Software and Hardware Developer

WE KNOW THIS IS A LONG JOB AD, SO HERE'S THE TL;DR: We're looking for a practical technical generalist who likes building things. A lot of the job is C#/.NET, SQL, internal systems, dashboards and integrations, but those systems connect to real machinery, scanners, printers, sensors, GPS trackers, Android handhelds and hardware we build ourselves. You do not need to already be a professional developer. If you work in IT support, infrastructure, sysadmin or another technical role and already code, script, automate or build electronics projects in your own time, we want to hear from you. You'll get broad exposure, direct access to the technical lead, plenty of autonomy as you develop, and the chance to work on everything from agentic AI development to ESP32s, computer vision, 3D printing and industrial integrations. £29,000 to £34,000 DOE | Ramsgate | Primarily on-site THE ROLE We are looking for a practical, curious and technically minded person to join our small in-house technical team. EPCC is a garment printing, fulfilment and e-commerce business, and a large part of our operation is powered by systems we design and build ourselves. A lot of the day-to-day work is software development, writing software to run our internal CRM, dashboards, online ordering systems, production tools, artwork proofing, warehouse systems and integrations. But these are rarely isolated, spreadsheet-style CRUD applications. Our software connects directly to the physical operation of the business: production machinery, barcode scanners, printers, Android handhelds, shipping carriers, sensors and devices we have built ourselves. One day you might be building a C# feature or investigating a SQL problem. The next you could be wiring an ESP32, soldering a sensor, 3D-printing an enclosure or testing a prototype on the warehouse floor. WHO YOU ARE We are deliberately open to people from technical backgrounds such as: IT supportSystems administrationInfrastructureNetworkingElectronicsTechnical supportJunior software development If you write scripts, automate tasks, build applications, run a homelab, work with Arduino or ESP32 boards, create electronics projects, or generally spend your own time making technology do useful things, we want to hear about it. Personal projects count. If you work in IT support but have GitHub projects, an ESP32, a soldering iron and half-finished technical experiments at home, you could be exactly who we are looking for. WHAT A REAL PROJECT LOOKS LIKE One recent project started with our goods-out system and developed into an end-to-end parcel tracking platform. It involved: Integrating physical GPS trackers into our warehouse dispatch workflowConnecting tracker information with shipping-carrier APIsAutomatically generating and printing return labels and instructionsBuilding a customer-facing web interface where clients can monitor consignments in real time on a mapDeveloping background services to monitor shipments and identify exceptionsCreating workflows that allow us to intervene proactively when something does not look right The engineering does not stop at "does it work?" Displaying large numbers of live parcel locations also means thinking about the commercial cost of map tiles, API calls, polling frequency and third-party services. We build with real business constraints in mind: cost, reliability, scalability, API limits, maintainability, performance and operational impact. A technically clever solution that costs too much to operate is not a good solution. FROM SENSOR TO DASHBOARD Other projects cross the boundary between software and hardware in a different way. You might build or integrate a sensor for a piece of equipment, then build the software that: Collects and stores its readingsGraphs the data over timeAllows users to configure warning and alert thresholdsGenerates notifications when readings fall outside normal limitsHelps the production team understand what is happening Because we build much of this ourselves, there is scope to work on the entire solution rather than one isolated component. You may literally build the sensor at one end of the project and the dashboard displaying its data at the other. OTHER PROJECTS Recent and ongoing work includes: Computer Vision: Using machine learning to help detect garment-printing defects during productionDimensioning: ToF sensors for measuring parcels and dimensionsMachinery Monitoring: Proximity and Hall-effect sensors for monitoring equipmentFluid Tracking: Ultrasonic sensors for monitoring liquid levelsPneumatics: Pressure transducers for monitoring compressors and pneumatic systemsMicrocontrollers: ESP32-based devices and low-power embedded systemsRemote Nodes: Solar and battery-powered outdoor hardwareDisplays: E-ink integrationsMobile & Scanning: Android handhelds with integrated barcode scanners and thermal printersCustom Hardware: Devices designed around specific production problemsPrototyping: 3D-printed enclosures, brackets and prototype partsAssembly: Soldering and basic electronics assembly We have our own 3D printer and soldering equipment, so ideas can go from software prototype to physical device in-house. You do not need previous commercial embedded, IoT or machine-learning experience. You do need to be someone who looks at a sensor, microcontroller, camera system or interesting piece of hardware and wonders what you could make it do. OUR SOFTWARE STACK Our main stack includes: C# and .NETASP.NET and ASP.NET CoreRazor PagesExisting ASP.NET Web Forms applicationsSQL ServerEntity FrameworkHTML, CSS and JavaScriptWindows desktop applicationsREST APIs and third-party integrationsGit You may also work with Android devices, barcode scanners, thermal printers, industrial equipment and other production hardware that integrates with our internal systems. You do not need to arrive knowing all of this. We can mentor someone with good technical aptitude and a solid programming foundation. AI-FIRST DEVELOPMENT We take an AI-first, agentic approach to development, using coding agents as a normal part of our workflow rather than treating AI as simple autocomplete. We use AI to accelerate implementation, investigate unfamiliar code, prototype ideas, debug problems, refactor systems and work through multi-step development tasks. Developers are still expected to understand the systems, review the output, recognise when the AI is wrong and take responsibility for the finished result. AI makes us faster. It does not remove the requirement to understand what we are building. AUTONOMY We are a small team, and there is a lot of scope for autonomy once you understand the systems and the business. The technical lead sets the overall architecture and standards, but we are more interested in giving you a problem to solve than prescribing every class, screen and implementation detail. As your experience grows, we expect you to: Investigate problems independentlySuggest better approachesMake sensible technical trade-offsThink about cost and business impactUnderstand how the software affects the wider operationIncreasingly own solutions from idea through to production You will work directly with the technical lead rather than through several layers of project management. IT ISN'T ONLY DEVELOPMENT Because we are a small technical team, there are no rigid boundaries between software development, support and infrastructure. The role also includes some: General Windows PC and user supportPrinter and scanner troubleshootingApplication supportDeploymentBasic infrastructure workDevOps-style tasksInvestigation when something we have built stops working We have external MSP support where appropriate, but most normal day-to-day technical issues are handled internally. If a PC stops working, a label printer misbehaves, an application has a problem or a device you built stops responding, you may be involved in resolving it. There is no routine out-of-hours or on-call requirement. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR We care more about technical aptitude, curiosity and problem solving than whether you tick every technology box. You should have: Some practical programming or scripting experienceA methodical approach to troubleshootingAn interest in how systems workThe ability to learn unfamiliar technologiesAn interest in hardware, electronics or physical systemsA willingness to get hands-on rather than treating support or hardware as somebody else's problem Useful experience includes: C# or another object-oriented language.NETSQLGitPython or PowerShellJavaScriptREST APIsWindows administrationNetworkingGeneral IT supportESP32, Arduino or Raspberry PiElectronics and soldering3D printing or CADHome automationIoT projectsComputer vision or machine learning None of these individually is mandatory. LOCATION AND ELIGIBILITY This is a primarily on-site role in Ramsgate, Kent, with occasional work at our Margate site. Applicants must be able to commute reliably to our Ramsgate site, or be relocating before starting the role. Own transport is beneficial due to occasional travel between sites. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK for this role. HOW TO APPLY Apply directly via LinkedIn. If you have GitHub repositories, personal projects, electronics builds, scripts, automations or anything else interesting you have made, include those too. The cooler and more obscure, the better. RECRUITMENT AGENCIES Due to the nature of this role, we are handling recruitment directly and are not inviting applications from recruitment agencies at this time. We welcome direct applications from candidates. Please do not submit speculative CVs or candidate details without a prior written agreement with EPCC. Where details are submitted without such an agreement, no recruitment fee will be payable and we reserve the right to contact the candidate directly.