Backend Developer, Octopus Energy Group
Kraken Field
More information about location
Entech company
Job no longer available
Entech company
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
Octopus Energy's mission is to speed the transition to a sustainable, low carbon future through renewable energy and technology whilst putting customers at the heart of everything they do.
Role
Who you are
- We're looking for someone with a general interest in technology and problem-solving; someone diligent and thoughtful
- Python
- Django (or equiv. web framework)
- Domain modelling
- HTTP and REST APIs
- Writing robust and fault-tolerant software
- Celery and async processing
- Postgres
Desirable
- AWS
- Terraform, Packer, Consul
- React and Redux
What the job involves
- Kraken is the technology tentacle of the Octopus Energy Group
- We have lots of difficult design challenges to solve
- The UK utilities market is complicated, outdated and process-heavy - there's an awful lot of domain modelling that we need to get right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 challenging technical problems to solve; like processing tens of 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
- Or thinking about how we adapt Kraken to improve other utilities like water and broadband
- There's a great opportunity for disruption in the UK 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 generation arm is the largest investor in solar generation in the UK, and is 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
Salary benchmarks
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 they now supply 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 Energy 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. They aim to make the eco‐friendly choice the easy choice, so all of their tariffs use 100% green electricity, while not being more expensive than their competitors' non-green tariffs.
They are continually creating innovative new products. For example, Octopus Tracker where prices changes 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 they face is that their products are more complex than their competitors, given they use 1000x more data than traditional energy companies. They're exploring ways to explain to customers exactly how their products work.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Employee endorsements
Challenging work
"The work that I am doing is often quite difficult. I am constantly challenged and problem solving, which I find rewarding as it means I am always..."
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Dec 2023
$800m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Jul 2022
$225m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Total funding: $2.5bn
Company benefits
- Your development is important - we support and help with development including internal and external courses, learning, study support etc, all bespoke to you
- Flexi working environment
- Equity Options Scheme - you own your own part of the business, share options in the whole Octopus Energy Group so we all work together towards success
- Unlimited paid time off policy
- Work from home opportunities
- Equity Option Scheme - Everyone owns part of what we’re building with shares
- 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
- 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
- Wellbeing - Need some calm in your life? We have 'Octopus Headspace Licences' available. Twice a week we have 45 Minute live yoga class open to all Octopus staff!
- Parents - get access to tax free childcare and maternity and paternity pay. We’re always looking for new ways to support parents, during lockdown we created OctoKids TV to help keep your kids occupied and entertained (https://octopus.energy/blog/octopuskids/)
- Office culture - Our offices are stocked with fruit, breakfast, great coffee, and soft drinks (and 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. We won best company to work for in 2019 and our CEO, Greg has recorded a podcast about our culture and how we empower our people. Check out what our people say at Glassdoor!
- 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
Company values
- Autonomy
- Empathy
- Innovation
- Impact
Company HQ
Fitzrovia, London, UK
Articles
Leadership
Greg Jackson
(CEO)Previously Adviser at Ashcombe Advisers for 9 years and 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
(CFO)Previously 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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