Senior JavaScript Developer at Ageas UK

About Ageas UK

Ageas UK is one of the largest providers of car and home insurance in the United Kingdom, serving over four million customers. As part of an international group headquartered in Brussels, Ageas UK offers a range of insurance products, including car, home, and travel insurance. The company is committed to delivering excellent customer service, as recognized by The Institute of Customer Service's ServiceMark accreditation.

Role and Responsibilities

• Team Formation and Leadership: As one of two Senior Developers, I played a key role in forming a new development team. This involved participating in the hiring process, conducting one-on-one sessions, and establishing development processes and coding standards.

• Agile Transition: Led the team's transition to Agile methodologies, a first within Ageas UK. This included implementing Scrum and Kanban practices, conducting daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and retrospectives to enhance productivity and project delivery.

• Performance and Architecture Optimization: Oversaw the development and optimization of React-based applications, focusing on performance improvements and architectural enhancements to ensure scalable and maintainable codebases.

• Onboarding Automation: Developed Node.js tools to automate the setup of development environments for new hires, reducing the onboarding process from approximately three days to just a few hours.

• DevOps Collaboration: Worked closely with DevOps teams to set up CI/CD pipelines using Azure, GitHub, Docker, and Kubernetes, streamlining deployment processes and ensuring seamless integration and delivery of applications.

• Code Reviews and Refactoring: Conducted regular code reviews, refactored large codebases to improve readability and maintainability, and established coding standards to enhance code quality across projects.

Impact and Reflections

During my eight-month tenure at Ageas UK, I was instrumental in building and leading a new development team, pioneering Agile practices within the organization, and implementing technical solutions that significantly improved operational efficiency. Despite these contributions, I chose to pursue opportunities elsewhere before the end of my probation period, seeking a role that offered a better balance between coding and administrative responsibilities, as well as greater appreciation for the efforts invested.