Developer at Discovery Limited

Key Purpose

• Work closely with a passionate development team to design, develop and maintain solutions for a dynamic, multi-national company that sets the benchmark in its industry. Must be a team player and have the ability to work with both vertical and horizontal colleagues both in a formal and informal setting.

Areas of responsibility may include but not limited to:

• Planning:
• Perform a high-level impact analysis, establish Scope and provide estimates based on technical requirements
• Proactively liaise with all stakeholders. • Create required planning tasks in an SDLC tool and set due dates according to agreed milestones.
• Analysis and Design:
• Actively participate in the collaborative technical design process.
• Research and find effective solutions to technical issues that arise.
• Update development timelines based on final requirements.
• Liaise with the relevant subject matter experts where clarification is required.
• Development:
• Translate technical requirements into executable code without errors.
• Ensure optimally performing system code in line with technical specifications, following prescribed process, architecture standards and procedures.
• Ensure delivery within agreed timeframes.
• Conduct unit testing and fix any defects found within the agreed SLA.
• Escalate risks to the project early on.
• Quality and Testing:
• Run code through the automated code review tool, review errors with the technical lead and fix before committing to the code base.
• Perform peer code reviews to ensure consistent application of standards, logic and effective use of libraries and reusable aspects of the software.
• Develop and maintain reusable Unit Tests.
• Assist the Test Analyst in ensuring that a comprehensive test pack is produced, which includes all the required scenarios.
• Verify that the completed software meets the established standards and is fit for purpose.
• Review the risk / impact of defects found in testing, prioritize and ensure that the priority is accurate.
• Risk and Release Management:
• Conform to the Build and Release cycles.
• Provide timeous support to the Quality Assurance Team when issues arise during testing.
• Handle all outstanding defects.
• Production Support and Root Cause management:
• Ensure that the root cause of system errors is effectively analysed and prioritized for fixing.
• Proactively bring issues and problems to the attention of the team and propose solutions to solve them.
• Assist system users and the infrastructure teams with technical support issues.
• Team Collaboration:
• Adhere to the culture of communication and collaboration across all teams.
• Attend and participate in the regular team / project stand-ups.
• Actively mentor team members where required.
• Provide feedback at the regular 1-on-1’s with your leader.
• Proactively set goals, track them and address any concerns with your leader.
• Participate in Performance reviews with your line manager and project leads.
• Actively participate in internal up-skilling initiatives.
• Transfer knowledge and contribute to building a shared knowledge base.
• Personal development:
• Keep abreast of current technological trends and how these might be applied in the Discovery environment.
• Constant improvement of knowledge of the various applications, their functions and data models.
• General:
• Ability to communicate clearly, constructively and effectively. Able to follow and participate in technical, business process, and other discussions.
• Able to build strong business relationships with other members of the team and the business areas we support.

Personal Attributes and Skills

Knowledge – Processes:

• Design patterns
• Data modelling and design of database structures, including tools such as Enterprise Architect.
• Unit and Systems Integration testing
• SDLC methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, DevOps, etc) and tools (Jira, BitBucket, GIT, etc)
• Software Versioning
• SOLID Design Principles
• Clean Code Practices and Principles
• Systems Design

Advanced knowledge/experience – Technologies:

• Java programming language (Java 8 or later)
• Java EE
• Object Oriented Programming
• JBoss/Weblogic EAP (or similar Application Server)
• Data layer (JPA, Domain Object Model, XML/XSD, JAXB, ORM frameworks, RDBMS (Oracle/PLSQL and PostgreSQL beneficial)
• Business services (EJB, RMI)
• Integration services (JMS, Apache Camel, REST / SOAP web services)
• Messaging systems (Tibco EMS, Oracle Advanced Queuing, MQ)
• Presentation layer technologies (Java Server Faces, Java Server Pages, HTML 5, JavaScript, jQuery, CSS3)
• Design patterns (DAO, Command pattern, MVC, Factory, etc)
• JUnit or JMock
• XML knowledge
• JSON knowledge
• Build tools (Apache Ant, Maven, Jenkins, etc)

Personal Attributes:

• Empathic and curious self-starter who takes ownership and accountability and can work with minimal supervision – Most Important!
• Passionate about technology and development
• Results oriented with the ability to work under pressure and cope with multiple concurrent projects
• Patience, perseverance and problem-solving skills
• Detail oriented and organized
• Strong analytical and logic skills
• Abstract thinking to be able to deal with complexity by switching between detail and high-level perspectives
• Highly adaptable to accommodate changes in technologies, scope, emergent requirements and deadlines
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Education and Experience

• 3-year university degree in computer science or business informatics, or similar qualification, is highly preferable
• Experience in building and maintaining Java applications:
• 0-2 years -> Junior
• 2-5 years -> Intermediate
• 5+ years -> Senior