Lead Software Engineer, Octopus Energy Group
Kraken Technologies
More information about location
2 days a week in office
Entech company
Job no longer available
Entech company
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
More information about location
2 days a week in office
1001+ employees
Company mission
Octopus Energy's mission is to speed the transition to a sustainable, low carbon future through renewable energy and technology whilst putting customers at the heart of everything they do.
Role
Who you are
- You’ll want to have experience managing people, and ideally you’ll have been involved in hiring and onboarding new team members before
- Can write solid, semantic HTML and have experience writing SASS
- Have experience with JavaScript frameworks, particularly the React/Redux stack
- Experienced using Typescript and Nextjs
- Have experience in crafting mobile-first responsive sites for a range of devices
- Know how to develop websites that meet AAA accessibility guidelines
- Can create code that works consistently across different browsers and platforms
- Some Python / Django web development experience, as you will be asked to work on some full-stack projects
- We’re looking for someone who’s passionate about code, curious, and eager to learn. You’ll be working alongside other talented people in the tech department
- You’ll solve problems with technology to make us, and the industry, smarter and better for customers
What the job involves
- All technology is written and maintained by a multi-discipline engineering team of around 1500 people globally
- Our engineers work in ‘super teams’ which are focused on key areas of our platform as well as other innovative products
- This also includes server-side, client-side and mobile engineers working closely with UX experts, copywriters and designers
- Teams are empowered to choose a way of working that works for them, often opting for a Kanban-like approach
- Notion and Asana are then used to specify and manage work; Github, CircleCI and Terraform Enterprise as part of an immutable-infrastructure, continuous delivery pipeline; and Datadog, Sentry and Cloudwatch to measure performance and monitor production
- We’re Charging Kraken to power utilities beyond energy (think water, broadband,..) and have created a new business Kraken Utilities
- As the business gains momentum and clients, we are continuing to grow the engineering team
- You will help us build and scale the team, implement a good culture and work on some really exciting tech challenges
- You'll be joining to lead a full-stack team (6-7 engineers) within the utilities team - with close support and collaboration from the wider Kraken team
- Your main focus will be on building out a consumer site for our water clients, most of the hands on work will be using frontend (React, NextJS, Typescript), but you'll also need to dabble in backend (Python, Django) when required
- As a lead engineer, you will have management responsibilities of your sub team (6-7 people)
- We are looking for someone with prior lead/manager experience who is comfortable with the people management side of the job, as well as still being very technically hands on
- Together with the rest of the team, you will bring the same revolutionary customer experience, operational excellence and speed of innovation that Kraken is powering across energy retailers to other sectors
- Some of our coding conventions are open-source
- Kraken is a great place to learn, work with some talented engineers and level-up your skills
- Client-side, we use React, Next.js, Typescript, htmx and SASS; our mobile apps are built using native code or React Native
- On the server-side, we mainly use Python. Most of our websites are powered by Django, Django-REST-framework and GraphQL (Graphene)
- We use AWS heavily as part of a continuous deployment pipeline. See, for example, Django, ELB health checks and continuous delivery
- You’ll be responsible for leading a team of 6-8 engineers (mix of frontend and backend)
- This role will involve line management duties, as well as being hands on and close to the code
- Your team will be building a consumer site for our utilities clients (water and broadband companies)
- You may get involved in hiring for your team as it naturally grows, conducting interviews, marking tech challenges, making hiring decisions
Salary benchmarks
Our take
According to Octopus, the energy industry in the UK is ruled by a handful of complacent companies peddling fossil fuels, pricing trickery, and poor customer service. Aiming to disrupt the status quo with sustainable energy, Octopus entered the market in 2016 and they now supply energy to millions of homes in a number of countries. Octopus has made a name for itself in energy circles largely because of its “Kraken” technology platform, which it claims is able to reroute energy from renewable sources around a network far more efficiently than competitors.
Octopus Energy further differentiates itself through its aspiration to make everything as easy as possible for consumers, from the simplicity of their bills and the fact that customers are not locked into a contract so they can leave at any time to offering customer service over email and social media at times that suit customers. They aim to make the eco‐friendly choice the easy choice, so all of their tariffs use 100% green electricity, while not being more expensive than their competitors' non-green tariffs.
They are continually creating innovative new products. For example, Octopus Tracker where prices changes daily to guarantee you get the market rate; Agile where the price changes every half hour to enable you to benefit from cheap electricity when the sun shines, the wind blows, and the networks are under-utilised. One of the current challenges they face is that their products are more complex than their competitors, given they use 1000x more data than traditional energy companies. They're exploring ways to explain to customers exactly how their products work.
Kirsty
Company Specialist
Insights
Some candidates hear
back within 2 weeks
46% female employees
44% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Employee endorsements
Challenging work
"The work that I am doing is often quite difficult. I am constantly challenged and problem solving, which I find rewarding as it means I am always..."
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Dec 2023
$800m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Jul 2022
$225m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Total funding: $2.5bn
Company benefits
- Your development is important - we support and help with development including internal and external courses, learning, study support etc, all bespoke to you
- Flexi working environment
- Equity Options Scheme - you own your own part of the business, share options in the whole Octopus Energy Group so we all work together towards success
- Unlimited paid time off policy
- Work from home opportunities
- Equity Option Scheme - Everyone owns part of what we’re building with shares
- Tech - We want to get the best out of our people and get that everyone is slightly different. Have a certain tech requirement? We’ll do our best to get it
- Money Coach - You may want to think about financial planning. The company has an arrangement with Octopus Money Coach. They offer the opportunity to talk with a professional coach
- Wellbeing - Need some calm in your life? We have 'Octopus Headspace Licences' available. Twice a week we have 45 Minute live yoga class open to all Octopus staff!
- Parents - get access to tax free childcare and maternity and paternity pay. We’re always looking for new ways to support parents, during lockdown we created OctoKids TV to help keep your kids occupied and entertained (https://octopus.energy/blog/octopuskids/)
- Office culture - Our offices are stocked with fruit, breakfast, great coffee, and soft drinks (and ice lollies if you're lucky)! Weekly on a Friday we all get together (this happens virtually too) for company updates and drinks - we call it Family Dinner. We won best company to work for in 2019 and our CEO, Greg has recorded a podcast about our culture and how we empower our people. Check out what our people say at Glassdoor!
- Car Salary Sacrifice - Browse the wide selection of electric vehicles and get a sample quote under our workplace salary sacrifice scheme. If approved, the monthly leasing costs are taken directly from your gross salary each month meaning you're saving on paying some tax
Company values
- Autonomy
- Empathy
- Innovation
- Impact
Company HQ
Fitzrovia, London, UK
Articles
Leadership
Greg Jackson
(CEO)Previously Adviser at Ashcombe Advisers for 9 years and Non-Executive Director at Zopa for 7 years.
James Eddison
(CTO)Previously CEO at Claripoint for 7 years and CTO at Tangent Labs also for 7 years.
Stuart Jackson
(CFO)Previously Director of "Foundation" Business Unit at Barclaycard for 2 years and Chief of Staff, Secured Lending SBU at Barclays also for 2 years.
People progressing
Joined as Marketing Assistant, being promoted to Marketing Executive after 6 months and again to Junior Product and Marketing Manager after 7 months. After 8 months they became a full Product and Marketing Manager.
Joined as Senior Talent Partner, being promoted to Talent Manager after 1 year and again to Head of Talent Acquisition after 8 months.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Octopus Energy Group
- Unconscious Bias workshops for interviewers and hiring managers
- Octopus Energy Equality Foundation
- Partnership with the Saracens High School - inspiring future generations - https://www.saracens.com/powering-futures-together-saracens-high-school-octopus-energy/
- Octopus Energy Internships - https://octopus.energy/blog/ada-lovelace-tech-internship/
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