Software Engineer in Slough

About Freedman International

Freedman International is a localisation and translation production agency working with major global brands. We translate and localise content across print, video, and digital formats for clients operating in multiple markets worldwide. We are committed to becoming an AI-forward company, using technology and automation to improve how we work and deliver exceptional service to our clients. The Innovation and Transformation team is at the heart of this ambition.

This is a hands-on technical role with real ownership, sitting within our IT function and supporting the wider business. Across the organisation, people are increasingly using AI to build their own tools and solve their own problems. That’s a good thing, and we want to encourage it. Your job is to help make sure that what gets built actually works, can be supported, and adds lasting value. You will own a portfolio of bespoke systems and productivity tools, and you will help colleagues across the business turn promising ideas into proper, supportable solutions.

You don’t need to know everything on day one. What matters is your curiosity, your instinct to investigate problems rather than escalate them, and your willingness to own things end-to-end. When you hit something you genuinely don’t know, you bring it to the IT Manager or the Fractional CTO with options, not just a question.

What You’ll Own

• You will be responsible for a growing portfolio of internal systems and tools. The categories you can expect to work across include:
• Bespoke systems: Internal systems that the business depends on, including integrations with Monday.com, Google Drive, LucidLink, and the OpenAI and Gemini APIs. You will keep these running, fix issues, update integrations, and improve them over time.
• Productivity tools: Workflow improvements built for specific teams or client engagements, often replacing manual processes with something faster and more reliable.
• Dashboards and reporting: Internal dashboards that bring together data from different systems to help teams see what’s happening and make better decisions.
• Integrations: Connecting our internal tools and third-party platforms so that information flows where it needs to go without manual effort.
• Productionising proofs-of-concept: Taking working ideas, including those built by colleagues using AI tools, and turning them into properly engineered systems that can be supported and extended.

The portfolio will evolve. New requests come in regularly, and part of the role is helping to shape what we build and how.

What You’ll Do

• System ownership
• Keep the bespoke systems running reliably
• Fix issues with urgency, understanding what’s critical and acting accordingly
• Update API integrations and models as needed
• Monitor for problems before users report them
• Problem solving
• Investigate problems before reaching for help
• Use LLMs and AI-assisted coding tools (Claude, Gemini, Claude Code, Cursor), documentation, and other tools to work through unfamiliar territory
• Keep pace with a fast-moving AI tooling landscape, and bring recommendations on what is worth adopting
• Know when to fix something yourself, when to call in the AWS DevOps team, and when to escalate to the IT Manager or Fractional CTO
• Come with “here’s the problem, here’s what I’ve looked into, and here’s what I recommend”
• Supporting colleagues across the business
• Help colleagues turn AI-assisted ideas and prototypes into supportable systems
• Provide a sensible technical perspective on what’s worth building and how
• Work with the Director of Innovation on productionising proofs-of-concept
• Building
• Build new productivity tools and improvements
• Take an idea from zero to a working prototype quickly, to prove out what is possible before committing to building it properly
• Write clean, well-structured code that others can pick up and understand
• Apply sound development practices: version control, testing, documentation, sensible deployment
• Work within Freedman’s security and data handling standards, particularly where systems touch client data
• Managing external resources
• Work efficiently with the AWS DevOps partner
• Be clear about what you need and when
• Use external partners as a multiplier, not a crutch

What You’ll Work With

• Languages: Python (primary), possibly JavaScript
• APIs: OpenAI, Gemini, Monday.com, Google Drive, Xero, others as the portfolio grows
• AI tools: Claude and Gemini, both as products and as APIs, and AI-assisted coding tools such as Claude Code and Cursor
• Infrastructure: AWS (managed by our DevOps partner)
• Collaboration: Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Microsoft Teams

You’re not expected to be expert in all of these on day one. What matters is your ability and willingness to learn.

Who You Are

• Experience
• 2 to 4 years of software development experience
• Comfortable with Python, APIs, and integrations
• A reasonable grounding in development methodology: version control, testing, documentation, structured problem solving
• You’ve built things that real people use

• Mindset
• Curious: When you hit a problem, your first instinct is to investigate. You reach for tools, read documentation, try things, and form a view before asking for help.
• Low ego: You’re not trying to look clever. You’re trying to solve the problem. You’re happy to use whatever tool gets you there, including LLMs, and happy to ask when you’re genuinely stuck.
• Organised: You can hold a portfolio of work in your head, keep things moving, and not lose track of what you’re doing. You treat the systems you look after as yours, not someone else’s problem.
• Decisive: You form a view and recommend a path, rather than waiting to be told.
• Urgent when it matters: You understand when something is critical and act accordingly.

• Coachable
• You learn from feedback and apply it, especially under pressure
• You don’t just nod and revert to old habits when things get hard
• You’re junior enough to grow but mature enough to own things