Senior Web Developer

Reporting to: Director

The role:

NAM is a dynamic and forward thinking charity based in London. It is one of the world's pre-eminent sources of independent, accurate, evidence-based information on HIV/AIDS.  NAM has been producing information on HIV/AIDS, and disseminating it across the world, for over 20 years. 

A vacancy has arisen within NAM for a Senior Developer to work on and extend NAM's award winning web presence at aidsmap.com. The site is one of NAM’s prime methods of disseminating material about HIV/AIDS to a broad audience which includes people living with HIV and the professionals who treat support and care for them. An increasing proportion of the online audience is coming from the developing word.

NAM’s small team (currently 16) has considerable reach and impact.  aidsmap.com, which was launched in 1999, has seen an average annual traffic growth of 71%.  In 2006 the site was the British Medical Association’s Patient Information Website of the Year.  It now has c450,000 visitors each month.  While 20% of subscribers to one of NAM’s popular e-mail bulletins are UK based, 34% are now from Africa, with 13% from both North America and Asia. 

The challenges:

•          Refactoring the existing web architecture to allow for the future growth in traffic, expansion and development of the site, and improved navigability and end-user experience.

•          Designing and developing an architecture for the site which will allow for new features, increased simplicity in production workflow and increasing integration in to the publishing of all of NAM's output, both online and offline.

•          Putting in place and maintaining source control system, documentation archives.

•          Training NAM staff in the use of content management system tools on the site.

•          Supporting editorial / fund raising / marketing staff in their online activities and helping to shape the ongoing online strategy of NAM in these areas.

•          Daily management of the site.

•          Daily management of the small development team and its integration with the business processes of NAM.

•          Analysis of site metrics and log analysis to inform continual efficiency of the site.

•          Delivering income-generating web development consultancy services to NAM’s partner organisations or other related charities.

•          Ensuring NAM’s web-based publications evolve appropriately in response to end-user’s feedback or needs.

The candidate:

The candidate will develop and implement technical strategy across all of NAM's portfolio of publications ensuring their alignment with the charity’s strategic goals and will advise the director, site editor, colleagues or trustees of developments that could have a bearing on NAM's work. This role would suit an individual who has both a strategic and a hands-on approach to development.

The candidate should be degree educated with either a B.Sc/M.Sc in Computer Science or another equivalent discipline. Candidates from a scientific background with relevant experience and skills are highly encouraged to apply. The candidate should have at least 3-4 years of relevant experience in a commercial/NGO/charity environment and should have some experience in managing junior developers and projects.

The candidate should be diligent and thorough, with a high level of attention to detail, strong analytical skills and the ability to take responsibility for ensuring that projects are completed to deadline. The candidate should feel comfortable in multi-stakeholder environments, working with a wide variety of people of differing skills and experience, including staff members, external resources and consultancy clients.

As aidsmap.com is one of NAM’s key means of disseminating information, which can range from simple entry-level material to technical medical information, some understanding of, and sensitivity towards, the issues surrounding HIV and AIDS is desirable, but not essential for this role.

Skills required:

•          ASP.Net (C# and VB.net)

•          SQL Server (Management and Development)

•          XSLT / XML

•          HTML / Javascript / CSS

•          Source control (Subversion / CVS / Git)

•          Deployment and support of live ASP.Net applications

•          Full lifecycle management of medium scale web development projects

•          Project management methodologies (preferably Agile, ideally SCRUM)

•          IIS Management

•          Integration of webservice end-points into content management systems

Required experience: (three or more of the following)

•          Content Management Systems

•          Production Workflow

•          Implementation of Model View Controller pattern

•          Search Engine Optimisation of content

•          Browser compliance issues and graceful degradation of interface for mobile and bandwidth scarce environments

•          Templating systems to allow separation of design and development

•          Caching strategies to improve site performance under load

•          Mentoring Junior Developers and managing small multiskilled teams

•          A basic understanding of ActionScript 3 development

•          Knowledge of using 3rd party APIs such as YouTube and Flickr to create content mashups

Culture at NAM:

NAM is a dynamic and energetic organisation which achieves a great deal with a small but highly focussed and professional team. NAM has a commitment to ensuring a good work-life balance and offering its employees flexibility in the way they work. NAM is professional, yet informal and friendly, with a good level of autonomy within roles. NAM works in a rapidly changing environment, it listens to the views of users in order to ensure it is responsive to need and maximises opportunities as they arise.

Salary and benefits:

Starting salary £35-42k depending on experience.

Pension entitlement of 6% of gross salary

35 hours per week

25 days holiday per annum, UK public and bank holidays (after 2 years’ service one extra day is awarded per year to a maximum of 30 days).

To apply

To apply, please send your CV to recruit@nam.org.uk

For further information please write to recruit@nam.org.uk