is committed to being an equal opportunities employer and continuously strives to be an employer of choice. Our people are our greatest asset - we value workplace diversity and inclusion, oppose all forms of unlawful discrimination, and welcome applications from suitably qualified candidates of all backgrounds.