Software Developer

Big Cabal Media tells the African stories that matter to Africans (on and off the continent) and to global audiences. We create content in a wide range of formats for global distribution, under our two publications – TechCabal and Zikoko.

TechCabal vividly captures the players, human impact and business of technology in Africa; providing the content, reporting, data and events to help the world understand where tech is taking Africa.

Zikoko is telling the most important stories that matter to young African audiences today, creating timeless and original text, image, meme and video based content across a range of genres using the most relatable elements of youth culture.

Join us as we take African storytelling to a new level and build the media brands of the future. BCM is passionate about storytelling, technology, great design and unabashed monetization of great content. We’re interested in talented and adaptable professionals looking to do challenging and high-impact work in a collaborative environment. If this sounds exciting and you’ve got the skills, then we should talk.

What we are looking for

We’re looking for a middle-to-senior software developer to join our tech team to help us build an exciting new set of web services and publications, as well as maintain our current flagship products.

Working at BCM as a Software Developer will mean working with a mix of different technologies. We expect you to be full-stack. You should be well-versed in PHP and WordPress (which most of our sites run on) as well as HTML5, CSS and vanilla Javascript.

As a Software Developer you will work in a team that is set for rapid expansion next year and will have the opportunity to work directly with our technical director, with 20 years of experience with building high-volume international websites.

You will be someone who wants to learn a lot, is always open to new ideas and approaches, is curious about new technology and is a team player. In return we’ll give you great follow-up with a focus on continuously developing your skills, an exciting and vibrant creative environment with new ideas flowing all the time, and a company leadership that actively seeks to hear everyone’s ideas.

Key Responsibilities

• Maintenance of existing WordPress based web site infrastructure, including adapting new sites, new features and layouts as required (we’re constantly innovating)
• (In time) collaboratively assess your own product development timelines with your manager and take technical ownership of projects on your own.
• Build new sites and properties based on designs and specifications on top of the existing BCM framework

Key Requirements

• Solid experience of working with PHP 7 and/or 8, including static typing and following coding standards (either WordPress or PHP-FIG)
• Solid experience with building WordPress sites
• Good knowledge of the HTML 5 and recent CSS standards
• Good knowledge of vanilla Javascript (not JQuery) and using this along with HTML5 and CSS to develop modern websites
• A decent understanding of relational databases and SQL

It’d be Extra Great if you also had experience with:

• Developing high-traffic websites
• PHP-FIG PSRs
• GIT
• SEO techniques and principles
• SCSS
• NodeJS (which we use with some products)
• REST APIs and ideally OpenAPI
• Gutenberg block format programming (WordPress)
• AWS infrastructure, especially including load balancing, network load balancers and automated scaling
• NGINX (and reverse proxies)
• React and/or Vue (JavaScript)
• Big data

Working at Big Cabal Media

You’ll be joining a group of focused, hard-working, creative people who are passionate about doing work that’s challenging and fun.

We’re a very digital company, working via Slack, Google Docs and cloud-based solutions where possible. We currently have a hybrid-remote setup, with most of the team doing two days in the office each week and working remotely the rest of the time. We typically try to arrange work between 9am and 6pm WAT and encourage you to have a good work-life balance, but we don’t have a stick up our butt about hours. What we are particular about is quality and results. Our people get things done fast and well.

While collaborative work will be the norm and is the requirement, people who want to work at BCM must also demonstrate initiative and the ability to work without creating more work for their line manager.

Compensation and perks

• Industry competitive salary
• 20 days annual leave
• Statutory pension contribution
• Health insurance
• Flexible working arrangements