Full Stack Developer

MKM is the leading independent builders’ merchant in the UK, and we were established in 1995. Our people are what make us unique in what we do. Today we have more than 143 branches and over 3300 employees nationwide. Whilst we continue to grow, we are constantly striving to always attract, recruit, retain, promote, and support a diverse mix of colleagues that create a sense of belonging to the ‘MKM family’ for everyone. We hope you will join us on our journey!

What makes us different is our model: our Branch Directors part-own the branches they run, which creates a genuinely empowered, entrepreneurial culture and consistently sees our branches outperform their competitors. We're private equity backed and delivered another strong year with revenue up 12% to £1.1bn, so the ambition and the investment behind our growth are real.

That investment now extends firmly into digital. We're building modern, large-scale eCommerce and digital products to support both our branch network and our customers — including a headless eCommerce storefront and our first dedicated eCommerce mobile app, launched in 2026. There's rarely been a better time to join and help shape what comes next.

The Role

We're looking for a Full Stack Developer with strong

Laravel skills and solid, working

Vue.js experience, comfortable owning features end-to-end — from backend services through to the customer-facing frontend.

You'll join our Scrum-based Digital Team, working closely with Central Support business functions and the branch network to develop and enhance our eCommerce platform and the wider suite of digital products supporting our online growth. You'll be involved in building new features, improving existing systems, and contributing to the ongoing evolution of a modern, cloud-native digital ecosystem built around APIs and microservices.

We're an AI-forward engineering team, and this is central to how we work rather than an afterthought. AI-assisted development is part of our day-to-day delivery, and we're actively evolving our workflows, tooling and standards around it. You'll be encouraged to use these tools well, to help shape how the team adopts them, and to keep raising the bar on quality, security and maintainability as you do.

Full stack rarely means a perfect 50/50 split, and we don't expect it to. If you lean more towards the backend and Laravel but can hold your own in Vue and enjoy seeing a feature through to the frontend, you're exactly the kind of developer we'd like to hear from. Backend-strong candidates with genuine full-stack range are very welcome.

What You'll Do

• Develop and maintain robust backend services and APIs using Laravel (PHP).
• Build and enhance customer-facing features in our Vue.js / Nuxt.js storefront, with Core Web Vitals and performance front of mind.
• Deliver features end-to-end — from database and API through to the UI.
• Design, build and consume RESTful APIs within a microservices architecture, keeping code scalable and maintainable.
• Contribute to database design and MySQL optimisation and performance improvements.
• Ensure applications meet our security and data protection standards.
• Collaborate using Git, Bitbucket and Jira within our Scrum delivery process.
• Apply TDD and unit testing to keep our applications reliable and maintainable.
• Use our AI-assisted development workflows effectively — to accelerate delivery while keeping ownership of code quality, security and correctness — and help refine how the team works with them.
• Take part in code reviews and contribute to our CI/CD processes and engineering best practice.

Our Tech Stack

You'll Be Working With a Modern, API-first Stack, Including

• Backend: Laravel (PHP) services and API gateway, MySQL
• Frontend: Vue 3 and Nuxt 3 headless storefront
• Architecture: Headless, API-first eCommerce built on microservices
• Cloud & DevOps: Google Cloud Platform, Docker, CI/CD, a DevSecOps mindset
• Mobile: React Native (Expo)
• Tooling: Atlassian (Jira, Bitbucket)
• AI-assisted development: AI coding assistants such as Cursor and Claude are part of our everyday toolkit, alongside other assistants used within a governed, secure framework

AI-Assisted Development at MKM

AI is a core part of how we build software, not a bolt-on. Our developers use AI coding assistants and agentic tooling every day — for feature development, refactoring, test generation, code review support, documentation and exploration — and we treat getting the most out of these tools as a genuine engineering skill in its own right.

We do this responsibly. AI usage at MKM sits within a governed framework covering data protection, security and supplier due diligence, so we can move quickly without compromising on quality or the safety of our code and data. We're continually maturing our AI workflows, prompts, guardrails and standards, and everyone on the team has a voice in shaping them.

For this role, that means we're looking for someone who is comfortable and effective with AI-assisted development: someone who uses these tools to work faster and better, but who reviews, understands and takes full ownership of everything they ship. If you're excited about working somewhere that's genuinely investing in AI-driven engineering — and helping define good practice as it evolves — you'll feel at home here.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Strong commercial experience with PHP, Laravel, MySQL, JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
• Proven experience delivering full-stack web applications.
• Solid, working Vue.js skills and the confidence to build and enhance frontend features.
• Experience building and consuming RESTful APIs.
• Good understanding of database design and optimisation.
• Comfortable with Git-based workflows (Bitbucket) and working in Agile / Scrum teams.
• A commitment to clean, maintainable, well-tested code and coding standards (including TDD).
• Comfortable working with AI-assisted development tools, and the judgement to use them well while retaining full ownership of your code.
• Strong problem-solving skills and clear communication in a collaborative team environment.

Desirable (but Not Essential)

• Nuxt.js experience (or the appetite to pick it up quickly).
• React and/or React Native experience.
• Docker and Google Cloud Platform familiarity.
• Exposure to microservices architecture.
• Interest in DevSecOps principles and practices.
• Hands-on experience with agentic AI development tools and workflows (e.g. Cursor, Claude), and an interest in helping shape team AI practice.

Who You Are

Team fit matters to us as much as technical skill. You're someone with strong technical ability, positive energy and a collaborative mindset — happy to pair, review, share knowledge and get stuck in. You care about doing things well, you're pragmatic about delivery, and you thrive in a fast-paced, commercially minded environment where your work has a visible impact.

Location & Working Pattern

The role is based at our Central Support office in Hull, East Yorkshire, ideally on a hybrid pattern of 3 days a week in the office. We're open to flexible arrangements for the right person.

Benefits

• A competitive pay package.
• Generous discretionary bonus scheme
• Substantial staff discounts
• Training and development opportunities
• Holiday scheme which rewards length of service
• Holiday Purchase Scheme
• Perkbox discounts
• Contributory pension scheme
• Financial Planning Support
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Free parking
• Enhanced Maternity
• Enhanced Paternity
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Mental Health Support

Any queries, please call on: 01482 262280