Just Eat on the lookout for 150 tech professionals

Just Eat has announced it is recruiting for 150 technology roles as it looks to expand its technology teams and product teams.

Out of these roles, 80 have been newly created and are spread across its two UK technology centres in Bristol and London. The push is the firm’s biggest search for talent in the past three years.

Fernando Fanton, chief product and technology officer, said the firm’s data and technology is vital to maintain its service to its 22.8 million customers and more than 87,500 restaurant partners.

Adding an additional 150 people to the team that creates the firm’s digital experiences, such as its mobile application, is Just Eat’s way of “turbo-charging” its existing efforts to develop its customer and application experiences, according to Fanton.

“We are constantly looking for ways to push technology boundaries, and we look forward to bringing even more highly skilled and talented individuals to our world-class team as we continue our mission to create the world’s greatest food community,” he said.

Just Eat has been trialling and implementing many types of “food tech” in the past year, from launching an application that can be used for Amazon Alexa and Apple TV, to trialling the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) on its consumer side for browsing menus and also on the restaurant/partner side for data visualisation and insight.

The firm has even experimented with the concept of delivery robots and artificial intelligence-driven voice ordering.

The 150 roles the firm is recruiting for cater to all levels, from entry level to experience management, and include roles such as associate engineers, principal engineers and technology managers.

Once the online food marketplace has expanded its technology and product teams, the aim is to continue to use technology to improve the user experience for its customers and restaurant partners.

Providing a good customer experience is becoming increasingly important in a digital world where customers are fickle with their choice of brands and services.

Personalisation can play a huge role in this, and Fanton said data and a good understand of its customers contributes to the firm’s development of these types of services.

Just Eat has already hired more than 200 engineers, developers and data scientists in the past 18 months, amounting to 650 technology professionals across the UK once the new 150 roles have been filled.

Those working in Just Eat’s technology teams get benefits such as a £1,000 training budget, as well as five extra paid holiday days for job-related training, their own choice of hardware and quarterly hackathons. The retention rate in the firm’s Bristol technology centre alone is 92%.

But the firm has also been focused on working with external startups to ensure its stays at the forefront of potential food-tech business plans, and has run startup accelerators in the past to fund and develop small food-based businesses.