Creative Technologist

Salary starting at £53,182 (depending on experience). London, UK | Hybrid - 2/3 days in the office.

About the role

This developer-focused role requires someone who has hands-on experience working in small, cross-functional teams, and is capable of building and maintaining early-stage digital products or prototypes end to end, from first commit to deployment. You’ll be comfortable working across the full stack, using established frameworks such as Ruby on Rails.

We’re looking for someone who is collaborative, proactive and focused on outcomes. You should be able to translate loosely defined ideas into usable products at pace, working closely with non-technical colleagues throughout. You may also bring skills beyond software engineering – such as product thinking or design considerations.

The successful candidate will also be available for out-of-hours support on a rota basis (for an extra payment). This will require knowledge of AWS (or transferable knowledge of another similar cloud provider).

Prototyping and communicating

This role prioritises speed, clarity, and delivering real value over pursuing complex or highly novel technical challenges. Great communication is also non-negotiable in this role. You should be equally comfortable explaining complex technical ideas to non-technical audiences and creating presentations that make everyone feel included.

Implementing creative solutions that fit the need

We are not looking for someone who knows everything about every possible topic, but we are looking for someone who can think outside the box to work collaboratively with clients to find solutions that fit their needs, whether that is helping them learn how to use a no-code platform or setting up metrics dashboards. Most projects will involve prototyping at least one app, but some will not, so you will need to be able to proactively come up with new ideas and workarounds where necessary.

Strong client and stakeholder relationships

Many of our clients are navigating organisational change alongside digital transformation. You’ll build trusted relationships with the people you work with, communicating clearly and confidently about progress, risks and decisions. You’ll help clients understand agile delivery as genuine partners in the work, rather than passive recipients of status updates, and help them identify opportunities to expand our collaboration on future projects.

Key activities

• Working with designers to create products specific to our clients’ needs
• Reviewing and adapting existing codebases on occasion
• Participating in user research sessions
• Working with version control tools
• Writing extensive and reliable automated tests
• Collaborating with colleagues and clients in a way that demonstrates Unboxed’s values of care and attention
• Contributing to presentations, slide decks and reports
• Reviewing technical colleagues’ pull requests kindly and constructively
• Presenting your work during internal and external show and tells
• Adapting to new technologies and workflows such as AI assistants and agents
• Demonstrating best-in-class security practices
• Making products accessible by default
• Creating, consuming and documenting modern APIs
• Keeping up to date on the latest technology developments so you are able to recommend the most appropriate solutions and tools

Ruby and Ruby on Rails preferred

Cloud infrastructure such as AWS or GCP

Git

TDD/BDD

SQL (preferably MySQL or PostgreSQL)

HTML and CSS

Experience working with AI tools/agentic workflows

Experience working in an agile environment

Open source contributions

Experience setting up and maintaining UNIX systems

Understanding of continuous integration and delivery

Core competencies and behaviours

• Naturally collaborative
• Good communicators (written and verbal)
• Adaptable
• Comfortable with uncertainty and complexity
• Curious and questioning
• Active listeners
• Empathic, humble and generous
• Open and honest
• Always learning
• Passionate about our work
• Reflective, on yourself and the situation

How we work

Flexible, hybrid working. We’ve adapted our working practices and London office space to support hybrid working. The whole team works in our London office a minimum of two days a week. We trust our team to do the work they need to do and to collaborate closely. If you need to flex around caring responsibilities or other commitments, we’ll work with you to find the right balance.

Salary bands

We use salary bands to ensure that everyone at Unboxed gets paid fairly in relation to others at the company. We assess what band you are in according to skills, competencies and experience.

Other benefits

• 25 holiday days per year, on top of the bank holiday allowance
• 10 Innovation Days per year to explore your own ideas
• Holiday flexibility and loyalty bonus benefits
• Maternity and Shared Parental Leave policies
• A generous conference budget
• Flexible working hours and location
• An informal culture of growth
• Monthly ‘Linkers and Thinkers’ idea-exploring lunches
• Weekly ‘Design Club’ to share wider thoughts, ideas and opinions with the team

We are an equal opportunity employer and we’re committed to further increasing diversity within Unboxed. We believe in fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace that values and embraces the unique perspectives and experiences that each individual brings. We recognise that not everyone will have had the same opportunity to gain relevant experience and therefore welcome applications from UK residents who may have felt excluded from such a role in the past, whether due to age, gender, ethnicity, visible or invisible disability, neurodivergence, education, religion/belief, sexual orientation, or family/care commitments.