From one of the first-ever Apple Watch apps, to a platform for the UK’s largest online savings marketplace, our engineers have left their mark on some of the UK’s most-used, most recognisable digital products.
Our backend team is responsible for ensuring that our products work seamlessly, managing server-side web application logic and integration to improve functionality and enhance efficiency. Our backend specialists are masters of the latest tools and technologies and are experts across a wide range of stacks and skills, including database management, framework utilisation, programming, and accessibility and security compliance. This team works collaboratively alongside our other specialist departments to ensure the delivery of high quality products for our clients and their users.
Our front end team are a diverse group of people, bringing their different backgrounds and experiences to xDesign, allowing the team to combine technical and creative skills to build responsive and accessible products. This team takes an in-depth approach to understanding end users’ needs, and creates products that are both effective, and enjoyable. These engineers work collaboratively and use a range of tools and technologies to ensure that the products we build can be engaged with freely and comfortably, and their ability to understand and balance the needs of our clients with the needs of end users is a key part of what enables us to deliver such high quality products, again and again.
Our tech enablement team is laser-focused on helping build our capabilities and increasing the effectiveness of our teams so that we can continue to take on new and exciting projects, and deliver innovation to our clients. They help ensure that team members across the business get the knowledge and information they need to improve productivity and increase efficiency, and the digital platforms and solutions that they explore, implement, and refine on a daily basis are a driving force behind our ability to continue providing the highest possible level of service to our clients.
This team is responsible for assessing and testing the quality of the products that we create – a part of the process that often results in some of the most interesting, useful innovation we deliver. These specialists stay up-to-date on the latest technologies and trends and integrate them into their work to ensure that our products are as powerful and engaging as possible. This is a team of dynamic, thoughtful people committed to making sure that the products we build are the accessible, inclusive, and user-friendly, and their commitment to their craft helps us deliver high quality, impactful products.
Our engineering team works with a range of technologies and methodologies to create, maintain, and improve a wide range of different products for our diverse clients. Depending on the unique needs of a project, our engineers work in either cross-functional teams or in multiple discipline-focused delivery teams. Their goal is to constantly look for the best possible ways to solve complex problems while delivering the highest-quality products.
To do this, our engineers work together across various technology communities, through unified standards and practices, and through internal projects to strengthen their expertise and expand their knowledge. Collaboration is crucial to our success and our client’s success, and so the team continuously shares information across projects through knowledge-share sessions or reviews, and gets together for departmental discussions and socialising.
1
Initial conversation
First, you’ll speak with a member of the talent acquisition team about your background and qualifications to determine whether the role you’ve applied for is a good fit for you, and for the team. During this session, the team will also ensure that your needs and requirements for the recruitment process are understood and accommodated, if necessary.
2
In-depth interview
Next, you’ll spend an hour having a more in-depth chat with a senior member of the team to make sure that your specific experience and interests are aligned with the requirements of the role you’ve applied for. At this stage, you’ll discuss your technical skills, and you’ll also have the chance to tell us about yourself and your interests, and to ask whatever questions you may have about the team, and the role.
3
Skills-based assessment
Finally, you’ll be asked to complete a skills-based assessment: the assessment will be tailored to the role to which you’ve applied, the department’s specific needs, and your level of experience. The assessment will be a pair programming exercise or a take-home assignment. If your application is successful following this step, you’ll receive an offer as soon as possible. Once you’ve accepted your offer and agreed a start date, you can sit back, relax, and wait for your welcome package.
Engineering manager (backend)
Quality assurance engineer
Senior software engineer (frontend)
One of our iOS developers, Rob Wilson, began his career as a chemical engineer before transitioning to programming and starting at xDesign. In this “meet n’ greet” series, he talks about his passion for building great products, and describes his favourite part of his role: how his team is constantly working to improve processes and build relationships over time.
Read more
Engineering Workshops are interactive, collaborative articles that address a variety of web development topics, from big questions about how the Internet works, to more specific issues like web page processing. Our in-house subject matter experts work hard to bring these technical, nuanced subjects to life in an engaging way, and cover a range of interesting topics, like this piece on websockets.
Read more
The simple reality is that an Agile team requires agile team members; team members that are trained in Agile methodology, but who are also genuinely agile, in the human sense of the word, and that includes engineers. If you’re taking a strictly binary look at a software engineer – evaluating their potential or contributions based on technical proficiency alone – you’re not capitalising on what makes an engineer a truly valuable, dynamic asset.
Read more