Job Description
About the role:
While you’ll have heard our name, there’s a lot you probably don’t know about NEXT. Like how we create most of our systems ourselves – whether it’s a website, mobile app or application. What’s more, we’re growing. Fast. And it’s the kind of growth and investment that is exciting for everyone in our business.
At the last count, NEXT had 500 stores and we have the Store team to thank for all of the software and latest features that our customers and store colleagues have access to! A short while ago we had a complete overhaul of the store software and hardware across all of our store estate which gives us a fantastic platform to build upon.
Join our dynamic and fun-loving department of over 80 employees, spread across 7 development teams. We specialise in designing, developing, testing, and maintaining cutting-edge software for our store systems using a wide range of technologies, such as touch screen tills, Android devices, C#.Net, SQL, COSMOS, RFID, Azure Cloud, Bluetooth-based solutions, and more. As a team, we work in an Agile SDLC to deliver innovative and high-quality software with cool hardware that enhances the store staff experience.
We pride ourselves on being at the forefront of developing new products, services and applications to better serve our customers. You'll work alongside some of the most talented and driven developers in the industry, who are committed to achieving excellence in all aspects of their work. We collaborate with our stakeholders to develop our product suite for stores and support them throughout the product life cycle.
As a Store Technology Developer, you'll play a critical role in developing and improving our systems. You'll write software to implement features and requirements, fix bugs, create documentation, and provide support across applications used by over 28,000 users in our store estate. You'll work with a wide range of technologies, from Windows apps to Android apps and from devices such as PCs to tablet and handheld devices, Azure Cloud as well as a wide range of device peripherals such as payment devices, scanners and receipt printers.
We're in the process of migrating our platforms and products to the Cloud, using microservices and Azure technology to keep our business moving forward,
so Azure knowledge would be advantageous as you can help shape the designs so the system is supportable.
In this role, you'll have the opportunity to work on exciting and high-profile projects that support our current and future products. You'll work within our fast-paced and dynamic release train process, following Agile principles and utilising DevOps techniques and automation-first best practices. You'll be part of a team that never stands still, always looking for ways to evolve our technology, applications, and services to better serve our Stakeholders.
At Next, we encourage our employees to explore new technologies and ways of working to enable change. We offer an environment that is never dull, with the freedom and support to express yourself and come up with new initiatives. With an emphasis on quality, the development part of the role will focus on investigating and fixing issues and making functional changes in order to continually meet challenges and deliver high-impact features which perform well and improve user experience.
The role also involves liaising with retail/technical teams in our business to understand how things work or to collaborate with them to find a solution to problems. The aim is to help the team maximise the business value delivered by looking for trends and highlighting the highest value features/bugs for prioritisation and planning into current and future sprints.
About you:
To be considered for this role, you should have experience or knowledge in the following tools/ technologies:
- Microsoft .NET Framework, .NET Core, C#
- MVC (WPF)
- Azure Cloud
- Azure DevOps/ TFS
- Microsoft SQL Server 2012+
- Xamarin or Android development
- Blazor ( nice to have )
- Powershell (nice to have)
You should also be able to communicate effectively with business users, store staff, store managers, product owners, developers, testers, and first and second line support teams. You will need to be a skilled troubleshooter with exceptional analytical abilities, a passion for problem-solving, and the ability to analyse complex technical issues.
About Us
You know Next, but did you know we’re a FTSE-100 retail company employing over 35,000 people across the UK and Ireland. We’re the UK’s 2nd largest fashion retailer and for Kidswear we’re the market leader. At the last count we have over 500 stores, plus the Next Online and it’s now possible to buy on-line from over 70 countries around the world! So we’ve gone global!
About The Team
- 25% off most NEXT, MADE*, Lipsy*, Gap* and Victoria's Secret* products (*when purchased through NEXT)
- Company performance based bonus
- Sharesave scheme
- On-site Nursery available; OFSTED outstanding in all areas
- 10% off most partner brands & up to 15% off Branded Beauty
- Early VIP access to sale stock
- Access to fantastic discounts at our Staff Shops
- Restaurants with great food at amazing prices
- Access a digital GP and other free health and wellbeing services
- Free on-site parking
- Financial Wellbeing - Save, track and enhance your financial wellbeing
- Apprenticeship - Grow and develop on the job whilst gaining a qualification
- Direct to Work - Discount online and instore, collect your items the next day for free from your place of work or local store
- Support Networks - Access to Network Groups to empower and celebrate each other
- Wellhub - Discounted flexible monthly gym memberships, with apps, PT sessions and more
Conditions apply to all benefits. These benefits are discretionary and subject to change.
We aim to support all candidates during the application process and are happy to provide workplace adjustments when necessary. Should you need support with your application due to a disability or long-term condition, feel free to get in touch with us by email
[email protected] (please include 'Workplace Adjustments' in the subject line), or call us on 0116 284 2486 and leave a voicemail.