Job Description

Shape the Future of Specialist Network Appliances as a Senior Developer

Are you an experienced and driven Senior Developer looking for a challenging and rewarding opportunity in a globally-focused, entrepreneurial UK company on the brink of explosive growth?

ApplianSys, based in Coventry with satellite offices in Austin, Kuala Lumpur, and South Africa, develops and markets specialist network appliance products in niche technical areas. With over 90% of our sales outside Europe and customers in 160 countries, our reach is truly global. While our journey began with a broad vision, we've strategically focused on key niche applications, establishing our flagship product, CACHEbox, as the undisputed world leader in its market. Our complementary EDUGATEbox serves smaller educational institutions, and exciting recent market shifts have positioned us for significant expansion, particularly within national school systems worldwide and other high-potential verticals.

Our DNSbox range, while historically a smaller player in the DDI market, holds significant long-term strategic value. We're embarking on a new initiative to build "the world's best DHCP server," leveraging recent redevelopment efforts. This ambition, coupled with our existing successes - including a landmark order from Chicago Public Schools - fuels our strategic plans for major expansion across three key markets:

CACHEbox in National Education Authorities:

Capitalizing on a substantial pipeline in over 30 developing countries.

CACHEbox in USA Schools:

Building on our decade of market dominance and the significant win in Chicago to drive substantial growth.

High-Volume Sales of our New DHCP Appliance.

Our commitment to innovation is underscored by our long-standing strategic partnership with Intel, through which our EDUGATEbox is integrated with cutting-edge Intel technology to deliver comprehensive connected education solutions globally. This collaboration is set to significantly accelerate our sales within the education sector.

At ApplianSys, we strive for

excellence

in everything we do, aiming to be a "world-class small business." Good performance isn't enough; we demand and foster a culture of high achievement, supported by a sophisticated Performance Management framework, a flat management structure, and a progressive ethos emphasizing flexible team-working and self-management. Our track record speaks for itself, with commendable global sales, world-class customer service consistently praised by our clients, and a product and service proposition that routinely impresses.

We are now building a new generation development team to tackle exciting new challenges and drive our ambitious growth plans. This is your chance to be a key part of this journey.

The Role:

As a Senior Developer, you will report to the Engineering Team Leader and be a vital member of our in-house product development team. You will collaborate with other developers across all phases of the product lifecycle, contributing to:

Developing software for new ApplianSys products and upgrades. Creating intuitive web interfaces and management systems. Designing, integrating, testing, and packaging new products. Producing professional-standard software documentation. Prototyping new product functionality to inform development. Writing high-level and detailed specifications for new products. Collaborating on the continuous improvement of the team and our product development processes.
As you grow in the role, you will have the opportunity to become a technical expert and intellectual leader in specific areas of our technology and engineering.

We are particularly interested in candidates who can contribute to the following areas:

Maintaining and Extending Existing Product Components:

Including our HTTPS interception management system, range request cache engine, and device fingerprinting detection, alongside enhancing our web-based user interface (templated HTML, JavaScript & jQuery). A strong focus on non-functional requirements such as test coverage, maintainability, performance, and scalability is crucial.

High-Level and Detailed Design:

Leading the design of new products and components, helping to refine our technical approaches and setting high standards for design quality across the team.

Platform Architecture:

Contributing to the long-term evolution of our underlying OS distribution and component choices. Researching and selecting appropriate third-party components (e.g., unbound, collectd, redis, nginx) with a focus on small footprint, long-term stability and support, and balancing simplicity with functionality.

Open-Source Contributions:

Diagnosing and fixing issues in projects like Squid (C++) and ISC Kea, and potentially developing modules for nginx in Lua, responding to security vulnerabilities, and planning mitigations.

Evolving Methodologies:

Providing significant input in adopting DevOps approaches to accelerate our product delivery timelines.

Product and Market Knowledge:

Gaining a deep understanding of our products and markets, including technologies for maximizing limited bandwidth connections (such as web caching). Contributing to product management by regularly reviewing market and technology trends, including both commercial and open-source developments.

What you'll bring:

Significant experience as a software developer, with demonstrable experience in a senior role. Strong skills in relevant technologies, including but not limited to: Networking protocols Web application frameworks (Python, HTML, JavaScript, CSS) Linux operating systems A proven ability to design, develop, test, and deploy high-quality software. Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills. A proactive and collaborative approach to teamwork. A passion for learning and staying up-to-date with the latest technologies. Strong communication and documentation skills.

Bonus points for experience in any of the following:

Working with network appliance products. Contributing to open-source projects. DevOps practices and tooling. Performance optimization and scalability. Web caching technologies. DDI (DNS, DHCP, IPAM) solutions.

What we offer:

The opportunity to work on cutting-edge technology with a global impact. A challenging and rewarding role in a dynamic and growing company. A collaborative and supportive work environment with a flat management structure. Scope to shape your future role as the team and business evolve. A progressive culture that values excellence and innovation. Competitive salary and benefits package. Based in our Coventry HQ, with potential for flexible working arrangements.

Ready to take the next step in your career and contribute to the exciting future of ApplianSys?

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Pay: 40,000.00-70,000.00 per year

Additional pay:

Performance bonus
Schedule:

Monday to Friday
Application question(s):

What experience do you have working with web application frameworks? What experience do you have of working with Linux operating systems? What experience do you have of working with network appliance products? What experience do you have of working with networking protocols? Which ones have used?
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Coventry CV3 2SU