Senior PHP Programmer required for educational publisher ZigZag Education in their busy office in Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol. Mainly working on a number of small new projects and updates under the direction of the commissioning editor. You must be able to work independently, be logical and precise, have good attention to detail, be capable of working on multiple projects while giving feedback to your line manager, and understand the need for thorough testing and documentation. You must be willing to muck in with technical support, although this isn't the main focus of the role.
You will be writing logical, well-commented code and building on and improving existing systems. You will create robust bespoke systems to increase efficiency in the business. Your user interfaces – for both internal staff and external customers – will be intuitive and fast. You will balance the feedback of users with the requirements of your manager (also a programmer), and manage your workload to ensure an appropriate balance between time, quality and budget. You will fit in with a culture of good organisation and clear, timely reporting. And if you enjoy solving problems, you will find the work varied, challenging and rewarding!
As an educational publisher, we require a person with a strong academic background. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated this through strong GCSEs and A Levels and a good degree. You are required to complete a six-month probationary period. Starting pay depends on amount of formal relevant experience. There is the possibility of a further contract.
Examples of recent programming projects:
- Creating a change log to keep track of changes to a key field
- Creating an online customer feedback form and integrating it into an existing web database system
- Creating a system where multiple records are logged and printed to a batch file, so they can all be printed in one go
- Working out how to automate a daily backup of an essential online MySQL database (real-time sync with development and production server), download it, and upload it to a second test website to demonstrate recovery
- Solving a drag-and-drop JavaScript script problem which works in a browser but not on iPads
- Creating a new website (micro-site)
Examples of recent bug solving (involving understanding existing code - all new projects are in PHP but we have a notable amount of legacy ASP scripts):
- Changing the mathematical calculations in a report that are giving the wrong set of percentages
- Working out why an item sometimes doesn't appear on a report
- Reverse engineering to work out why two different reports that should match give different totals
Examples of recent technical support:
- After the nightly backup failed, having a look at the backup log to see what the reason is and reporting back
- A computer isn't working - investigating to see if there is a solution before we reinstall it
As one of only three employees with an IT background, you will also be asked to get involved in other IT-experience based tasks, depending on your skills and experience. For example, you might be asked to work through a new IT publication or to write a short in-house user guide on how to use a graphics program.