Junior Software Engineer

Job Description

Te Whiwhinga mahi | The Opportunity

If you’re early in your software engineering career and looking for somewhere you can do meaningful work while genuinely learning your craft, this could be a great next step.

You’ll join our Software Engineering chapter and work as part of an agile squad, writing code, contributing to code reviews and helping build and support applications that are being used for real. You won’t be sitting off to the side doing “junior work”. You’ll contribute alongside the team, with experienced engineers around you to help when you need it.

There’s good breadth here too. Our engineers support different parts of Contact, including Retail, Generation and Trading, and the role isn’t intended to keep you in one domain forever. That means you can build your technical capability while also getting a much better understanding of how technology supports different parts of an energy business.

We’re also realistic about what being junior means. You won’t need to know everything already, and we don’t expect you to. What matters is that you’re curious, prepared to build the fundamentals properly, willing to ask questions and able to learn when something doesn’t work the first time. There’ll be problems you haven’t seen before and moments where you get stuck. That’s part of it.

Qualifications

Ko wai koe | About You

You don’t need heaps of commercial experience to be a great fit for this role. You might be a graduate who’s built some substantial university or personal projects, or you may already have around a year of software development experience. What matters more to us is what you’ve worked on, the part you personally played, how you approached problems and what you learned along the way.

For the technical foundations, we’re looking for:

• Some hands-on experience with JavaScript and TypeScript
• Exposure to React, CSS and HTML
• A practical approach to problem-solving and checking your own work

It’d be useful, but definitely isn’t essential, if you’ve also had some exposure to:

• .NET or Python
• AWS or another cloud platform
• Full-stack or end-to-end development through a startup, internship, graduate role or meaningful project work

Just as importantly, you’ll be someone who enjoys figuring things out. You’re curious enough to ask why, comfortable asking for help when you need it, and willing to take feedback on board. When something goes wrong, you can step back, learn from it and have another go rather than racing straight to the next answer.

You’ll have experienced engineers around you to learn from, with the opportunity to broaden your capability over time across front end, back end and cloud. The longer-term pathway within Software Engineering can take you from junior through to intermediate and senior roles as your capability grows and opportunities become available.

Additional Information

We support flexible working where it works for the individual, the team and the business. Our main hubs are in Wellington, Auckland and Tauranga, and this role is best suited to someone who can work flexibly from one of these locations to enable strong in person connection and collaboration. While we do have smaller sites across other centres of Aotearoa, proximity to a main hub is important for this role.

Contact is not a place you’ll stagnate. We’re growing, evolving, and investing in our people. We also offer a bunch of other perks like free health insurance cover, boosted KiwiSaver, access to Contact Shares, a ‘Good to be Home’ annual payment toward your home set up & wellbeing, a trail-blazing parental leave policy, twice yearly payments towards our products if you’re a Contact customer, and more!

Applications close on Tuesday 24th November. But just like peak demand, great talent surges early, so if this role sparks your interest, power up your application now!

Here at Contact Energy (Te Mata Hiko), we know our strength lies in developing a sense of belonging - one that helps us attract and retain people with a broad range of perspectives and experiences.

We’re committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to bring their whole selves to work. Our goal is to reflect the diversity of our customers and communities to help build a better Aotearoa New Zealand.

We have a rich community of talented people that we support to thrive at Contact.

Our inclusive hiring process is designed to embrace the diversity of Aotearoa New Zealand, ensuring a wide range of perspectives are included in our decision-making and helping reduce bias along the way.

The wellbeing of our kaimahi is super important to us.

We use employee insights to offer a range of initiatives and resources to support physical, mental, financial and emotional wellbeing – including flexible working arrangements, employee network groups and a market-leading parental leave policy.

At Te Mata Hiko, we want everyone to thrive. We welcome applicants far and wide - of every age, stage, background, and pride. Join us and be part of a team that values your passion and attitude just as much as your experience and skills.

Please note, only candidates with the right to live and work in New Zealand will be considered for this role.

Research shows that while men apply to jobs where they meet 60% of the criteria, women and those in underrepresented groups tend to only apply if they tick every box. We're not about box ticking, so if you think you have what it takes but don't meet everything stated above, please still get in touch. We'd love to kōrero.

Te Mata Hiko (Contact Energy) does not accept any CVs received from recruitment agencies where a formal engagement has not been confirmed and agreed to with our Talent team. In the event that unsolicited CVs are submitted by recruitment agencies, Te Mata Hiko (Contact Energy) reserves the right to contact these candidates directly and consider them for current/future vacancies without any financial obligation to the recruitment agency in question. This will also apply to any CVs sent directly to line managers.