Associate SDE (Web App)

About the company

AR Experts Ltd is a fast-growing software business based in Manchester that creates enterprise-level management tools. Its main BizAlign suite brings together four connected products used to help organisations operate more efficiently:

• BizAlign HR for human resources, onboarding, leave, and performance management
• BizAlign Workforce for shift planning, attendance tracking, and labour compliance
• BizAlign Fleet for vehicle oversight, maintenance scheduling, and compliance
• BizAlign Telematics for live GPS tracking, driver behaviour, and journey analytics

The team is collaborative, engineering-focused, and strongly values quality, accountability, and ongoing improvement. This role offers the chance to join at an important stage of product expansion and make a real impact on software relied on by thousands of users.

Role summary

The company is seeking an Associate SDE (Web App) to contribute across the full web application stack for the BizAlign product family, while also supporting other businesses in its network across logistics, fleet, retail, and ecommerce. This is a practical, hands-on role for someone who can take features from concept to delivery, build maintainable code, work confidently with data models, and improve application speed and usability.

The position is full-time and fully remote, with the HQ located in Manchester, UK. It is a permanent role reporting to the Lead Developer.

What you will do

• Develop, maintain, and improve features across BizAlign web applications using React.js and modern JavaScript/TypeScript.
• Build reusable UI components that follow agreed design systems, coding conventions, and maintainability standards.
• Implement client-side state handling, form workflows, validation, routing, and scalable data-fetching approaches.
• Connect frontend applications to REST APIs and manage more complex data-flow scenarios.
• Ensure the web experience remains dependable across current browsers, different screen sizes, and varying network conditions.
• Turn UX research, wireframes, and design specifications into responsive, polished, and accessible interfaces.
• Pay close attention to layout, spacing, visual hierarchy, consistency, usability, and overall product quality.
• Work with design and product teams to identify usability issues and suggest practical improvements.
• Help keep the product suite consistent by contributing to shared components, design tokens, and UI patterns.
• Design interfaces with accessibility in mind, including semantic HTML, keyboard support, contrast, and responsive behaviour.
• Build and optimise RESTful APIs with Node.js and Express to support product needs.
• Create secure, maintainable business logic, authentication-aware flows, validation, and error handling.
• Collaborate on API design so that frontend and backend integrations remain clear, documented, and easy to maintain.
• Support end-to-end delivery from interface work through backend integration, database updates, testing, and release preparation.
• Maintain clear boundaries between frontend, API, service, and data-access layers.
• Work with both relational and NoSQL databases and understand the trade-offs between the two approaches.
• Design, query, and maintain relational data structures, with PostgreSQL preferred for structured business workflows.
• Use MongoDB or other document databases where flexible or highly variable data models are a better fit.
• Write efficient SQL, including joins, constraints, indexes, transactions, migrations, and schema evolution.
• Contribute to data-modelling decisions and help choose suitable database patterns for each requirement.
• Find and fix performance issues in frontend and backend systems, such as slow rendering, heavy queries, large payloads, and inefficient API calls.
• Improve page-load speed, interaction responsiveness, table and list rendering, and perceived application performance.
• Monitor API response times, query efficiency, and application stability under heavier usage.
• Flag technical debt early and suggest incremental changes that improve long-term maintainability.
• Use Git effectively, including clean commits, branch discipline, and pull-request workflows.
• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions and help support dependable deployments across environments.
• Work with AWS services such as EC2 and S3 for hosting, asset handling, and environment configuration.
• Support Docker-based local development and deployment workflows when needed.
• Document implementation details, setup steps, and technical decisions for the wider team.
• Use AI coding tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude, or similar products as productivity aids rather than substitutes for engineering judgement.
• Review, understand, test, and take ownership of AI-assisted code before it is submitted.
• Use AI for scaffolding, boilerplate, refactoring, tests, documentation, and debugging support in a thoughtful way.
• Recognise the limitations of AI-generated output, including incorrect APIs, insecure patterns, logic mistakes, and performance issues.
• Write meaningful unit and integration tests where appropriate using Jest or similar tools.
• Own work from scoping through implementation, testing, release, and post-release support.
• Communicate progress, blockers, risks, and assumptions clearly and early.
• Participate actively in code reviews and help maintain high engineering standards.
• Keep user experience quality at the centre of the work, not just code correctness.

Skills and experience

• Practical experience building web applications with React.js or a comparable modern frontend framework.
• Strong JavaScript ability, with TypeScript knowledge strongly preferred.
• Hands-on experience integrating frontend applications with REST APIs.
• Basic to intermediate backend experience with Node.js and Express, or a similar framework.
• Working knowledge of relational and NoSQL database concepts, with PostgreSQL experience preferred.
• Ability to write and interpret SQL queries, including joins, filtering, sorting, aggregation, and basic indexing.
• Experience using MongoDB or another NoSQL database, including document modelling and query patterns.
• Interest in UI/UX and the ability to build responsive, refined, user-friendly interfaces.
• Understanding of performance optimisation across frontend, backend, and database layers.
• Experience with Git and branch/pull-request-based collaboration.
• Comfort using AI-assisted development tools responsibly while still reviewing and owning the result.
• Ability to take a feature from start to finish and communicate clearly throughout the process.

Nice-to-have experience

• Exposure to PostgreSQL tuning, query plans, transactions, or migration tooling.
• Experience with Prisma ORM, Sequelize, Knex, or another data-access layer.
• Background in improving performance for large tables, dashboards, reports, or data-heavy applications.
• Knowledge of caching, background jobs, queues, or asynchronous processing.
• Professional exposure to AWS services.
• Familiarity with Docker and container-based development environments.
• Testing experience with Jest, React Testing Library, or similar tools.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and GitHub Actions.
• Understanding of HR, workforce management, fleet management, logistics, retail, ecommerce, or telematics domains.
• Previous experience in a startup or product-led environment.

Who you are

• You take responsibility and act without waiting to be pushed.
• You think from the user’s perspective and care about the wider experience, not just the ticket.
• You pay close attention to detail, including readability, naming, spacing, accessibility, and performance.
• You ask thoughtful questions and make sure requirements are well understood before coding.
• You can move quickly while still producing maintainable, high-quality software.
• You use AI tools intelligently and can explain the code you submit.
• You collaborate well, respond positively to feedback, and help lift team performance.

What the company offers

• Competitive pay reviewed on an annual basis.
• A fully remote working arrangement.
• Direct exposure to the complete product lifecycle across four expanding products.
• A low-ego, highly collaborative engineering culture.
• A clear growth path with a focus on internal progression and promotion.
• Learning and development support for courses, conferences, and tooling.
• Regular team social activities and a strong team culture.

Additional information

The role is permanent, full-time, and remote. It reports to the Lead Developer. The company is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to building an inclusive workplace for all employees. Applicants are asked to provide a full name, email address, phone number, LinkedIn profile, optional GitHub profile, CV/resume, cover letter, visa or work authorisation details, and written responses about interest in web development plus a suitability statement. Work authorisation options shown include UK citizen/settled status with no visa required, require work authorisation, or other.