Senior Front-end Developer (Pipeline)

See yourself as someone who designs delightful user experiences with code? And do you have fun figuring out how to make interfaces better — more usable, more accessible, more performant and more future-proof? We’re looking for a full-time Senior Front-end Developer to help refine and shape Yuppiechef’s front-end code and UI as we grow and scale. 

We are currently building a pipeline for future needs. 

What does the job entail?

• Developing and maintaining our user interfaces (UIs) across all of our software products — comprising our self-built online store, mobile POS (Point Of Sale) and warehouse apps, to our internal dashboards
• Building reusable, intuitive UI components and workflows in Javascript (Clojurescript), with an understanding of a React application structure:
  • Implement state management strategies tailored to application needs, understanding the React lifecycle and the Context API. 
  • Write efficient, secure code to manage data flow, with attention to potential data conflicts and synchronisation issues across components
  • Minimise load times and improve user experience by implementing techniques like code-splitting and prefetching.
  • Proficiency in working with RESTful APIs or GraphQL frameworks to connect front-end components to back-end services.
  • Understanding of error handling and data fetching strategies for efficient API calls 
• Building and maintaining enterprise-level, highly flexible and responsive UI layouts and components using HTML and CSS:
  • Writing semantic HTML markup with a strong focus on accessibility, in order to make experiences that are friendly to browsers, people who browse the internet differently (with assistive technologies), and search engines (SEO)
  • Owning our CSS development and writing resilient, performant CSS with a focus on modularity, flexibility, compatibility, and extensibility
  • Working with UI Designers to maintain and document our component library and ensure design consistency across all of our software products
• Building HTML email components for our newsletter and transactional email templates
• Collaborating with UI designers, product managers, product owners and developers with empathy and a growth mindset
• Taking responsibility for the front-end, customer-facing layer of our applications:
  • Collaborating on the technical direction for the team
  • Being an advocate for best practices in front-end code and high-quality UI development principles
  • Helping to grow front-end / UI development skills within the team

What are the requirements?

• You’ll need to have had more than 8 years’ experience as a front-end developer — building web and mobile interfaces for real customers, either freelance or working for a studio
• A world-class front-end development portfolio, spanning across web and mobile applications, that demonstrates the level of skill and experience required for this role

You’ll need to show these specific skills and coding languages:

• JavaScript / React
  • Able to write efficient, performant Javascript at an enterprise level
  • Proficiency functional programming concepts, and asynchronous patterns in JavaScript
  • Extensive experience in React, with a clear understanding of hooks, context API, React lifecycle methods, and component architecture
• HTML — Able to write and maintain enterprise level, semantic, accessible and performant HTML at scale
• CSS — Able to write efficient, highly-scalable, modern CSS at an enterprise level
• Design — Able to interpret and implement UI and UX design patterns from static mockups
• Accessibility — A solid understanding of and ability to audit and implement accessibility principles in code
• SEO — A solid understanding of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) principles
• Web Optimisation — A solid understanding of and ability to implement and maintain image and webfont optimisation techniques
• Testing and Quality Assurance — Proficient in unit testing and integration testing
• Version Control — Able to use Github or similar version control software
• UI design skills and ability to use Adobe Photoshop, XD, Figma or similar would be beneficial
• A tertiary qualification in User Interface Design, Front-end Development, Computer Science or similar would be beneficial. You will, however, need to have a Matric (GCSE; A-levels; or equivalent)

What does our stack look like?

We take pride in building our own tech — from our online store and mobile POS (Point of Sale) app, to our warehouse systems and admin dashboards. This enables us to drive retail innovation and craft experiences that delight. Our stack comprises:

• Front end: React (RUM), Clojurescript, Javascript; Pre-processed CSS (Sass)
• Back end: Clojure; Java; PHP
• Infrastructure: Nginx / Apache; AWS, Kafka / RabbitMQ; Redis; Memcached; Docker; Cloudflare; Datadog; Sentry

Learn more about tech at Yuppiechef

Who are we?

We’re Yuppiechef, and see ourselves as helping people find moments of joy at home. We’re here to offer outstanding and memorable service, while selling things that our customers love using. We’re foodies and home lovers, aesthetes and early adopters, and we’re passionate learners more than we’re experts. We have a loved online store and 21 beautiful physical stores across SA, and we’re a proud member of the dynamic Mr Price Group. Our head office in Westlake, Cape Town, has a view of the mountains, a beautiful Rancilio coffee machine, and plenty of books to borrow. It’s filled with people who value excellence, and who like spending time with one another over coffee and lunches. We’re always looking for new people to teach us new ways of doing things and help us make big things happen. We’d love to know if you might be one of them.

Values, pay and benefits?

Our values:

• People - Kindness and respect for everyone
• Team - Honouring each other's strengths makes us all stronger
• Excellence - Our best work always, no matter who’s watching
• Integrity - We’re the same all the way through
• Growth - We aren’t content to stand still
• Fun - We take the time to enjoy each other and what we do

Pay and benefits:

• We pay competitive, market-related salaries based on skills and experience. Your salary is based on a “Total Cost To Company” model and includes:
  • Medical Aid (Discovery) contributions
  • Life, Death and Disability
  • Retirement Annuity
  • Employee Assistance programme
  • 17 Days Paid Annual Leave increasing to 20 days with length of service
• Half-day Fridays once a month
• Hybrid work policy — Cape Town-based Head Office in Westlake

Yuppiechef is a member of Mr Price Group Limited, an equal opportunity employer, and is committed to Employment Equity. By applying for this role, you agree with our terms and conditions.