bet365 in hunt for 70 developers and information security specialists
Online gambling giant on hiring spree to fill its first satellite technology office in Manchester
Online gambling company bet365 is looking to recruit up to 70 people to support its development teams in Stoke-on-Trent.
The company is launching its first satellite technology office in Manchester's Spring Gardens in May and is already in the process of recruiting candidates.
"It's difficult to recruit to one location when you have the demand for IT talent that bet365 does," said Dom Hawley, head of software development at bet365.
"We've found exceptional people in Stoke, but it's clear that we now need to expand our operation outside of the local area to grow our development teams further," he added.
Hawley said that Manchester was chosen for the company's technology expansion because of a "superb technology culture", and because it is close enough to Stoke that people can move between offices, if necessary. An added bonus, he said, was that commuter links in the city will attract people from further afield.
Warren Hughes, head of systems development at bet365's new Manchester office, told Computing that the organisation was looking for a combination of seasoned professionals to work alongside junior developers with relevant experience and graduates.
"Experience is useful but more important is a passion for technology and a willingness to learn new skills," he said.
"As well as web and mobile developers, we'd like to recruit individuals with strong back-office skills who can help us implement WPF applications APIs and the services used by our sports traders to create and drive the core betting content of our site," he added.
Members of the Manchester team will have the opportunity to work across a wide range of technologies including: C#, MVC, HTML, .Net (3.5+), SQL Server, object-oriented analysis and design, cascading style-sheets, JavaScript, and TypeScript/SAAS.
Aside from developers, Hughes said bet365 is looking for new staff to bolster its information security capabilities.
He suggested that as the Manchester office grows, there would be plenty of scope for career progression into either delivery-focused team leadership roles or solution-focused technical lead roles, as well as management positions.
Hawley emphasised that the expansion would not lead to an "unstructured group of remote workers engaged in autonomous tasks".
"They will be a fully integrated into the bet365 business," he said.
The firm will be conducting a number of rounds of recruitment over the coming months as it assesses the most essential product areas where teams need to expand.
Bet365 has fulfilled many of the first round of roles, but will begin the second phase of recruiting towards the end of April.
All available vacancies can be found on the bet365 careers site here under the Manchester tag.
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