Web Developer Trainee in Darlington

Eager to learn, willing to ask questions (even the silly ones!), and ready to write code you'll be proud of? If you care about doing things properly and want to apply your skills in a real product environment from day one, keep reading.

About the graduate programme. In all of our trainee and graduate roles, we always start with the basics first – it’s the best foundation for success. This means getting grounded in financial services and understanding the billion-pound UK sector, the importance of sound financial advice, and how businesses like ours operate. From there, you’ll move into your specialist area with real work, real responsibility, and a team around you to support your development. We know that most people don’t often know exactly where they want to end up – and that’s fine. This programme is designed to grow with you.

About the role. This is a genuine opportunity to get stuck into a live SaaS product from day one – not just fixing typos or writing unit tests for six months. You’ll work closely with our Digital Lead and Product Designer in an agile team, gaining hands-on experience building new features across a platform built specifically for financial advisers. We work across a range of tools and technologies. You won’t be expected to know them all on day one, but you’ll be learning and working with: PHP/Laravel, JavaScript/Vue.js (v3) with InertiaJS, Tailwind CSS, MySQL, REST APIs, GitHub, AWS, AWS Bedrock (our AI layer), Jira, and Confluence.

What you'll be doing:

• Building and maintaining features across our SaaS platform, from database to UI, with guidance from the team.
• Working alongside our Product Designer and Digital Lead to understand requirements and ask the right questions early.
• Taking part in code reviews – reading others’ code is one of the fastest ways to learn.
• Joining sprint planning and retrospectives – we want to hear your perspective.
• Learning how to balance releasing new features quickly with doing things properly – and why both matter.
• Collaborating with the wider team to make sure new features work and make sense to the people using them.
• Documenting our processes and codebase in Confluence as you go.

About you. You’ve just finished your degree and you’re ready to get into a real codebase. You might not have all the answers yet – that’s fine, neither does anyone else. What matters is that you’re curious, communicative, and genuinely care about the work.

• A degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience that tells the same story).
• Comfortable with at least one backend language and keen to get into PHP and Laravel.
• Some exposure to JavaScript and frontend development – whether through coursework, projects, or your own curiosity.
• An understanding of the basics of relational databases, and able to write a query without Googling every line.
• Has used GitHub, even if only solo – you know what a commit is and why branching matters.
• Can explain what you’ve built and why you made the decisions you did.
• Happy to work in an agile environment and adapt when priorities shift.
• Side projects, placement years, open-source contributions, or anything you’ve built just because you wanted to are all worth mentioning in your application.

Above all, we’re after someone who’s enthusiastic, honest about what they don’t know, and hungry to grow. If you leave code a little better than you found it and care about the product you’re helping to build, we’d love to hear from you.

About us. Verve offers a range of services to financial planners and, along with its sister company, the not-for-profit Verve Foundation, works towards two key aims: to help support good-quality financial advice firms to grow and develop, and to attract new people into financial services and help train them up, for the benefit of the future of the profession. Across all departments, we approach financial services with an innovative and positive outlook. Our focus is on relentlessly improving and never settling for doing what has always been done. We’re passionate that more people can and should benefit from financial advice, and it’s our mission to make that more accessible.

Standard benefits (based on full time):

• 21 days basic holiday allowance (increasing by 1 day per year of service, up to a maximum of 26 days), plus bank holidays, Christmas close-down, and your birthday off if it falls on a weekday.
• Personal development budget for exams, training, and anything to help you excel.
• Death in service cover.
• Health and wellbeing programme, including access to our in-office gym, desk massages, team hikes, and yoga/fitness sessions.
• Access to lifestyle benefits including a meditation app, high street discount and rewards app, and a financial wellbeing platform.
• Hybrid working, available upon successful completion of your probationary period.
• EMI share scheme and enhanced parental leave, available after a qualifying period of two years.

The cherry on top:

• No formal dress code – we trust you to dress appropriately for the day ahead.
• A lively, positive office environment – expect great (and occasionally dubious) playlists, a drinks fridge, snacks, a social space, and a ping pong table.
• Two official company parties per year, plus ad hoc team nights out and monthly enrichment sessions.
• Friendly office dogs always welcome.

About the money. A starting salary of £24,800, increasing as your training and experience develops. A degree is not a prerequisite – we’re interested in your attitude and aptitude.

The next steps:

• 24th May – deadline for applications
• w/c 25th May – introduction calls (approximately 15 minutes)
• 4th June (TBC) – assessment day in Darlington