About First Actuarial

First Actuarial has been around since 2004, when a small group of like-minded actuaries came together to bring fresh thinking to pensions consultancy. Two decades later, we’re celebrating our 20th anniversary with events at all our six offices. It’s a great time to be part of First Actuarial. Following last year’s 20% revenue increase, our strong growth path has continued into this year, and we now employ around 450 people in the UK.

We’re still an independent business with no chargeable hours targets, giving our people the time to deliver their best work and excel. We shape our high-quality services by listening closely to our clients’ needs. And we price those services fairly.

As we develop our business, prospects for our people grow. Our Basingstoke, Leeds, Manchester, Peterborough, London and Tonbridge offices provide supportive work environments where everyone can make a difference. We enjoy work and celebrate our successes. And we provide support and helpful feedback so we all learn and improve.

We love numbers, but we love people more. Staff wellbeing and work-life balance have always been core values. Beyond the firm, we’re known for our integrity. We’re happy to challenge conventional thinking and speak up. Our pioneering work is set to transform the lives of millions of younger people with a new type of pension.

The Role

We are looking for a self-starter with a positive attitude who can problem solve efficiently by understanding and developing to a set of requirements. You will have the opportunity to work both individually and collectively on a wide range projects, alongside a small/medium size team.

The successful candidate would be expected to work within a SCRUM development framework where we aim to deliver testable/working software at the end of our two-weekly sprints. Our sprint cycles typically include a diverse range of work, from updating and maintaining existing projects (both internal and external projects), to new projects using new technology. New projects will give the successful candidate the opportunity to get hands-on in every stage of the development lifecycle, from the planning stage to the delivery of the product. We primarily use the Microsoft technology stack and C#.

Responsibilities

Most of your time will be spent developing and testing/reviewing code but the full list of tasks you will likely get involved with includes:

• Liaise with others in the company and clients as appropriate to establish requirements.
• Take part in team meetings to discuss requirements, estimate time needed and review work done.
• Develop code following agreed team procedures always considering any security aspects.
• Work within a team environment ensuring all are kept up to date.
• Carry out testing and code reviews of features developed by others.
• Liaise with others in the company and clients as appropriate to ensure appropriate User Acceptance Testing is done.
• Set-up projects ready for release following release procedures.
• Use monitoring tools to find any issues with systems.
• Keep knowledge of development techniques/changes etc. up to date.
• To always strive for self-improvement and improvement of the team.

Requirements

The following are required skills for this vacancy:

• Minimum of 3 years of commercial experience with .NET Core / .NET MVC.
• Passion for programming and a willingness to learn.
• Competent with Object Oriented Programming and basic design principles.
• Frontend experience using HTML, CSS and JavaScript
• Strong initiative and ability to solve problems
• Flexible and willing to accept a change in priorities as necessary.

Desirable skills:

Some of the following would be desirable skills to have for this vacancy:

• Knowledge/experience in the following technologies:
  • Blazor
  • .NET Web APIs
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Entity Framework
  • SQL Server databases
• Can apply best practice in software architecture and design.

What we offer you

We’ll actively support you as you build your career – and reward you for doing so. At every level of seniority, we offer:

• A competitive remuneration package, including bonus and profit-sharing payments
• Private health insurance, life insurance and income protection insurance
• 25 days annual leave as standard, increasing with length of service, an extra day at Christmas, plus bank holidays and the option to purchase additional holidays
• A non-contributory pension
• Full training and study support.

We have hybrid working in place for colleagues who prefer home-working for part of the week. We’re also flexible on working day arrangements and will happily accommodate a range of personal commitments from day one.

Our straightforward, interview-based approach to recruitment ensures equal opportunities for all applicants.

Please note that we can only accept candidates who have a right to work in the UK.

Apply now with covering letter and CV