Lead Front End Engineer

Date: 16 Apr 2024 Location: Noida, South Asia, IN Company: British Council

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide.

We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them to build networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications.

Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021\xe2\x80\x9322 we reached 650 million people.


Salary: starting at 3,276,421 INR
Location: Noida
Department: Engineering
Contract type: Indefinite (permanent)
Closing Date: 5th May 2024, at 23:59
Some of our benefits are:

• Group Mediclaim policy.
• Group term life insurance policy.
• Group accident insurance policy.
• Variable pay, subject to annual performance evaluation.
• Annual Leave of 21 days, subject to policy.
• Free British Council Library membership.
• Annual Health Check-up.

You must have the legal right to work in India at the time of application. There is no relocation or sponsorship support.
British Council supports working in new ways such as hybrid working, subject to full approval by line management and conditional upon our ability to provide the appropriate level of service. This may not be appropriate for all roles but can be explored at interview.


Role purpose
As Lead Front End Engineer, you will be responsible for leading the delivery of cutting-edge digital experiences that delight users. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to define technical strategies, architect robust and scalable solutions, and drive innovation in Front End development practices to meet the needs of a range of British Council products and services accessed globally. You will play a critical role in shaping the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) of digital products, ensuring seamless functionality, usability, and performance across diverse platforms and devices.


You will provide guidance and support in the technical design, implementation, and optimisation of our Front-End solutions, and with your deep understanding of software engineering principles and best practice, you will play a pivotal role in assuring the stability and security of these systems.


Role Context
The role will be part of the Digital and Technology Directorate, which leads the British Council\xe2\x80\x99s digital strategy and transformation. It creates and executes technology initiatives to fulfil the organisation\xe2\x80\x99s mission and corporate priorities. Digital and Technology is organised into four divisions: Product, Engineering, Operations and Performance.
Key focus areas are:

• Creating digital products that attract and retain customers, delivering business value through digital design and delivery expertise.
• Developing and optimising digital platforms that provide seamless customer interactions and use scalable and secure capabilities.
• Enhancing digital capability across the organisation.
• Enabling growth, impact, and efficiency through technology.

Accountabilities/Responsibilities:

• Lead and nurture the Front End engineering team, guiding and mentoring engineers to achieve their professional growth and their team\xe2\x80\x99s project objectives. Foster a collaborative and inclusive team culture, promoting knowledge sharing, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Devise, promote and oversee robust and high-quality coding.
• Contribute to the development and management of budgets for engineering projects, ensuring efficient allocation of resources. Proactively identify opportunities for cost optimisation and efficiency improvements in systems while balancing business needs and quality standards.
• Understand and collaborate to determine whole system design, sharing your insight with the team and stakeholders. Provide technical advice to stakeholders and agree team-based standards for programming tools and techniques.
• Collaborate with Product Managers, User Experience, and other stakeholders to define and prioritise Front End engineering requirements for product development.
• Code, review, test and document programs or scripts of high complexity
• Engage with key stakeholders and business partners to understand their Front End engineering needs and provide technical solutions that meet their requirements.
• Collaborate with customer success managers to gather feedback from customers and incorporate it into the continuous improvement of Front End solutions.
• Build strong relationships and maintain effective communication channels with stakeholders, guiding alignment and satisfaction with Front End engineering initiatives
• Identify potential risks and vulnerabilities in Front End systems and implement appropriate security measures to mitigate them.
• Promote and assure compliance with industry standards, regulations, and data privacy requirements in the design and implementation of Front End solutions.
• Oversee and assure the implementation and maintenance of robust monitoring and logging mechanisms to detect and respond to potential performance or compliance issues.
• Develop and maintain analytics and reporting capabilities for Front end systems, providing insights on performance, usage patterns, and user behaviour.
• Generate regular reports and presentations to communicate Front end Backend engineering performance and progress.

Requirements of the role:

• Demonstrable experience in Front End engineering at senior level, with a focus on designing and implementing scalable and high-performance systems.
• Excellent knowledge of front-end web technologies and experience of creating Single Page Applications.
• Exceptional JavaScript/TypeScript experience: ES6, ES2017, React (preferred) / Angular / Vue / Svelte
• CSS: exposure to SASS/LESS, frameworks: Bootstrap, SemanticUI, MaterialUI and Responsive design - CSS Grid/Flexbox
• Deep understanding and experience of UI/UX design principles and ability to collaborate effectively with designers.
• Expertise in responsive design principles and mobile-first development.
• Deep understanding of browser compatibility issues and performance optimisation techniques.
• Sound knowledge of accessibility standards, SEO best practices, and security principles.
• Experience with web app performance, monitoring, and optimisation.
• Experience with build tools and package managers (Webpack, Gulp, npm).
• Proficiency in building and consuming RESTful and GraphQL APIs.
• Expertise in end-to-end unit and integration testing (e.g. Cypress, Jest and Playwright)
• Experience leading a team
• Strong prototyping skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Skilled in agile development (Scrum/Kanban), software patterns, test and behaviour driven development and version control
• Written and verbal proficiency (CEF 1) in English is required.
• Bachelor\'s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related field; or equivalent experience in related discipline.
• Continuous learning through online courses, workshops, and industry conferences to stay updated with emerging technologies and best practices in Front End development.

A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.


Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Statement


The British Council is committed to policies and practices of equality, diversity and inclusion across everything we do. We support all staff to make sure their behaviour is consistent with this commitment. We want to address under representation and encourage applicants from under-represented groups, in particular, but not exclusively, on grounds of ethnicity and disability. All disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria are guaranteed an interview and we have Disability Confident Employer Status. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.


The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with.


We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989.


Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed; these will include qualification checks, reference checks, identity & criminal record checks in line with legal requirements and with the British Council\xe2\x80\x99s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.


If you have any problems with your application please email askhr@britishcouncil.org


Please note: Applications to this role can only be considered when made through the Apply section of our careers website. Our \xe2\x80\x98ASK HR\xe2\x80\x99 email is only to be used in case of a technical issue encountered when applying through the careers website. Emails with supporting statements and CV/Resumes sent to this email address will not be reviewed and will be deleted.