Celtic is hiring!

Do you fancy working in sunny [sometimes] Portishead just a few dozen paces from the marina? if so, then read on! Celtic is a small (currently three of us) company, but we are growing! This is our second vacancy for 2011 and we find ourselves very much in need of extra help to handle the workload and take on new clients.

Although we don't "do websites" (as we are often asked), obviously they do play a part in what we do. We write bespoke applications that happen to be published on websites. Sometimes we create the website as well, other times we do not. Content Management systems have featured heavily with past clients, as have mobile optimised sites and applications. Typically we build quite complex applications, often needing to interface with external systems (such as credit card processing, data feeds and booking systems etc.).

Projects

Our most recent project has been for a travel agent building a system to sell UK rail tickets. This two year project involved interfacing with several external systems including payment gateways, journey planners, the National Rail fare availability database and the central ticketing system. This was built as an externally accessible API (We now have at least a dozen external vendors using the API to integrate UK rail into their own websites / applications, and several mobile applications also powered by the API). We've built both a Flex based and HTML/AJAX UIs and a mobile one optimised for iPhone, Windows Mobile, Android and Blackberry devices. The next step will be adding hotels, additional rail services, busses, European rail.

Technology

Where we have a choice we tend to use ColdFusion - simply because it's the most cost effective (and yes, we know PHP is free!!!) solution for our clients. But sometime we are asked to modify or add to existing systems, so we need to use whatever technology their currently have. So, PHP, Java, Ruby etc. are likely to feature in your work at some point. We are also keen to build IOS based apps and, no doubt, native Android apps. For client side we use Flash/Flex where appropriate as well as HTML / AJAX / jQuery UI based UIs. Databases feature in pretty much all our work. Recently it seems to have been mostly mySQL, although there are times when we still need a "proper database" and end up using SQL Server or Oracle.

Digital Pen & Paper is an exciting technology that we have licensed. Essentially it's just another way to get data into an application, but it's convenience and ease of use (who does not already know how to use a pen???) give it a significant edge over any other device in certain situations. Form design is largely visual, but custom coding must be done in PHP, so we definitely have a need for PHP work!

Our skills

We are looking for someone to compliment our core skills, not replicate them. Two of us have software engineering degrees and many years commercial experience. I (Ian, the company owner) started my career writing software for Tornado jets with British Aerospace. I followed that with over 10 years of mobile phone / digital data network programming for most of the household names in telephone technology. A background which enables me to plan, architect, develop and deliver the most complex of software projects.

What we need is someone who can be given a "bite sized" chunk of one of our projects with only a basic set of requirements and "run with it". For example, our client may say they want to add hotels to their e-commerce application. That might involve getting hotel information via a data feed (almost certainly XML), storing some of that data locally (so new database tables / queries), UI work to display the hotel info, additional data in the booking records to record the hotel sale, and changes to email confirmations. We might ask you to deal with the XML feed. So, we'd expect you to contact the feed supplier and obtain all required technical documentation, review that documentation and produce a short written brief about what you will need to do in order to use that feed and provide the necessary data to our application. After review, you'd proceed to implement and test your work. Finally you'd produce release notes which include what you have added / changed in the system, notes for the client to regarding what they need to test in order to confirm it's working as expected, and any necessary documentation. of course, you would not be alone, we are a team and we all assist each other whenever needed. The point being that you'd be expected to take ownership of the task. We believe in rewarding performance, so an element of your salary will be related to delivery of these projects. Deliver early and get a bonus!

Your skills

First and foremost you must be motivated and enjoy software development. If you see it as a necessary evil to earn a living then you won't really fit in...

You must have a passion to do the best job possible. We all have to cut corners from time to time, but that needs to be an exception rather than the rule. Most of the applications we build live for a long time and undergo many enhancements and revisions. Every corner cut inevitably ends up biting you in the ass in the future!

You must have the ability to write well commented, readable and understandable code - it won't be just you modifying it in future, so we all need to be able to understand what you have written and do so quickly.

You need to be happy talking directly to our clients. You won't simply be following instructions, but you'll find yourself discussing options with the client, educating them where necessary so that they can make informed choices.

Since our applications are web based, you'll need decent experience of writing HTML / CSS / Javascript (again, well written, logical code is essential). If you've not used jQuery or jQuery UI then do take a look at them before you come to see us! We won't expect you to design UIs or create graphics etc. but you will be expected to be able to implement designs provided to you (But if you do have some design flare then that would be a bonus!). A design for a form is unlikely to include details of any necessary validation, so that would be an area where we'd expect you to look at the application, determine what input data is acceptable / required etc. and implement whatever validation is needed.

As already mentioned, our core language is ColdFusion. As you'll be an experienced programmer you'll have no problem picking it up and we can provide in house training. You'll need to be able to create database tables and produce script to populate them with initial data as well as write SQL queries to get the data back out. Whilst we use mySQL more than anything these days, it doesn't really matter which database you've gained your experience on, its all pretty similar. If you can do query optimisation, handle indexing and other optimisation for speed then great, if not, there are other here who can handle that.

If you have a Computer Science or Software Engineering degree then we will be very happy and will assume that this training will enable you to pick up all that we do fairly quickly. Some of the "New Media" type computing degrees don't go into anywhere near as much depth, so if you have one of those, or perhaps no degree at all, then we'll be looking more closely at your commercial experience. What we are looking for mostly is either a good education in real software development, or a basic understanding and a demonstrated aptitude to learn on the job. So, please do not be put off because you don't have a Computing degree and have never touched ColdFusion.

Applications

If you wish to apply then please send your CV directly to me (ian@CelticInternet.com) along with a short covering letter detailing your current position, notice period, location / travel plans for work etc.

Our experience has been that new graduates tend not to give enough information, so please ensure you tell us about the specific course you took. Tell us about the optional modules you took. Particularly any modules you think are directly relevant to what we do here. If you have URLs that can demonstrate things you have worked on then please provide those along with a description of what specifically you did.

Hopefully we won't need to remind you to use a spell checker on your CV (UK English, not American please), but you'd be surprised... We'll be looking for decent grammar, spelling and use of English, mainly because you'll be writing documentation at some point and that needs to be well written for our clients.

Chances are we'll come back and ask you for a bit more information, then hopefully invite you for interview. At the interview you can expect us to ask you at least some technical questions about your current experience. For example, we might show you a couple of database tables and ask you to write a quick query to extract some data matching our required criteria. Or we might ask you to write a short (10 - 20 lines max) program in the language of your choice to perform some simple task.

Hopefully we'll make a decision quickly and get you on board. It possible, but not anticipated that we might ask you for a second interview.

The important bit!

What will we offer you in return for these skills? We are looking to pay a basic salary between £18,000 and £22,000 (depending upon education and experience) plus upto £2,000 performance related pay. We offer the usual holidays, plus we operate a flexible working hours system and will allow work from home where appropriate. Cost of living increases and salary review will be done annually. Additionally, we will pay 2% of salary into a pension scheme of your choice.

We offer a casual, friendly working environment and an oportunity to improve your skills and experience on some interesting projects.

Where is Portishead?

Where is Celtic?

Kestel Court
Harbour Road
Portishead
Bristol
BS20 7AN

Portishead Photos