Front End Developer jobs in Essex

About AGS and UNITY

Alpaca Global Solutions is the company behind UNITY, a smart property monitoring platform built to help social housing providers create safer, healthier and more energy-efficient homes.

UNITY uses connected sensors and live property data to help housing providers understand conditions inside their homes. The platform supports the identification and management of damp and mould risk, excess cold and heat, ventilation, energy consumption and resident wellbeing.

Our technology combines Internet of Things devices, mobile connectivity, cloud infrastructure and a web platform that turns environmental data into practical insight. We are a small, collaborative team building a growing product with a clear social purpose.

The role

*The role is Hybrid, you will be required to be in the office a minimum of 3 days per week. Office time may increase depending on requirements.

We are looking for a Mid-Level Full-Stack Developer to join the team developing and supporting the UNITY platform. You will work closely with our Technical Lead and the wider business to design, build and maintain new product features—from understanding a problem and shaping a solution through to implementation, testing, deployment and ongoing support.

This is a hands-on role for someone who enjoys ownership, communicates openly and solves practical problems. In a small development team, we value people who are dependable, comfortable asking questions and willing to contribute beyond a narrowly defined set of tickets.

We use AI-assisted development tools, including OpenAI Codex, to accelerate appropriate development tasks. You should be comfortable using these tools thoughtfully while applying sound engineering judgement, reviewing generated code carefully and taking responsibility for its quality and security.

What you will be doing

• Develop and enhance features across the UNITY web platform.
• Work across our PHP/Yii2 backend and Vue 3 frontend.
• Collaborate with the Technical Lead and other stakeholders to translate requirements into practical technical solutions.
• Contribute across planning, development, testing, deployment, monitoring and maintenance.
• Work with connected-device data and turn it into useful information for housing providers.
• Investigate bugs, diagnose production issues and implement reliable fixes.
• Contribute to integrations between UNITY and customers’ systems and data services.
• Help maintain and improve our AWS-based infrastructure and deployment processes.
• Write clear, maintainable and appropriately tested code; review code constructively and maintain useful documentation.
• Use AI-assisted tools responsibly for investigation, implementation, testing, refactoring and documentation.
• Suggest practical improvements to the platform, development processes and user experience.

Essential experience and skills

• At least three years’ commercial software development experience.
• Strong experience with PHP and modern JavaScript.
• Experience building and maintaining applications using a PHP framework; Yii2 experience is particularly valuable.
• Experience with Vue.js; Vue 3 and the Composition API are particularly valuable.
• Good working knowledge of HTML and CSS/Sass.
• Experience with relational databases, ideally MySQL.
• Confidence using Git in a collaborative development workflow.
• Experience working with APIs and integrating third-party services.
• An understanding of application security, data protection and secure development practices.
• A methodical approach to investigation and the ability to own problems through to resolution.
• Strong written and verbal communication and the ability to work independently and collaboratively.
• A willingness to give and receive constructive feedback.

Desirable experience

Experience in any of the following would be beneficial, but we do not expect applicants to have worked with everything on this list:

• AWS services and cloud-hosted applications.
• Docker and containerised deployments.
• MQTT, messaging or event-driven technologies.
• Internet of Things devices, sensor data or time-series data.
• Webpack or comparable frontend build tooling.
• Automated testing and continuous integration or deployment.
• Data visualisation, analytics or enterprise system integrations.
• Housing, property technology, energy monitoring or smart-home products.
• AI-assisted software development tools such as OpenAI Codex.

How we work

Technical ability matters, but so does how you work with the people around you. We are looking for someone who:

• Communicates clearly, keeps others informed and raises risks or uncertainty early.
• Takes responsibility for their work and follows tasks through to completion.
• Is comfortable asking for help and equally willing to support colleagues.
• Approaches feedback positively and contributes ideas constructively.
• Balances quality with pragmatism and values simple, reliable solutions.
• Is curious about customers’ problems rather than focusing only on the code.
• Can work productively in a growing business where priorities sometimes change.
• Uses AI as an engineering aid, not as a substitute for understanding, verification or accountability.

Why join us?

• Work on technology that can make a meaningful difference to people living in social housing.
• Help shape a growing product rather than maintaining one narrow part of a large system.
• Gain exposure to web development, cloud infrastructure, connected devices and real-world data.
• Work directly with the Technical Lead and have a genuine voice in technical decisions.
• Take ownership of features from initial idea through to production.
• Join a supportive team with opportunities to learn, develop and broaden your responsibilities.
• Benefit from hybrid working that combines collaboration in Epping with focused home working.

How to apply

Please send your CV with a short introduction explaining why the role interests you and how your experience could contribute to UNITY.

Links to a GitHub profile, portfolio or public code repositories are welcome but not required. If your work cannot be shared publicly, describe one or two significant projects, including the problem, your contribution, technologies used, an important decision or challenge, and what you learned.

We are interested in how you think, communicate and solve real-world problems—not simply how many technologies you can list.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: £35,000.00-£40,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Casual dress
• Company pension
• On-site parking
• Sick pay

Application question(s):

• Our offices are based near Epping, CM16. Will you be able to commute to the office at least three times a week (more if required)?

Experience:

• Software development: 3 years (required)

Language:

• English (required)

Licence/Certification:

• Driving Licence (required)

Work authorisation:

• United Kingdom (required)

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Epping CM16 6NR