Backend Developer, Octopus Energy Group
Kraken Technologies, Portuguese
+ Equity Options Scheme
More information about location
The UK's most awarded energy supplier
Job no longer available
The UK's most awarded energy supplier
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
+ Equity Options Scheme
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To make a big green dent in the universe by building a truly sustainable energy system globally.
Role
Who you are
- We're looking for someone with a general interest in technology and problem-solving; someone diligent and thoughtful. It would be helpful to have experience/expertise in the following (in rough priority order):
- Python
- Django (or equiv. web framework)
- Domain modelling
- HTTP and REST APIs
- Writing robust and fault-tolerant software
- Celery and async processing
- Postgres
- Above all, we’re looking for someone who thrives on providing alternative opinions, challenging those around them and being challenged
Desirable
- AWS
- Terraform, Packer, Consul
- React and Redux
What the job involves
- We have lots of difficult design challenges to solve. The Spanish energy market is complicated, outdated and process-heavy - there's an awful lot of domain modelling that we need to get right. Strong attention to detail is essential
- We have difficult technical problems to solve. With the advent of smart meters, we'll soon be processing millions of meter readings a day. We need the right technology in place to handle this smoothly as well as feeding data into a machine learning pipeline that models and predicts consumption
- There's a great opportunity for disruption in the Spanish energy market. The big suppliers still dominate, but are not exactly popular. The energy landscape is changing as we move to more dis-aggregated forms of generation, with less predictability, more dynamism and smarter technology
- You'll be working for a company that’s fighting climate change. Our parent company is the largest investor in solar generation in the UK, and are funding wind and anaerobic digestion. As a supplier, we're helping people to use greener technology and renewable energy, all helping move the UK towards a lower carbon future
- All technology is written and maintained by a multi-discipline engineering team of around 500 people globally. This includes server-side, client-side and mobile engineers working closely with UX experts, copywriters and designers
- We follow a Kanban-like approach, using Google docs and Asana to specify and manage work; Github, CircleCI and Terraform Enterprise as part of an immutable-infrastructure, continuous delivery pipeline; and Loggly, Sentry and Cloudwatch to measure performance and monitor production
Our take
According to Octopus, the energy industry in the UK is ruled by a handful of complacent companies peddling fossil fuels, pricing trickery, and poor customer service. Aiming to disrupt the status quo with sustainable energy, Octopus entered the market in 2016 and now supplies energy to millions of homes in a number of countries. Octopus has made a name for itself in energy circles largely because of its “Kraken” technology platform, which it claims is able to reroute energy from renewable sources around a network far more efficiently than competitors.
Octopus further differentiates itself through its aspiration to make everything as easy as possible for consumers, from the simplicity of their bills and the fact that customers are not locked into a contract, so they can leave at any time, to offering customer service over email and social media at times that suit customers. It aims to make the eco‐friendly choice the easy choice, so all of its tariffs use 100% green electricity, while being cheaper than competitors' non-green tariffs.
Its continually creating innovative new products too. For example, Octopus Tracker, where prices change daily to guarantee you get the market rate; Agile, where the price changes every half hour to enable you to benefit from cheap electricity when the sun shines, the wind blows, and the networks are under-utilised. One of the current challenges the company faces is that its products are more complex than its competitors, given that it uses 1000x more data than traditional energy companies. Because of this, it's exploring ways to explain to customers exactly how their products work.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Dec 2023
$800m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Jul 2022
$225m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Total funding: $2.6bn
Company benefits
- Equity Option Scheme
- Pension Scheme: We'll pay 5%. You can decide what you contribute, starting from 3%
- Money Coach: You may want to think about financial planning. The company has an arrangement with Octopus Money Coach . They offer the opportunity to talk with a professional coach
- Holidays: We're all grown ups, so we don't count your holidays here. We work hard and so we know you need to play hard as well (within reason of course)
- Flexible working: We're passionate about a genuine work-life balance here and we don't pay people to watch a clock. Need to catch that school nativity or work from home? That's cool
- Free Breakfast + other stuff: ice lollies if you're lucky)! Weekly on a Friday we all get together (this happens virtually too) for company updates and drinks - we call it Family Dinner
- Tech: We want to get the best out of our people and get that everyone is slightly different. Have a certain tech requirement? We’ll do our best to get it
- Car Salary Sacrifice: Browse the wide selection of electric vehicles and get a sample quote under our workplace salary sacrifice scheme. If approved, the monthly leasing costs are taken directly from your gross salary each month meaning you're saving on paying some tax
- Cycle to Work Scheme: The Cycle to Work Scheme is a cost effective way to “buy” a bike up to a value of £2.5K, which hopefully is enough for a decent commuting bike, even an electric one. This extends to the cost of accessories and safety equipment as well as the bike
- Season Ticket Loan: Commuting to the office on the regs? If you travel more than twice a week, it’s worthwhile getting an annual ticket. With our Season Ticket Loan, you can spread out the cost over 10 months. It’s quick and easy to sort. Once approved and ordered, your season ticket will be posted to you within 5 days or so
- Maternity leave: 16 weeks full pay + 8 weeks half pay + 15 weeks statutory maternity pay
- Paternity leave: 12 weeks full pay
- Private Medical Insurance: Say goodbye to long waiting lists! For anyone who wants some additional peace of mind when it comes to their health, we offer Private Healthcare Insurance at different levels of cover. The monthly costs are taken directly from your gross salary and spread across 12 months. You even save on National Insurance
- Gym & Yoga: You can get up to 25% discount on gym memberships and we have 45 minute live yoga classes open to all Octopus staff twice a week!
- Headspace: Need some calm in your life? We have 'Octopus Headspace Licences' available
- Eye Test: Free eye test vouchers for all colleagues who use Visual Display Units (VDU). Long spells of VDU work can often be visually demanding and can lead to tired eyes, discomfort, temporary short sightedness and headaches
Company HQ
Soho, London, UK
Articles
Leadership
Greg Jackson
(Co-Founder & CEO)Previously an Adviser at Ashcombe Advisers for 9 years and a Non-Executive Director at Zopa for 7 years.
James Eddison
(CTO)Previously CEO at Claripoint for 7 years and CTO at Tangent Labs also for 7 years.
Stuart Jackson
(Co-Founder & CFO)Previously a Director of "Foundation" Business Unit at Barclaycard for 2 years and Chief of Staff, Secured Lending SBU at Barclays also for 2 years.
People progressing
Joined as Marketing Assistant, being promoted to Marketing Executive after 6 months and again to Junior Product and Marketing Manager after 7 months. After 8 months they became a full Product and Marketing Manager.
Joined as Senior Talent Partner, being promoted to Talent Manager after 1 year and again to Head of Talent Acquisition after 8 months.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Octopus Energy Group
- Unconscious Bias workshops for interviewers and hiring managers
- Octopus Energy Equality Foundation
- Partnership with the Saracens High School - inspiring future generations - https://www.saracens.com/powering-futures-together-saracens-high-school-octopus-energy/
- Octopus Energy Internships - https://octopus.energy/blog/ada-lovelace-tech-internship/
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