Principle Developer - Nature Research Assistant

Principle Developer, Nature Research Assistant 

About the Springer Nature Group 

Springer Nature opens the doors to discovery for researchers, educators, clinicians, and other professionals. Every day, around the globe, our imprints, books, journals, platforms, and technology solutions reach millions of people. For over 175 years our brands and imprints have been a trusted source of knowledge to these communities and today, more than ever, we see it as our responsibility to ensure that fundamental knowledge can be found, verified, understood, and used by our communities – enabling them to improve outcomes, make progress, and benefit the generations that follow.  

About the role  

Springer Nature is seeking a visionary and execution-focused Principal Developer with the potential to transition into a Principal Engineering Manager. The role would lead the technology team tasked with the growth of the Nature Research Assistant – an exciting new AI-driven product for the academic research community. You will define and drive the technology strategy, champion innovation, and deliver high-impact experiences that empower researchers worldwide. With the product currently in closed beta, you will be joining at a pivotal time with the chance to influence its direction, scale its success, and make a lasting mark.  

You will work at the heart of a dynamic, cross-functional and collaborative team that is passionate about advancing science through technology. 

The job can be based in any of our main European Digital locations (London, Lisbon, Berlin), and you will work remotely at times with colleagues in many of our global offices including Lisbon, London (UK), Pune (India), Dordrecht (The Netherlands) and Berlin (Germany) and Groningen (Netherlands). Some travel will be required as appropriate.  
 

Responsibilities  

About you 

You’re a technology leader with a passion for driving innovation and delivering impactful digital solutions. You excel in being part of high-performing teams, fostering collaboration, and creating a culture of continuous improvement. 

You empower people through bounded autonomy and are skilled at delivering feedback and support to help them grow. You’re resilient in the face of uncertainty and promote a culture where we accept failure as a learning and growth opportunity. And you’re comfortable working in a collaborative environment where your ability to evangelise and help the team will be critical to your success. 

• You have several years of experience in leading software development using Java or Kotlin. 

• You enjoy mentoring and supporting other developers. 

• You are actively exploring emerging technologies in the AI/ML space. 

• You like working in a collaborative team, where there is collective ownership of the product. 

• You enjoy getting involved with every stage of the software development lifecycle. 

• You have previous experience working in a Test-Driven environment and understand the benefits. 

• You are comfortable pair programming and working in a trunk-based development environment; practicing Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery. 

• You see the value in developers owning production software and view failure as a chance to learn.    

• You have extensive experience working with Stakeholders and non-developers to come up with creative solutions to their problems 

• You are comfortable working with remote teams, across many different locations, to get things accomplished. 

• You’re comfortable working with the latest Frontend frameworks – but you advocate their use in the context of the user experience rather than purely a technology choice 

What’s expected 

In 3 months  

• Dive into the Nature Research Assistant technology stack – a http4k app with a React/Remix Frontend 

• Get familiar with our general technology stack. Most of our web applications are built in Kotlin using http4k. We also have some applications in NodeJS. Our applications are deployed to CloudFoundry using Concourse CI/CD.  

• Take part in developing new features as a member of the product team. 

• Get familiar with, and help evolve, the team’s agile processes and ceremonies. 

• Get to know the various Stakeholders and their general requirements. 

• Understand the team and product context within the publishing industry 

• Get to know all the members of the team. 

• Be able to understand and discuss business requirements with stakeholders and Product Managers and help other disciplines with these conversations. 

By 3-6 months you will: 

• Leading the technology team, developing Nature Research Assistant by using the appropriate technology solutions to solve the problem at hand. 

• Mentoring team members across different locations in a remote/hybrid set up. 

• Transform high-level requirements into actionable work. 

• An advocate for defining and implementing non-functional requirements. 

• Lead on the design of the system architecture. 

• Be able to explain and visualize the benefits and trade-offs of proposed solutions. 

• Hold technical discussions with the team in order to improve product architecture and code quality. 

By 6-12 months you will: 

• Onboard new members to the team or help other teams in the onboarding process. 

• Proactively provide useful and actionable feedback to team members. 

• Triage support queries and diagnose issues in the live applications. 

• Contribute to blameless post-mortems. 

• Understand our customers’ needs, both internal and external, and how your work affects their experience. 

Springer Nature Skills associated with this role include :

SN-Action-Oriented, SN-Tech Savvy, SN-Cultivates Innovation, SN-Data Security & Governance, SN-Quality Management, SN-Process & Systems Design​, SN-Product Development & Delivery, SN-Software Engineering & Systems Integration ​, SN-Collaboration, SN-Drives Results

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