Lead Drupal Developer

Are you an experienced Lead Drupal developer? Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to work at an award-winning, innovative digital consultancy? Are you smart, enthusiastic, and ready to help us architect modern, robust, and permanent software solutions? Then this is the opportunity you’ve been searching for!

The Opportunity

We’re seeking a Lead Drupal Developer to complement and bolster our current team of talented developers. As part of the role, you will be architecting solutions, leading projects, working with our Technical Solutions Team, contributing to our proposals, and helping to win new clients with your problem-solving and ideas. If you feel you have the ability to break down technical ideas into layman’s terms, you will also have the opportunity to support our Strategy Team with new business pitches. You will get to explore new technology and influence our ways of working within our collaborative environment, you will learn from our existing team while also being able to contribute your own ideas to help us progress and innovate. We’re particularly keen to re-establish links back into the Drupal community and we’re looking for a candidate who also shares this passion and enthusiasm. We will support you develop your skills and hope that you will help us develop ours; we are receptive to new solutions and love finding innovative ways of delivering modern software solutions. If you have something to contribute, such as new technology or a streamlined process, we encourage you to explore and share your ideas.

About you

This is a key hire for our business, and we’re absolutely determined to seek out the very best Lead Drupal Developer to enhance the skills of our existing team. In recent times, we’ve won several new client projects. Forearmed with a great deal of experience in architecting and shaping solid performant Drupal builds, your role as a Senior Developer will be to support and lead on these projects, owning the solution and delivering an exceptional end-product that we’re all proud to put our names to, and the client is equally delighted with. Project leadership, self-motivation and collaboration will be essential skills. As we grow the regional team, there will be the opportunity to mentor junior members.

Skills, responsibilities and traits

• Skills

• Be an escalation point for the rest of the team on technical issues.
• Train junior members of the team.
• Be able to design and architect hosting platforms.
• Be able to troubleshoot and fix issues with Apache and PHP configurations.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms such as AWS.
• Be able to use and configure CDN tools such as Cloudflare.
• Be able to configure CI tools such as bitbucket pipelines.

• As a senior member of the development team, a lead developer should provide team direction.
• Identify training opportunities and skills gaps within the team.
• Own and update team processes.
• Provide technical input to company tools and processes.

• Great with other people.
• Enjoys sharing knowledge.
• Wants to improve the working environment for their peers.

About Us

Reading Room is a user-led, data-centric digital transformation consultancy. It is the home for the curious! We believe that understanding users’ needs, motivations and behaviours in relation to our clients’ products and services is the key to success. We help all kinds of passionate brands and organisations to realise their digital ambitions. And, as a 50-strong team of digital specialists across the UK & Europe, we cover the whole caboodle – from the deep dive and digital strategy, right through to the design, technology and communications that define how customers feel and interact. Reading Room’s existing client base is impressive, including well-known organisations spanning; central Government, blue light services, public and private healthcare, membership, not-for-profit, charity, and construction… to name a few. In recent times, we’ve seen an uplift in demand and requirement for our specialist services, with a number of new clients joining our growing portfolio. We’re proud to be part of the independently owned Rippleffect Group, alongside RONIN International, a research consultancy which provides an even bigger toolbox for clients to collect data, understand their customer and scale up in other countries.

Working together

We'll be a great fit if you embody the values that underpin how we think, work, create and play:

• Be curious: Our innate inquisitiveness means we ask the right questions. Being curious gives us the time and space to collect the evidence we need to get it right.
• Be candid: Our knowledge and diverse skills mean we are the confident and trusted voice in the room to support clients with their digital journeys.
• Be empathetic: By understanding the world through customers’ eyes, we create experiences they’ll want to use. This principle is at the heart of everything we do.
• Be forward-thinking: We are agile, adaptable and forward-looking. This helps us and our clients navigate uncertainty and be prepared for the future.
• Be inclusive: We celebrate differences of all kinds. It’s what makes our team uniquely placed to find the right answers. Everyone has the opportunity to make their voice heard.

How to apply

Do you like the sound of all of this? If so, we’d love to hear from you! Please send us your CV and a short paragraph telling us about you and why you would like to work with us, and we’ll be in touch. Please submit your application through our careers site so that it is uploaded onto our recruitment system. We have tried to simplify the application process as much as possible, and won’t ask you to complete a lengthy application form – you can apply with your CV or LinkedIn profile - but if you don’t apply through our careers site, unfortunately we cannot always guarantee your application will be reviewed, or that you will receive a response, particularly if we receive strong interest in the role. The interview process will consist of 2 stages... the first will be an introductory call for you and us to find out a bit more about each other and consider if it could be the right opportunity for you and your skills; the second stage would be a competency-based and behavioural interview with the Hiring Manager, and a team member. Given the nature of the business and our clients’ requirements, any job offers issued will be conditional upon the satisfactory completion of pre-contract checks and references. Reading Room & Rippleffect Group are committed to encouraging equality, diversity and inclusion among our workforce and everyone we work with, and eliminating unlawful discrimination. We base all our employment decisions on merit, job requirements and business needs. The aim is for our workforce to be truly representative of all sections of society and our customers, and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best.