Senior Software Engineer 🇦🇺 (Python/Django)

About Octopus Energy and Kraken

Since 2016, Octopus has been on a mission to bring affordable, green energy to the world. With the help of our in-house developed technology platform, Kraken, we’ve become the 2nd largest energy supplier in the UK, opened retailers in 7 other countries, and licensed our software to retail giants including E.ON in the UK and Origin Energy in Australia. We’ve reinvented energy products with smart, data-driven tariffs to balance customer demand with renewable generation - and we’re the biggest investor in renewable generation in the UK.

We've since expanded our tentacles and we are now looking for a backend Senior Software Engineer, based in Australia. Our main hub is in Melbourne but it's not a requirement to work there. We're looking for someone with a general interest in technology and problem-solving; someone diligent and thoughtful. Working with Kraken is a chance to join an exciting scale-up business within the energy supply sector, one that’s at the forefront of changing the landscape of the energy industry across the world. A role with us offers you the chance to contribute to building world-class operations that will catapult you into a fantastic career.

Our team

All technology is written and maintained by a multi-discipline engineering team of around 400 people. 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. Kraken is a great place to learn, work with some talented engineers and level-up your skills. Some of our coding conventions are open-source .

Our technology

On the server-side, we mainly use Python. Most of our websites are powered by Django, Django-REST-framework and GraphQL (Graphene). We use AWS heavily, employing most of the "Hashistack" (eg Packer, Consul, Terraform) as part of a continuous deployment pipeline. See, for example, Django, ELB health checks and continuous delivery.

What you'll do...

• You will be working in a multi-disciplinary software engineering team; solving design challenges; domain modeling; solving technical problems; engineering solutions for smart meters, writing robust fault-tolerant software primarily in Python and Django, Celery, and async processing
• We have lots of difficult design challenges to solve. The energy market is complicated, outdated, and process-heavy - there's an awful lot of domain modeling 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.
• There's a great opportunity for disruption in the energy market. The big suppliers still dominate but are not exactly popular. The energy landscape is changing as we move to more disaggregated forms of generation, with less predictability, more dynamism, and smarter technology. Octopus Energy was the first UK supplier to introduce a "tracker" tariff whose prices track the daily wholesale prices: http://www.cleanenergynews.co.uk/news/efficiency/octopus-offerstransparency-with-wholesale-price-tariff
• 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 is funding wind and anaerobic digestion. As a supplier, we're helping people to use greener technology and renewable energy, all helping move the world towards a lower carbon future.

What tech stack you'll have (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

Plus experience in the following would be a bonus:

• AWS
• Terraform, Packer, Consul
• React and Redux

What you will love about us

• Our company culture - We are organisation where people learn, decide, and build quicker. Where people work with autonomy, alongside a wide range of amazing co-owners, on projects that break new ground. We want your hard work to be rewarded with perks you actually care about! We won best company to work for in 2022, on Glassdoor we were voted 50 best places to work in 2022 and our Group CEO, Greg has recorded a podcast about our culture and how we empower our people.
• Flexible working environment - genuine work life balance here, we are in the top 5 companies in the UK, we treat you as a human, and do our best to make work and life merge smoothly together 
• 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 
• Office - have a certain tech requirement? We’ll do our best to get it. We also have drinks, snacks and a coffee machine at the WeWork office space.
• Your development is important - we support and help with development including internal and external courses, learning, study support etc, all bespoke to you 

Studies have shown that some groups of people, like women, are less likely to apply to a role unless they meet 100% of the job requirements. Whoever you are, if you like one of our jobs, we encourage you to apply as you might just be the candidate we hire. Across Octopus, we're looking for genuinely decent people who are honest and empathetic. Our people are our strongest asset and the unique skills and perspectives people bring to the team are the driving force of our success. As an equal opportunity employer, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected attribute. Our commitment is to provide equal opportunities, an inclusive work environment, and fairness for everyone.