Software Engineer (E1) - WCS & Conveyor Team

This posting is for hourly paid logistics employees to apply through.

Ocado Group is an equal opportunities employer and as such makes every effort to ensure that all potential employees are treated fairly and equally, regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, marital status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, age, or disability or union membership status.

About Us

Our teams are putting the world’s retailers online using the cloud, robotics, AI, and IoT. We provide services to partner clients globally via our innovative advanced robotics technology, known as the Ocado Smart Platform ("OSP"), this drives our highly automated, multi-million pound Customer Fulfilment Centres (CFCs). In our CFCs - together with the proprietary software applications - we operate a world-class online grocery business that automates the single pick of products, ready for your online delivery.

About the Role

Are you ready to work on cutting-edge technology that powers one of the world’s most advanced automated warehouse systems? Ocado Technology is looking for a Software Engineer to join our WCS & Conveyor Team - part of the brains behind the intelligent movement of containers in our warehouses.

As a key member of our team, you’ll contribute to the development, maintenance, and support of three core production applications that control conveyor systems and track containers as they move through our global warehouse network. Your work will play a crucial role in integrating new hardware and optimizing for different layouts across our estate.

You’ll be responsible for our flagship product, the Warehouse Control System (WCS) - a software layer that bridges low-level hardware controllers and business logic applications. Our mission is to build a scalable, configurable, and highly reliable system that drives warehouse automation while simplifying hardware communication and warehouse layout complexities.

Beyond WCS, you’ll also work on two key business logic applications:

• One that automates bagging operations, ensuring delivery totes are filled and routed correctly.
• Another that manages the automated washing and redistribution of storage totes.

All of our control systems are real-time, low-latency, and high-throughput applications built in Java (without Spring Boot) and running in OTP.

What You’ll be doing;

• Develop, enhance, and maintain real-time control systems.
• Work on primarily backend and occasionally frontend projects, contributing across multiple applications.
• Collaborate in team-wide design discussions, ensuring scalable and efficient solutions.
• Solve complex technical challenges in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Present ideas and share knowledge with stakeholders.

About you

The ideal candidate will:

• Actively embody Ocado Technology’s values.
• Be eager to learn from data, experience, and feedback.
• Contribute enthusiastically, always seeking ways to improve.
• Adapt quickly to new information
• Demonstrate a proactive, collaborative, and optimistic mindset.
• Approach challenges logically and with a structured problem-solving method.
• Share knowledge with colleagues, including presenting learnings and data to various stakeholders.
• Happily take an active role in supporting business needs (including an out-of-hours support rota)
• Solid Java skills (ideally Java 21+)
• Have a firm understanding of OOP and functional programming

We would also like you to have:

• Interest in real-time control systems
• Interest in maintaining and supporting systems deployed to many live production environments 
• Some experience with React 

What we offer you

Our employee benefits are designed for you, we care about people and we’ve ensured we have a wealth of benefits that focus on your well-being. We regularly review our benefits to ensure we are supporting our employees appropriately.

• 30 days ‘working from anywhere in the world’ policy 
• Wellbeing support through dedicated apps and an Employee Assistance Programme 
• 25 days annual leave, rising to 27 days after 5 years service (plus optional holiday purchase)
• Pension scheme (various options available including employer contribution matching up to 7%)
• Generous Private Medical Insurance (within the first month of joining!)
• Income Protection (can be up to 50% of salary for 3 years) and Life Assurance (3 x annual salary) 
• 22 weeks paid maternity/primary parent leave and 6 weeks paid paternity leave (once relevant service requirements complete) 
• Train Ticket loan (interest-free)
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Free shuttle bus to and from Hatfield Train Station to the Hatfield offices 
• Free shuttle bus to and from Welwyn Garden City Train Station to the Welwyn Garden City offices
• Opportunity to participate in Sharesave and Buy as You Earn share schemes
• 15% discount on Ocado.com and free delivery for all employees (within the first month of joining!)