Apprentice Software Developer - September 2025

Digital Native; Retford; On-site; GBP 25,000; Full time

Job description

Please note that this is an apprenticeship position and therefore anyone with more than six months professional experience working as a software developer or who holds either a degree or Master’s degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering will not be eligible.

You will also need to commit to completing a Level 4 Software Developer Apprenticeship.

Please note: the start date for this apprenticeship will be September 2025.

About the role:

The MHR Software Academy programme is designed to give you ownership of your career aspirations, supported by training and practical experience to help you succeed. You will be part of our People First Software team and be assigned a Mentor who will support and guide you throughout your career with us. All of this is designed to complement your career development, fuel your ambition, and give depth to your training and career.

As an Academy Software Engineer, you will work as a part of a team, working alongside skilled and experienced individuals who are motivated to train and coach you on coding standards, learn the tools, techniques and approaches used by engineering professionals and apply them in a controlled environment.

We expect you to be ready to tackle (and enjoy!) programming tasks from the outset, but we will take the time to mentor you through small packages of work and enhancements to our People First product. You will get exposure to all our technology stacks including C# .NET, Java, and an Angular front end. The Academy program is set up to help and support you for the first stages of your programming career before moving on to work in our product teams looking after the key modules of our People First Software offering which includes HR, Talent, and Payroll.

Expected Competencies you will have:

• A proven interest in coding through your A Level / college course or online platforms like Code Academy and are seeking a Level 4 Software Developer apprenticeship.
• A passionate individual who is excited about software development, a desire to learn and who wants to forge a long-standing career with MHR.
• A passion for technology, programming, and problem solving.
• An awareness of the Software Delivery Lifecycle and Agile methodologies.

What will you learn in our Software Academy?

• You will have the chance to work on and learn our technology stacks.
• Java – JavaEE, Hibernate and Docker
• .NET - .NET C# and NHibernate
• Web – HTML, TypeScript and SCSS
• Working in an Agile Scrum environment.
• The ability to work as part of a team and to work alone.
• To give clear and effective communication skills both verbally and written.
• How to work on a business level codebase by getting to work on customer impacting features in a controlled environment.

What will your day-to-day role look like?

• You will be taken on a fully planned onboarding program welcoming you to MHR and our products/services.
• Based on your skillset we will tailor a training program just for you based on a phased approach to build you up to working in our product delivery teams.
• Key areas we will focus on throughout your time with us in the Software Academy are:
• How to write good quality code using defined coding standards and guardrails.
• How to test any changes that are made and the process we go through.
• Understanding build processes and deployments of the People First software.
• How to write performant and secure code.
• Giving you the chance to learn from attending talks, pair programming, watching tutorials and writing of code.
• In the later phases of the Academy, we will identify product improvements from the Product Design and Research teams and ways for you to deliver value stream work into the product.

It might be the role for you if you are:

• Passionate about writing code and software
• Self-motivated and have the desire and motivation to push yourself to learn and grow.
• Love tech and want to gain new skills at the cutting edge.

Personal qualities

• Passionate about technology
• Eagerness to learn new technologies and processes
• Ability to build good working relationships
• Enjoy working in a team and problem solving
• Able to take ownership of work
• Strong communication skills
• Good time management

Essential Qualifications:

• 7 GCSE’s (or equivalent) at grades 9-4 or A-C including maths and English
• 3 A Levels (or equivalent) at grades A*-C in any subject but preferably one in a numerical or computing subject (e.g. maths, Science, Computer Science etc)

Applications will also be considered from graduates with non-computer science degrees looking for an apprenticeship route to a development career.

If you’re thinking, that sounds just like me, then get your application in with us now!

Salary: £25,000

Location: we do not offer remote work and apprentices will be expected to attend our offices at NG11 6JS for 5 days a week. Therefore, it is unlikely that applicants will be considered if their commute is longer than 1hr 15 minutes.

Please note – if you have any questions regarding this apprenticeship vacancy, please email Digital Native at [e-mail].

Please do not contact MHR directly, as all communication should be through Digital Native.

Training to be provided

As part of the Level 4 Software Developer apprenticeship standard, you’ll be registered as a member with the British Computer Society and be on a fast track to an industry recognised qualification and your dedicated industry coach will support you through a blended approach that will include remote, in person, 1-2-1 and group learning.

By applying you are agreeing to Digital Native retaining your information, sharing this with potential employers and contacting you about apprenticeship opportunities that we feel you could be interested in.

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