Senior Back End Drupal Developer - UK

Founded in 2009, Zoocha is a leading Drupal specialist digital agency based in the UK, with offices in Spain and Brazil. Over 80 passionate thinkers, makers, and doers working across a range of disciplines including UX, strategy, design, development, hosting, project management, and support.

We’re a friendly, lively, and fast-paced place to work, with regular team nights out and a wide range of social events on offer across our three offices – and we’re a certified Great Place to Work, too.

We’re also ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and Cyber Essentials Plus certified, and hold ISO 14001 & Carbon Neutral certifications. Our commitment to environmental sustainability sits at the heart of Zoocha’s products and business processes.

We build long-lasting, collaborative relationships with clients and push them, ourselves, and the world around us forward through the work we do together.

With over 50 clients that all use Drupal, our work is varied, but we have a focus on the not-for-profit, government and education sectors. Current clients include:

• United Nations
• University College London
• University of Portsmouth
• Alzheimer’s Society
• Oxfam
• Professional Darts Corporation (PDC)
• Westminster City Council
• Greater London Authority
• University of Cambridge
• Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
• Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust
• Ofsted

The Role / Your Remit

As a Senior Drupal Developer at Zoocha, your role extends beyond just writing code; it encompasses leading by example in creating secure, efficient, and standards-compliant Drupal solutions.

You will be expected to step into a Back End project lead role, leveraging your extensive knowledge to provide detailed dev notes and sound estimates based on your experience, whilst supporting your fellow developers.

Working closely with teams that include a Front End Lead, Delivery Manager, QA specialists, and DevOps you will help guide projects towards successful completion, ensuring efficient progress towards the delivery of solutions that you can be proud of, whilst maintaining and fostering strong relationships with clients.

Your typical day might include:

• Participating in planning calls and daily stand-ups with clients and project teams
• Interrogating client requirements to produce dev notes, approaches, and estimations
• Working closely with Technical Architects, Delivery Managers, and other project team members to address issues and answer questions
• Providing guidance and support to less experienced developers
• Engaging in project sprints, handling tasks of varying complexities, and implementing new features as per project specifications
• Ensuring all code complies with Drupal’s best practices and coding standards
• Documenting features to ensure clarity and serve as a reference
• Troubleshooting and debugging issues as they occur
• Reviewing code and analysing pull requests to maintain quality
• Acting as an escalation point for support-related issues

Mandatory requirements

• Ideally a bachelor’s degree in a subject with an IT, numerate, engineering or science focus (e.g. Computer Science, Physics, Engineering, Maths or related) or demonstrable experience where you have independently undertaken a complex problem and achieved success
• Fluency in English, both written and spoken, is essential
• You must be based in the UK, ideally within commuting distance of our office in Hertford
• You MUST have a VISA or work permit already
• You MUST NOT apply through a recruitment consultant as your application will be disregarded

Skills and experience we’re looking for

• 5+ years of experience in Drupal development
• Proficiency in PHP (Object-Oriented Programming), Git (GitHub flow), Composer, and Drush
• Solid understanding of Drupal's API (including Symfony Components), custom module and theme development
• Demonstrates technical leadership with strong communication skills, adept at participating in discussions and conducting planning sessions with clients and stakeholders
• Skilled in scoping tasks for dev notes and estimations, conducting pull requests, upholding best practices and coding standards and supporting growth of junior developers through mentorship
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to contribute to several concurrent project streams
• Practical working knowledge of DevOps tooling, such as Docker and local development environment tools such as DDEV and Lando
• Familiarity with modern web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and responsive design principles

Why work at Zoocha?

• Outstanding benefits including profit share, private healthcare, gym, team socials and wellness fund
• Flexible working plus the ability to work from any of our offices (UK, Spain, Brazil) for periods of time
• Providing an environment to let you grow and develop
• An inclusive workplace with active advocacy networks for women, LGBTQI employees and people from ethnic minorities.
• This position offers hybrid and remote work opportunities

How to Apply 

• Please send your CV, along with a short cover letter to [email protected]
• No Recruitment agencies please.  If you apply through an agency you will NOT be considered.
• Should you not hear from us within a month from your application date, please consider that we will not be moving forward with your candidacy. We truly appreciate your interest in joining our team and thank you for taking the time to apply.