Senior Front End Developer in Ipswich

About us

Birketts is a full service, UK Top 50 law firm. With a heritage spanning 160 years, we have more than 700 lawyers and legal professionals and over 600 staff based in Bristol, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Ipswich, London, Norwich and Sevenoaks. We advise businesses, government and public sector organisations and individuals in the UK and internationally across four principal practice groups: Real Estate, Corporate Services, Dispute Resolution and Private Client. We are defined by our Next Level Law proposition. We work with our clients as a proactive partner, horizon scanning and thinking ahead to the changes, challenges or opportunities that they may face. Next Level Law is also applied to our people. Our collegiate culture means everyone is encouraged to achieve their next level in everything they do.

The team you will join

Our IT Team sits within our wider Business Services Division. The team is responsible for all aspects of IT across the business, covering User Support, Infrastructure, Security, Data and Development Teams.

The work you will be doing

• Develop clear, accessible, responsive user interfaces and user experiences for our lawyer-facing and client-facing Web portals.
• Translate requirements into well-structured front end work, breaking down features into manageable, deliverable pieces and proposing practical implementation approaches.
• Implement, test and maintain new user interface functionality, ensuring changes are robust, maintainable and aligned with agreed standards.
• Participate actively in code reviews and technical design reviews, providing constructive feedback and helping maintain code quality across the front end.
• Contribute to improving consistency and usability across the portals by applying good user-centric design and strong Web design principles in day-to-day delivery.
• Keep up to date with relevant front end tools, technologies and industry best practices, and share learning with the team where it improves delivery and quality.
• Support the development of front end capability across teams by contributing to shared ways of working, documentation and sensible standards (without taking on formal lead responsibility).

Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.

What we are looking for

• Strong commercial experience as a front end developer, delivering production Web applications.
• Excellent JavaScript and TypeScript skills, with strong experience building UI with React and Next.js.
• Solid HTML5 and CSS skills, including building responsive interfaces that work well across devices and browsers.
• Good understanding of maintainable engineering practices (e.g. writing clean, testable code, sensible separation of concerns, and effective peer review).
• Experience working with modern Web application patterns, including server-side rendering (or similar techniques) and performance-minded UI delivery.
• Comfortable working in an Agile/Scrum environment, collaborating with others as well as working independently.
• Strong communication skills, good attention to detail, and the ability to document work clearly.
• Proactive mindset: able to take initiative, adapt to change, and learn new technologies when needed.
• Passion for building user-friendly applications with a strong focus on usability and user-centric design.

Highly desirable

• Experience with authentication strategies and secure session/token approaches (e.g. JWT/JWE, token rotation).
• Familiarity with common architectural patterns and building maintainable component-based applications.
• Experience with Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, and Git-based workflows; exposure to Docker is a plus.

Hybrid Working

Birketts is a flexible business which has embraced a hybrid working model where our colleagues enjoy a mix of home and office working. During your 6 month probation period, there will be a requirement to be in the office full time whilst you are developing in the role. Once you have successfully passed probation, this role attracts a split of 60% office days and 40% working from home days per week. We welcome applications from people looking for flexible, agile, and part-time roles and we are happy to explore your preferred working patterns as part of your application.

Benefits

• 25 days holiday (FTE) plus Bank Holidays.
• Long Service holiday award – 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service.
• Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed).
• Scottish Widows Pension Scheme (5% employer / 5% Employee).
• Staff Profit Share and Individual Performance Bonus Scheme.
• Salary sacrifice (Pensions, Staff Profit Share).
• Life Assurance - 4 x salary / Permanent Health Insurance.
• Paid CSR Day.
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity Leave.
• Subsidised gym membership.
• Electric car scheme.
• Dress for your Day Policy.

Culture

At Birketts, our culture is driven by ambition and a commitment to positively impact all the communities we serve. We are dedicated to the success, development, and wellbeing of our colleagues, helping them achieve their goals and seize the opportunities that come with our growth.

Birketts is committed to being an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our policy is unequivocal: we do not tolerate discrimination based on age, disability, sex, race, religion or belief, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, or sexual orientation. We pride ourselves on being an inclusive organisation that actively promotes equality of opportunity for all, valuing the right mix of talent, skills, and potential. We welcome applications from a diverse range of candidates, and selection for roles is based solely on individual merit.