At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the development of an innovative platform for biodiversity and urban planning.
- Company: Join Kew Reach, a pioneering venture with the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive salary, flexible remote work, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Be part of a dynamic team with a mission to restore ecosystems globally.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on environmental solutions while working with cutting-edge technology.
- Qualifications: Experience in software engineering and a passion for sustainability.
The predicted salary is between 49500 - 60500 £ per year.
Company: Kew Reach
Product: Palette; an urban planning tool for biodiversity and resilience gain
Location: UK-based · remote-first or hybrid options available (where remote first, occasional London / team days are required)
Type: Full-time · permanent
Reports to: CEO
Salary: Competitive, dependent on experience
About Kew Reach
A better future for people and planet, made possible through the power of a thriving and resilient natural world. Launched in 2024, Kew Reach is a joint venture with the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, set up to deliver nature-based solutions to restore ecosystems in any setting. We accelerate nature-positive action at scale, grounded in scientific expertise, shaped by creative thinking, and sustained through collaboration.
What We Do
We offer an end-to-end service guided by the Kew Method, spanning baseline assessment, climate-informed design and delivery, species sourcing, long-term monitoring and capacity building, ensuring every project is credible, resilient and delivers measurable nature gain. This spans three Labs: the City Lab, bringing climate-resilient planting and green infrastructure into city and development environments; the Restoration Lab, turning degraded land into resilient, biodiverse ecosystems; and the Infrastructure Lab, delivering nature-based solutions for major capital projects. Capacity building runs through all three, equipping local teams and institutions to sustain nature-positive action after handover.
Introducing Palette
Our platform, Palette, brings that same scientific confidence to decisions about planting, biodiversity and habitat. Built around our core climate-resilient tree species-selection tools, we're expanding its capabilities to cover pollinator and habitat analysis, combined biodiversity planning, and tools designed for local-authority use.
The role
You will be the engineer who owns the health of the platform and its growth: its security posture, its reliability and deployment pipeline, the day-to-day usability of the application, and the new client-facing capabilities we build in the future. As those capabilities grow, you'll mature the platform from a single application into a suite of tools that you manage centrally. You'll work alongside our Senior Data Scientist (who owns the scientific data pipeline and modelling) and the CEO.
This is a founding platform-engineer role: broad, high-ownership, and, for now, the sole engineer on the platform side. You'll turn client needs and our domain expertise into features, not just keep the lights on. It suits someone who wants the autonomy and scope of an early hire and is comfortable being the person the platform depends on.
The immediate priority is honest: the migration to our current AWS architecture was largely AI-assisted. The architecture is sound and well-documented, but there is a known, already-scoped list of hardening, reliability and polish work to reach a confident commercial launch (we maintain a living security checklist and Architecture Decision Records). We need someone who can pick it up, prioritise it, and execute it to a professional standard — and then lead the platform's evolution, shipping the features that deepen what clients can learn about their sites.
What you'll own
- Product & platform evolution: Grow the platform beyond its first study - turning client needs and our scientific domain expertise into features that help users understand their sites (climate, soils, canopy, biodiversity context) and act on that understanding (planting design, species palettes, greening and resilience interventions, outcomes over time).
- Work directly with users and the CEO to shape the roadmap: run lightweight discovery, prototype, ship, measure, iterate.
- Design features that generalise. The platform is built with reserves for multiple Labs and studies (Urban, Infrastructure, Restoration); build so a new capability serves more than one use case where it sensibly can.
- Extend the data and API surface thoughtfully alongside the data engineer — they own the science; you own how it becomes a usable, reliable product experience (geospatial site tools, maps, exports, reporting, integrations).
- Balance new-feature delivery against the hardening and reliability work below; neither should starve the other.
Security & compliance:
- Take our launch security checklist from 'mostly coded' to 'verified and deployed' WAF rollout (the construct exists; deploy count-mode first), security response headers including a real CSP, and CloudFront in front of the ALB.
- Harden the authentication and session model (WorkOS / AuthKit): replace our currently long-lived stateless JWT sessions with shorter-lived tokens plus server-side session revocation, tighten cookie flags and redirect URIs, and enable MFA/SSO.
- Drive secret hygiene: complete the git-history secret scan and purge, rotate anything historically exposed, keep everything in AWS Secrets Manager.
- Keep the CI dependency-audit gate green (now blocking) and stay ahead of new advisories.
Remote Senior Software Engineer in Worthing employer: Kew REACH
Kew Reach is an exceptional employer, offering a meaningful early-career opportunity for Sales Executives in a dynamic hybrid work environment based in Richmond, London. With a strong focus on mentorship and professional growth, employees are empowered to contribute to impactful nature-based solutions while collaborating with over 500 scientists and a global network of specialists. The company's commitment to sustainability and innovation ensures that team members are part of a mission that truly matters, fostering a culture of learning and collaboration.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Remote Senior Software Engineer in Worthing
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Kew REACH or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Kew REACH.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Kew REACH.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Kew REACH that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Remote Senior Software Engineer in Worthing
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Kew REACH.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Kew REACH and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Kew REACH
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Kew REACH uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
