At Charles River, we are passionate about improving the quality of people's lives. When you join our global family, you will help create healthier lives for millions of patients and their families.
Charles River employees are innovative thinkers, who are dedicated to continuous learning and improvement. We will empower you with the resources you need to grow and develop in your career.
As a Charles River employee, you will be part of an industry-leading, customer-focused company at the forefront of drug development. Your skills will play a key role in bringing life-saving therapies to market faster through simpler, quicker, and more digitalized processes. Whether you are in lab operations, finance, IT, sales, or another area, when you work at Charles River, you will be the difference every day for patients across the globe.
Job Summary
Responsible for the modernisation and continued development of enterprise applications built on the Java platform. This role involves backend development using Java J2EE, and frontend UI development using Svelte or other modern JavaScript/TypeScript frameworks. You will assist the refactoring of legacy systems into modular, API-driven architectures and transition desktop-based or webforms UIs to responsive, maintainable, modern web interfaces.
This position requires experience with Microsoft technologies, modern front-end JS frameworks, and development in a regulated (e.g., cGMP) environment.
Support the maintenance and migration of legacy Java J2EE applications to modern frameworks
Contribute to building modern SPAs using Svelte.
Build and maintain backend services using Java, C#, Entity Framework, and PostgreSQL or SQL Server.
Refactor monoliths into modular APIs and microservices.
Write and maintain unit, integration, and end-to-end tests.
Contribute to DevOps pipelines and CI/CD processes.
Collaborate with QA, Security, and Regulatory teams to maintain compliance with FDA 21 CFR Part 11, GAMP5, and cGMP standards.
Participate in Agile development practices and sprint ceremonies.
Document code and processes thoroughly.
Be open to receiving mentorship and guidance from senior developers.
Education & Experience:
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field.
Proven experience - 3 years or more, in full-stack development with:
- Java
- JavaScript (preferably SvelteJS)
- CSS experience
- SQL databases (PostgreSQL or SQL Server)
- REST API design and implementation
Technical Skills:
- Object-oriented programming (OOP) and design patterns
- Modern JavaScript/TypeScript web frameworks (Svelte preferred)
- Test automation frameworks (xUnit, Playwright, or Cypress)
- Git, Azure DevOps, or equivalent ALM tools
Preferred Experience:
- GxP or regulated software environment
- Laboratory systems (LIMS, automation tools)
- Docker, OpenShift, or Kubernetes environments
About Corporate Functions
The Corporate Functions provide operational support across Charles River in areas such as Human Resources, Finance, IT, Legal, Sales, Quality Assurance, Marketing, and Corporate Development. They partner with their colleagues across the company to develop and drive strategies and to set global standards. The functions are essential to providing a bridge between strategic vision and operational readiness, to ensure ongoing functional innovation and capability improvement.
About Charles River
Charles River is an early-stage contract research organization (CRO). We have built upon our foundation of laboratory animal medicine and science to develop a diverse portfolio of discovery and safety assessment services, both Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and non-GLP, to support clients from target identification through preclinical development. Charles River also provides a suite of products and services to support our clients' clinical laboratory testing needs and manufacturing activities. Utilizing this broad portfolio of products and services enables our clients to create a more flexible drug development model, which reduces their costs, enhances their productivity and effectiveness to increase speed to market.
With over 20,000 employees within 110 facilities in 20 countries around the globe, we are strategically positioned to coordinate worldwide resources and apply multidisciplinary perspectives in resolving our client's unique challenges. Our client base includes global pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, government agencies and hospitals and academic institutions around the world.
At Charles River, we are passionate about our role in improving the quality of people's lives. Our mission, our excellent science and our strong sense of purpose guide us in all that we do, and we approach each day with the knowledge that our work helps to improve the health and well-being of many across the globe. We have proudly worked on 80% of the drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the past five years.
At Charles River Laboratories, we recognize and recruit all talent. We are a company committed to the principle of diversity and inclusion and work daily in this direction.
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