BrightCarbon is a fast-growing business communications agency, based in Manchester, but with staff across the UK and in the USA. We help our clients with their presentations and eLearning, by taking their text-heavy content, and finding the right visuals and animations to tell their stories in ways that are compelling and persuasive.

We help our customers to launch their products, train their staff, and win big deals. Most of what we do is to create presentations and eLearning, but we also create motion graphics, infographics, and pretty much anything that uses our visual storytelling abilities. Check out the portfolio on our website for examples – we don’t use bullet points.

BrightCarbon is looking to recruit a new design consultant to work with a diverse global client-base. The majority of the role consists of designing the right visual sequences to effectively convey a client’s messages. Working alone or in a small team for each project, you will help translate what a client is trying to say into the right images, graphs, charts, and animated sequences to help get the point across clearly and beautifully.

In a business world where a lot of communication is done using PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides, you will soon become fluent. You’ll get to work on a huge mix of projects – from informal explainer videos for new start-ups, to quick turnaround presentations and infographics for some of the world’s biggest companies and best-known brands, to sophisticated eLearning viewed by 1000s of people. You need to be comfortable with Photoshop and Illustrator. We’ll teach you presentation and eLearning software from scratch to an advanced level. Some of our designers work on Mac, and others on PC.

This is an unusual role. For the right candidate, this could be a brilliant opportunity to do varied and rewarding work with a high degree of autonomy, and as part of an interesting and transparent company. As well as a contributory pension, we offer a generous profit-share bonus scheme; individual training, art, and inspiration budgets; a ‘work from anywhere’ scheme; we offset our carbon, donate plenty of work for charities, and give 1% of our revenue to environmental causes. Oh, and everybody gets their birthday and Christmas Eve off as extra paid leave.

We are looking for a talented designer who thinks visually, works precisely, and who can make things look beautiful. We would expect you to have some real-world design experience, and a strong portfolio. Some of our design team have degrees in graphic design or animation – but others are self-taught; what we really care about is what you can do. If you want to work on six-month conceptual projects, this probably isn’t for you – our typical projects last weeks (or days) not months. We think that variety – and our collaborative culture – keeps things interesting. Because we’ve been growing fast, there’s a real chance to make progress in your career too.

The right sort of person will be fast and accurate, enjoy working on a range of projects, and be comfortable working with others. You probably have a creative side outside of work – be that in a quirky hobby or an unusual interest.

This job could be based out of our Manchester (Ancoats) or Bristol (Old Market) office, but as long as we can employ you in the UK we’re flexible on location. As long as the work gets done (well) – we don’t much care if it is done from home or the local coffee shop, as long as clients are happy. Not every great candidate lives – or wants to live – in a major city. We organise co-working space or office shares for our staff in a number of towns and cities. A significant proportion of the company’s work is outside of the UK and while most of this is delivered remotely, some national and international travel may be required.

BrightCarbon is an inclusive company and we welcome applicants of all backgrounds and identities. Candidates of any nationality; of black, white, Asian, or minority ethnic heritage; of any religious belief; of any working age; members of the LGBTQ+ community; those who are neurodivergent; and those with disabilities are encouraged to apply to join our increasingly diverse team. We are happy to support with any reasonable adjustments that are needed.

To apply, please send your DESIGNED CV IN PDF FORMAT via our email address careers @ brightcarbon . com (without the spaces) with a link to your portfolio.

As a ‘Word’ of warning – if it seems like you really don’t care what your CV looks like, we won’t interview you. Please don’t send huge attachments (5MB limit). Mark your applications for Joby Blume’s attention.

Our product team has developed some add-in products (BrightSlide, BrandIn, ShowMaker) that help individuals, teams, and companies use PowerPoint and Google Slides more effectively, and now that we’ve found product-market fit we’re looking to grow our team so we can accelerate progress. Because we’re well-known in the presentation world, we’ve got a great opportunity to build tools that help – and are loved by – hundreds of thousands of people.

We are seeking an experienced and talented Senior Backend Node.js Developer to join our product team. In this role, you will take a leading role in developing new products and ensuring a stable, high-quality backend for our existing offerings. You’ll collaborate closely with other developers in a unique field, with a primary focus on creating and enhancing PowerPoint add-ins, with potential expansion into other areas.

As a key member of our small but highly skilled team, you will drive technological advancements that support our presentation designers and, through our free and paid products, external clients. You will be expected to develop server-side code using Node.js and work with our tech stack, which is deeply integrated within the Microsoft ecosystem.

While a lot of our development work is done in JavaScript, targeting Microsoft Office products, the bespoke nature of our work means you’ll interact with a wide variety of technologies—from Azure and Google Slides to VBA, Bash scripting, and niche MDM interfaces. We don’t expect you to be familiar with all the technologies we use, but significant experience with JavaScript in some form is essential, and knowledge of specific widely used JS libraries such as React could be a plus.

In your role, you will:

Lead the development and refinement of our products.
Assess feasibility, build proof-of-concepts, and develop new features.
Make architectural decisions with lasting impact.
Oversee code reviews and ensure code quality for the backend.
Work on integration, testing, and bug-fixing.

Given the small size of our development team, this role is ideal for someone who enjoys working across all stages of development, while also mentoring others and collaborating within a structured agile environment.

You will not only be contributing as a developer but also guiding and mentoring mid-level developers, ensuring the overall quality of the backend code. Your ability to communicate clearly and voice your thoughts on strategic decisions will be crucial in helping us focus our efforts and distribute workloads effectively.

The work is extremely varied, and extremely rewarding. You will have the opportunity to become one of the best in the world at creating solutions for PowerPoint. Millions of companies create presentations and need what we offer.

As well as a contributory pension, we offer a generous profit-share bonus scheme; individual training, art, health, and inspiration budgets; a ‘work from anywhere’ scheme; we offset our carbon and donate 1% of our revenue to environmental causes. Some of our team meetings are in VR playing walkabout mini-golf, so we’ll send you a headset too. Oh, and everybody gets their birthday and Christmas Eve off as extra paid leave.

Most of our development team is in the UK, and we’ll fly you over twice a year for a team meet-up and wider company get-together. The rest of the time, you can work where you want.

This job can be done from anywhere. While you will have the option to work from a co-working space if you prefer, we have never insisted staff work from offices – we don’t much care if you work from home or from your local coffee shop. We’re open to flexible working, and a number of our staff work condensed hours or part-time.

Key Responsibilities:

Lead and collaborate with the team to support designers and other knowledge workers by building advanced solutions and automations that streamline their workflow in PowerPoint and Google Slides.
Maintain and optimise backend systems for existing products.
Ensure the quality, maintenance, and optimization of backend systems for existing products, overseeing the work of mid-level developers and providing guidance where needed.
Architect and develop high-quality Node.js code for server-side applications, ensuring scalability, security, and efficiency.
Collaborate closely with front-end developers, back-end developers, and UX designers, taking a leadership role in bridging these disciplines and ensuring seamless integration.
Potentially engage in full-stack development when necessary, with the ability to make strategic decisions about when and how to expand development efforts across the stack.

Preferred Qualifications:

Minimum of 5 years of experience in software development.
Proficiency in Node.js.
Experience with React is a plus.
Familiarity with Azure and/or the Microsoft Graph.
Experience with MongoDB or other database technologies.
Degree in Computer Science or a related field.
Microsoft or Azure certifications are advantageous.