Are you a COBOL developer who enjoys solving problems in a mature, business-critical codebase? At Heywood, we’re building the future of pension technology — and we need your COBOL experience, judgement, and practical mindset to help us deliver for our customers while we modernise our platform.
About You
* Strong COBOL developer who takes pride in producing reliable, maintainable code
* Good SQL knowledge and comfortable working with data-heavy systems
* Keen to work in an Agile environment and contribute as part of a Scrum team
* Confident working in an existing legacy codebase, but know when to ask for help
* Interested in modernisation — including the opportunity to transition into Java over time
The Role
In this role you’ll enhance and maintain our legacy COBOL code that supports key functionality in our Altair pension administration software. This is important work: it’s high-impact, needs care and attention, and directly supports customers and their millions of pension scheme members.
From day one, you’ll be a fully involved member of a Scrum team working closely with Senior and Principal Developers, Test Analysts, product specialists, and our customers to make sure we’re building the right thing, in the right way.
We want to be open about the direction of travel: COBOL is being phased out of our platform over the next couple of years. That means this role could be a great fit for someone looking for a fixed term contract, or someone who enjoys working with COBOL today, but who would like the opportunity to broaden into our wider Java-based engineering environment over time.
Our Engineering Environment
While your focus will be COBOL, you’ll be working in a modern delivery setup, alongside technologies and practices such as:
* Java (our standard platform language), with modern JDKs (we currently use Amazon Corretto 17)
* Automated testing, code reviews, and continuous integration
* Tooling and platforms including Gradle, Jenkins, Docker, Chef (and more besides)
You don’t need to know everything on day one — what matters most is a strong COBOL foundation, a willingness to learn, and a collaborative approach to delivery.
Why Heywood?
Heywood is a long-established and successful business, with the stability that brings but we’re also at a size where you can make a genuine impact and be recognised for what you contribute. Our culture is supportive, pragmatic, and improvement-focused: we care about building quality software and we care about helping our people grow.
If you’re a COBOL developer looking for a role where your skills matter, and where you can help deliver today while modernising for tomorrow, we’d love to hear from you.
Our Assessment Process
Your application will be reviewed by our Development team. If selected, you’ll be invited to an interview, where you will:
* Work on a COBOL and SQL coding task with one of our Developers.
* Have a chat with two of our Principal Developers to learn more about you and for you to learn about us.
We aim to complete the entire process, from application to job offer, within two weeks. Apply now and let's build something amazing together!
About Us
Heywood combines a passion for software with Agile methodologies to create modern software and data solutions and services for businesses, pension providers and third parties that help transform how their members and customers manage their lifelong financial journeys.
Working for an expanding established market leader, you will have a real voice to influence our evolution. Continued learning and progression is ingrained in our daily life, encouraged through a variety of forums from e-learning subscriptions and a regular down-tools day (“Hive Day”) and communities of practice for learning and experimentation. Our open culture encourages wide participation and innovation.
We also reward our hard work through regular socials, organised by our people. Socials events include fiercely competitive bake-offs, Pride month office parties, sporting events, games nights and much more!
We are committed to a hybrid working model, combining remote and office-based working.
Discover more at https://www.heywood.co.uk/careers
Legal stuff
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EDI statement
As an equal opportunities’ employer, Heywood is committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective employees and does not condone discrimination on the basis of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership.
We aspire to have a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join Heywood.