In tech, and especially in the kind of projects we take on, the hard days matter more than the easy ones. Anyone can look good when the requirements are clear and the deadline is generous, but when the spec shifts, when the client has a curveball request, when performance starts wobbling in production without an instantly clear reason - that’s when character shows. That’s when you learn who you’ve really hired.

Engineering Excellence - But Never Just That

Don’t get me wrong: I love great engineering. Always have. The elegance of a clean solution, the satisfaction of an optimisation that shaves seconds off load time, the craft of code that someone else can read and actually enjoy. But raw capability on its own? It’s not enough.

In our world, we’re asking engineers to handle deeply complex B2B logic, to navigate knotty subscription models, to tune performance for enterprise-scale clients who measure downtime in millions. You need skill to survive in that environment, but what makes someone great isn’t just that they can do the work. It’s that they want to make it better for everyone else too.

The best engineers on our team are rarely the loudest. They’re the ones who are curious, who lean in with “Tell me more” instead of rushing to a conclusion. They’re the ones who will stay thoughtful, even when the pressure rises. And when they do speak, the whole team pays attention, because they’ve earned that trust.

What We Actually Mean By ‘Culture Fit’

It’s easy to roll your eyes at the phrase. Too often it gets confused with personality tests, or worse, whether someone would win at Friday pub trivia. That’s not what it means here.

At GENE, culture fit is much simpler - and much harder. It means: can you grow in this environment? And will you help others grow with you?

So when we interview, we don’t ask for clever one-liners about frameworks or favourite languages. We ask questions like:

• How do you respond to feedback, especially when you don’t agree with it?

• Do you lift others up, or do you quietly compete with them?

• What’s the last thing you learned from someone more junior than you?

For us, culture isn’t a poster on the wall or a line in a handbook. It’s what happens when the deadline moves, when the client changes direction, when the team is tired but the work still has to be done. It’s not a set of words. It’s behaviour under pressure.

Work Where You Work Best, Ego-Free

We don’t define ourselves as remote-first or on-site. Our approach is simpler: work where you work best. For some that’s home, for others it’s an office or a mix of both. What matters is that wherever we are, we connect with purpose.

Our in-team connections are intentional and our communication, engagement, and energy need to be next level. Slack threads full of weird bugs. Video calls where someone shares a breakthrough…or a problem. Quick requests for help that turn into whole-team brainstorming. And yes, laughter in the middle of the day, because sometimes that’s what gets you through it.

What makes it work is not proximity, but humility. We leave egos at the door. We’ve got seniors with decades of experience, but if an intern spots something we missed, the credit goes to them. Every time. That matters, because nothing kills collaboration faster than hierarchy for its own sake.

One of our developers put it best: “I’ve worked in agencies where developers were treated like code robots. Here, you’re part of the solution, and that changes everything.”

What Really Matters: Quality, Value and Ownership

If you’ll never admit to making a mistake, we probably won’t hire you.
If you’ve never had to untangle a problem you didn’t create, we’ll wonder how you’ll cope when the unexpected lands on your desk here.
If you’re still learning a platform, but you’ve got the mindset, the humility, the obsession with value - we’ll teach you the rest.

Our values aren’t a poster on the wall. They’re how we hire, how we deliver, and how we grow. Go for better. Thrive together. Bring the energy. Deliver results. Find a way. Those principles shape the way we approach every project, every line of code, every client conversation.

We also push for an ownership mindset. What would you do if this was your company? Would you be happy with the outcome if you were the CEO? That’s the lens we expect people to bring. We can train someone on the finer points of Magento and Adobe Commerce. What we can’t train is the care for quality, the drive to deliver real results, or the integrity to own the outcome as if it were theirs. Those things have to be there already.

We Build Teams the Way We Build Tech

Solid foundations and room to evolve. That’s true of our architecture, and it’s true of our hiring.

When we find someone who cares - about what they’re building, and about who they’re building it with - we make space for them. Whether they’re frontend, backend, DevOps, QA, or none of the above.

We don’t rush hiring. We take our time, because the wrong hire can slow a team down for months, while the right hire can lift a whole culture for years. And when we find the right people, we do everything we can to keep them.

A Closing Thought

The culture behind the code matters as much as the code itself. Maybe more, because what keeps developers here isn’t just the complexity of the work, or the scale of the clients, or even the satisfaction of solving tough problems. It’s the feeling that they’re part of something that values attitude over arrogance, craft over chaos, and collaboration over ego.

That’s why our developers stick around, and that’s why we’re always open to meeting the next one who will.

Think you’d thrive in a team like this? We’d love to start a conversation.