Senior Software Engineer - Publishing platforms

The Company

The Irish Times Group is Ireland's leading independent quality news publishing organisation. The core activity of The Irish Times Group has evolved from six-day print publishing to a seven-day multi-platform news publisher with a market-leading position in subscriptions, audience engagement and digital innovation.

We focus on producing trusted journalism for our readers, providing media solutions for customers and continuously evolving our products, platforms and ways of working in a rapidly changing media landscape.

The Company is owned by The Irish Times Trust and is managed by The Irish Times DAC. In recent years, The Irish Times Group has expanded its interests to include the Irish Examiner, The Echo, regional newspapers, RecruitIreland.com, MyHome.ie, RIP.ie, The Gloss, Score Beo and other leading Irish digital brands.

The Role

This role is ideal for an experienced software engineer who combines strong technical expertise with a genuine passion for journalism, publishing and content technologies. You will play a key role in the ongoing transformation of one of Ireland's leading news organisations, helping modernise the platforms that enable journalists and editors to create, manage, enrich, publish and distribute content across print, web, mobile and emerging digital channels.

Working closely with Editorial, Product and Engineering teams, you will design, build and evolve the core publishing capabilities that sit at the heart of our newsroom operations. This includes content management systems, publishing workflows, content APIs, content distribution services, editorial tooling, multimedia platforms and integrations with downstream digital products.

This is a full-stack engineering role, with the primary focus on the technology that supports the editorial lifecycle, from content creation and management through to publication and presentation across our websites and mobile applications.

You will contribute to platform modernisation initiatives, CMS transformation programmes, content migration projects and the adoption of new technologies that improve editorial productivity and content experiences.

You will also play an important role in exploring how emerging technologies, including AI, can support journalists and editors through content enrichment, metadata generation, workflow automation, content discovery and newsroom productivity.

As a senior member of the team, you will promote engineering excellence through technical leadership, mentoring, code reviews and the adoption of modern software engineering practices.

Key Responsibilities

· Design, develop and maintain modern web applications using React, TypeScript and JavaScript.

· Design and develop scalable backend services, APIs and integrations using Node.js and TypeScript.

· Build and evolve the platforms that support content creation, content management and content distribution across editorial channels.

· Develop and enhance integrations between CMS platforms, editorial systems, content APIs, digital asset management solutions and downstream consumer products.

· Support and improve newsroom workflows that enable journalists and editors to publish content efficiently and accurately.

· Contribute to platform modernisation initiatives, including CMS transformation programmes and content migration projects.

· Design and implement cloud-native solutions using AWS services and modern architectural patterns.

· Build and maintain microservices and event-driven architectures supporting editorial and publishing workflows.

· Collaborate closely with Editorial, Product, Design and Engineering teams to deliver high-quality publishing capabilities.

· Develop solutions that support the delivery of rich content experiences across websites, mobile applications and other digital channels.

· Contribute to print and digital publishing integrations where editorial workflows span multiple publishing channels.

· Explore and implement AI-enabled capabilities that improve editorial productivity, content classification, metadata enrichment, search and content discovery.

· Drive improvements in performance, reliability, scalability, accessibility and security.

· Champion engineering excellence through clean code, automated testing, code reviews and continuous improvement practices.

· Ensure security best practices are embedded throughout the software development lifecycle.

· Contribute to technical strategy, architecture discussions and technology selection decisions.

· Mentor and support other engineers through coaching, pairing and constructive feedback.

· Troubleshoot production issues and participate in operational support when required.

· Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, engineering tooling and operational best practices.

Requirements & Experience for the role

Essential

· 8+ years of professional software engineering experience.

· Strong commercial experience developing modern web applications using React.

· Expert knowledge of TypeScript and modern JavaScript.

· Experience designing and building scalable customer-facing digital products.

· Experience designing, developing and integrating RESTful APIs and backend services.

· Experience developing cloud-native applications and services.

· Strong understanding of software design principles, application architecture and modern engineering practices.

· Experience working with microservices architectures and distributed systems.

· Experience building event-driven systems and asynchronous integrations.

· Experience delivering and supporting complex integrations between multiple business and technology platforms.

· Demonstrated commitment to code quality, automated testing and maintainability.

· Experience working with Git, CI/CD pipelines and Agile delivery methodologies.

· Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.

· Proven ability to independently own and deliver complex technical initiatives.

· Experience mentoring and supporting less experienced engineers.

· Experience working on high-traffic consumer-facing websites or digital products.

Desirable

· Experience working within digital media, publishing, broadcasting or other content-driven organisations.

· Experience working with enterprise CMS platforms or modern headless CMS architectures.

· Experience building and operating content-rich consumer-facing websites serving large audiences.

· Experience developing and maintaining content APIs and content delivery platforms.

· Experience with mobile applications and mobile content experiences.

· Experience with SEO, content discoverability and structured content strategies.

· Passion for the future of journalism, publishing and digital storytelling

Tech Stack

· Frontend & Digital Experience: React, TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, Responsive Design, Progressive Web Applications, Accessibility (WCAG), Performance Optimisation.

· Mobile (Nice to Have): React Native, Mobile Content Delivery, Push Notifications, Mobile Analytics, Apple Store and Google Play deployment processes.

· Backend & Architecture: Node.js, TypeScript, RESTful APIs, Microservices, Event-Driven Architecture, Distributed Systems, Service Integrations, Domain-Driven Design.

· Content & Publishing Platforms: Enterprise CMS Platforms, Headless CMS Architectures, Editorial Workflows, Publishing Workflows, Content Modelling, Content APIs, Content Distribution, Content Migration Programmes, Digital Asset Management, Multimedia Publishing Platforms, Newsroom Integrations, Print Publishing Integrations.

· Web Platform Technologies: Analytics and Tracking Technologies, Google Tag Manager (GTM), Consent Management Platforms (CMP), SEO and Content Discoverability, Performance Monitoring, Accessibility Compliance, Content Presentation Platforms.

· Cloud & Data: AWS Lambda, DynamoDB, Kinesis, EventBridge, API Gateway, S3, CloudWatch, Serverless Architectures.

· DevOps & Engineering Practices: Git, CI/CD Pipelines, Docker, Infrastructure as Code, Monitoring and Observability, Automated Testing, Security and Vulnerability Management.

· AI & Emerging Technologies: Generative AI Applications, Large Language Model (LLM) Integrations, Editorial Workflow Automation, Content Classification and Tagging, Metadata Enrichment, Content Discovery, Content Summarisation, Knowledge and Retrieval Platforms, AI-Assisted Publishing Workflows, Responsible AI for Journalism.

Why Join Us?

This is not a typical software engineering role.

You will help build the technology that enables journalists and editors to create, manage and distribute trusted journalism across some of Ireland's most recognised and respected media brands.

Your work will have a direct impact on the tools used by our editorial teams and on the experiences delivered to readers through our websites, mobile applications and publishing products.

You will have the opportunity to work on modern publishing technologies, newsroom transformation initiatives, cloud-native platforms, AI-enabled capabilities and large-scale content systems that sit at the heart of a modern digital media organisation.

If you are excited by content, technology, storytelling and the future of journalism, this is an opportunity to make a meaningful impact while working on challenges that are both technically complex and highly visible.

Please send your CV through the Apply button below

The Irish Times Group operates a hybrid working policy.

Our benefits include Health Insurance Contribution, Pension Contribution, Sick Leave Cover, Maternity and Paternity Leave, Irish Times Premium Digital Subscription, Income Protection Policy, Corporate Gym Membership Discounts, Free Digital GP and Life Assurance Policy.