Lead React Developer

Who We Are:

At VML, we are a beacon of innovation and growth in an ever-evolving world. Our heritage is built upon a century of combined expertise, where creativity meets technology, and diverse perspectives ignite inspiration. With the merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson, we have forged a new path as a growth partner that is part creative agency, part consultancy, and part technology powerhouse.

Our global family now encompasses over 30,000 employees across 150+ offices in 64 markets, each contributing to a culture that values connection, belonging, and the power of differences. Our expertise spans the entire customer journey, offering deep insights in communications, commerce, consultancy, CRM, CX, data, production, and technology. We deliver end-to-end solutions that result in revolutionary work.

Lead React Developer required to join VML’S world class teams who are working to make our clients happy. We are looking for a talented, enthusiastic, focused, eye for detail, professional. Keen to learn and to challenge for smarter ways of doing things; a team player proud of their work who wants to share it. You like working in a fast-paced environment and are ready to inspire outstanding online shopper experiences for consumers and brands, no matter what product, service, sector, device or channel!

You will have a customer-first mindset, with the maturity and initiative to do what it takes keep our clients happy, including some working at client locations. When our clients win – we win!

What you’ll be doing:

• Creating prototypes and high quality production-ready React/NextJS front-end single page applications
• Architectural decisions to be agreed with Front-end Architect, then implemented and maintained on the project to ensure consistency and quality
• Driving forward the quality – in code, unit testing, accessibility, performance, code reviews
• Engaging with the client to understand new requirements or issues and being able to clearly and credibly present potential solutions
• Leading an Agile workstream of front-end developers on a project, contributing to daily stand-ups, sprint planning and estimates
• Ability to converse confidently with technical and non-technical colleagues
• Building modular layouts, reusable code and libraries for future use
• Comfortable with a mix of Team Lead responsibilities, effective management of workload, mentoring junior members of the team
• Working with the design teams to create optimal front-end user experiences, leading to driving greater conversions
• Being involved in existing and new integrations for the platform
• Full end-to-end ownership from idea to delivery, covering ongoing maintenance, expansion and scaling
• Staying current with evolving standards and technologies, learning new skills as needed
• Supporting of the recruitment process in technical tests and team fit assessments

What we want from you:

• Strong experience of hands on React development, with a solid understanding of the core concepts
• Strong experience of serverless development and server-side development with NextJS
• Extensive experience with a Type Checking language either Flow or TypeScript (we use TypeScript)
• Strong understanding of state management technologies/approaches i.e. Redux, Flux
• Extensive commercial experience of unit testing/End to end testing/regression testing (we use Jest, React-testing-libraries and Cypress)
• Mastery of semantic HTML5, CSS3 (SASS or LESS) and JavaScript (ES6+) adhering to industry defined coding standards
• Leading experience and understanding of the Agile methodology i.e. Story point estimation, refinement, sprint planning, retrospective, sprint demos
• Extensive experience of pair programming
• Have extensive testing and debugging abilities using the browser console and other tools
• Knowledge of current trends and best practices in front-end architecture, including performance optimization, accessibility, SEO, security and usability
• Experience of linter/formatter tooling eg ESlint/Prettier etc
• Commercial experience of using GIT in a large development team performing Continuous Integration
• Excellent communication skills and capability to interact directly with the team and stakeholders
• Proficient understanding of fluid responsive layouts, cross-browser and cross-device compatibility issues
• Commercial experience working on SPA solutions, ideally within e-commerce
• Familiarity with modern front-end build pipelines and tools such as Grunt and webpack
• Experience of mentoring junior members of the team
• Experience in component development with Storybook
• Have experience of integrating with a variety of external, 3rd party systems

You will collaborate with our UK project team, occasionally you will need to be available until 18:00 PL time.

If you know some of this, even better:

• Additional Commercial eCommerce platform experience – Magento/Hybris /Shopify
• Experience of working with other CMS platforms such as AEM, Sitecore or SFCC
• Experience in building rapid prototypes
• Any knowledge of Nodejs, Express, SQL, Lambda, AWS
• Experience creating site architecture diagrams, wireframes, process flows
• Experience of working on Java/Node/C#/PHP projects would be beneficial

What we can offer you:

Alongside the opportunity to work with some of the most exciting brands around the world, we’ll also prioritise your career development and help you grow your skills. We’ll empower you to make a difference, allow you to be yourself, and respect who you are.

AT VML Enterprise Solutions

Our Enterprise Solutions division houses strategic consultants, creative and technical architects and skilled developers and operators that together help some of the world’s leading organisations to deliver outstanding digital experiences across all major routes to market worldwide: marketplaces, online retailers, D2C, B2B and social platforms. With over 4,200 experts in 55 operational centres across 34 countries, our capabilities span the entire buying journey from customer acquisition, through engagement, to conversion and loyalty, driving multi-channel growth for world-leading brands.

We work with some of the most exciting brands such as The Coca-Cola Company, EY, Bosch, Unilever, Ford, DFS, Mercedes-Benz, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Sainsbury’s, Selfridges, Shell and Tiffany & Co. We’ve built over 500 platforms for brands and retailers and generate in excess of $29bn annually for our clients and work with over 50 strategic partners including Adobe, SAP, Salesforce, HCL, Shopify, Sitecore, BigCommerce, commerce tools and Acquia. Our reputation is based on our people, and we believe we have some of the best in the business.

As our business grows internationally, we’re looking for new people to join us on our journey to inspire and take a key role in shaping some of the best commerce solutions, services, and websites in the world. Working as a team, no problem is insurmountable; we share in our client’s successes and believe that anyone can show creative bravery no matter what their role is in the team.

In our Lisbon or Porto office, you’ll join a team of other specialists who are always ready to help each other. The team is part of our Enterprise Solutions network and works in coordination with our Local and EMEA client leads.

#LI-EMEA #LI-HYBRID #LI-AS1

At VML, we are committed to fostering an all-inclusive work environment that is both rewarding and career-forward. Our Inclusion, Equity & Belonging initiatives, alongside the VML Foundation, reflect our dedication to giving back and making a positive impact in our communities and beyond. Our people are the heartbeat of our organization—creators, doers, innovators, makers, and thinkers—who drive not just marketing, but meaningful experiences that resonate in every action and interaction.

VML is a WPP Agency. For more information, please visit our website, and follow VML on our social channels via Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

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