Full Stack Engineer

Within the emerging products team at Reach Plc, we are constantly striving to innovate and looking to disrupt the publishing industry. Eight years ago, we created an innovation team to produce new products for the business. During this process, we built a product called InYourArea (IYA), which is now the UK’s leading local news and information platform and is connecting communities across the full breadth of the country.

The Fullstack Engineer will work within the IYA Team to help improve the user experience and performance of the IYA experience. Reporting to one of the Emerging Products Team Engineering Managers, you will be working alongside a small team of other engineers in the 20-strong Emerging Products team.

Role Location

This role can be based remotely from home, and we are therefore open to candidates based across the UK. We are also able to accommodate a hybrid working pattern if that is your preference from one of our Hubs across the UK.

About us

Hello, we’re Reach. Every day, our trusted news, stories and content connect with millions of people where they live - whether that’s on their social feed or at their neighbourhood newsstand; through their local community or their take on the hot topic of the day.

We're home to more than 120 brands - from household names like the Mirror, Express, Daily Star and Daily Record, to local titles like MyLondon, BelfastLive, and the Manchester Evening News, and brands making a splash in the US like the Irish Star.

It's our ability to understand people and the things that matter to them that makes us Britain and Ireland's largest commercial news publisher. We reach around 70% of the UK's online population, 10% of the US online population, and over 100 million social followers around the world, connecting with them on who they are, where they live and what they love.

Your story, with Reach

As a modern media organisation, we're much more than just news. And it takes a wide range of people and skills to serve diverse audiences, customers and communities like we do.

We know everyone has their own story to tell, so we’ve built an environment where every background is respected and every day is a day to explore.

We’ll help you build a career that works with your life, while giving you the space to create and grow.

Role Responsibility

You will be a React TypeScript Engineer, with 2 / 3 years of commercial experience, helping to shape the improvements to how we deliver our content to users.

You will be responsible for maintaining and developing the code across the product, ensuring industry best practices are followed such as developing in a test-driven manner, maximising accessibility and prioritising performance.

Our frontend is built using React, so the successful candidate should have a deep understanding of how to build successful applications with React using modern frontend best practices. Experience managing global and dynamic states across multiple components and screens will be a must.

As a React Engineer, you will be championing best practices and knowledge sharing across the emerging products team. This will include engaging with product managers to better understand the product and helping in scoping work.

We are currently looking to make substantial updates to our core IYA web product with the skillset and career wants of the successful candidate likely impacting where we see them working.

The ideal candidate

We will be building new front-end products using Vercel so some experience with using Vercel at scale would be an advantage.

A solid understanding of how UIs consume API would be important to have since a lot of our products will be consumed by web and mobile clients.

Our mobile application is in React Native, so experience would be nice, as there might be opportunities in that space with the right candidate but is not critical to the role.

How we'll look after you

We take good care of our people - and that means more than just a pay packet. Whatever your role, you'll get a range of benefits, including:

• 25 days' holiday (plus bank holidays), as well as an extra day after you've been with us for three, five and 10 years. We also have a scheme to help you buy extra holiday if you want to.
• An extra day's paid leave each year to volunteer for a cause close to your community or your heart.
• Big moment day - an extra day’s paid leave for a moment that matters to you - like getting married, moving house or welcoming a new addition to the family (human or furry!)
• Bonus scheme - you'll get a stake in our success and a chance to add to your annual earnings.
• Help saving for your retirement - we'll match your company pension contributions up to 6% and you can contribute through salary sacrifice.
• Supportive and progressive people policies - we’re proud to have a range of policies to support people in their lives in and outside work, including enhanced family leave and policies to promote flexibility, inclusion and progression. We believe you shouldn’t have to wait to join us to know what to expect from us, which is why we share this overview of the policies we have in place to support families and carers. If there's something you want to understand more about, just ask - it won’t make a difference to your application.
• A healthcare cash plan - giving you money back for a range of medical expenses and fast access to doctor's appointments.
• Car lease scheme - you can buy a brand new electric or hybrid car through our leasing partner, and pay for it through salary sacrifice.
• Wellbeing support - including a 24/7 assistance programme for you and your family.
• Access to lots of discounts - including 15% off with Reach's very own online marketplace, Yimbly, where you can buy everything from homewares to beauty products.
• Interest-free loans - including for season tickets and technology.

Additional Information

Reach plc believes diversity brings benefits for our customers, our business and our people. This is why we are committed to being an inclusive employer and encourage applications from all suitable applicants irrespective of background, circumstances, age, disability, gender identity, ethnicity, religion or belief and sexual orientation.