Senior Front End Developer in Suffolk

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.

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.
• 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.

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.

As a Birketts colleague, you will be eligible to receive a wide range of benefits:

• Long Service holiday award - 1 extra week every 10 years continuous service.
• Private Healthcare with BUPA (offered after probation is passed).
• 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.

Inclusivity and 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.

If you require this advert in an accessible format, please visit https://diversityjobsgroup.com/company/birketts/

Artificial Intelligence (AI):

At Birketts, we recognise the evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the legal profession and recruitment. We welcome innovation and understand that candidates may use AI tools to support their job applications. However, we expect all applicants to use AI responsibly and ethically.

Our expectations regarding AI use in applications:

• Your application should reflect your own voice, experiences, and insights. AI may assist in structuring or refining your responses, but it must not replace your personal input.
• Do not use AI to misrepresent your qualifications, experiences, or skills. Any form of exaggeration or fabrication may result in rejection from the process.
• If you have used AI tools to assist with your application, be prepared to discuss how and why you used them during the interview process.
• Do not submit content generated by AI tools that may include personal or sensitive data not intended for public disclosure. AI-generated content should be reviewed and edited by you to ensure accuracy, relevance, and alignment with the role and our firm’s values.

We are committed to fair and inclusive recruitment practices. The use of AI should enhance, not compromise, your application. We encourage candidates to demonstrate critical thinking, commercial awareness, and a genuine interest in our firm.

If you have any questions about our expectations or the use of AI in your application, please contact our Talent Acquisition Team via talent@birketts.co.uk