Meet our Software Developer: Jordan Newlands

Jordan is our computer science student currently completing a 12‑month placement here at Salus Technical. At Salus, Jordan plays a key role in maintaining our range of software products, otherwise know as the Salus Suite. He works closely with our other developers to create new custom features and solve customer issues.

QUESTIONS

What is your job title and responsibilities?

I am a Software Developer on a 12-month placement at Salus Technical. My main responsibility is supporting the development and maintenance of our Salus Suite of software tools—Bowtie Master, Safe Task, and Incident Insight.  I work closely with our customer success specialists and the rest of the development team to tackle bugs, implement new features, and ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible for our customers. 

What does a normal workday look like for you?

My typical day starts with checking in on any tasks or bugs that need attention. After our daily team stand-up to align on priorities, I dive into coding, whether it’s enhancing existing features or working on bug fixes. Most days I will spend some time pair programming or shadowing more senior developers in the team – where I will always walk away having learnt a new technique or different way of approaching a problem. 

What do you like most about your job? 
I love the variety and problem-solving aspects of my job. There’s something really satisfying about tackling a tricky issue and seeing the direct impact on our products. The tightknit team at Salus Technical is also a huge plus – everyone is very supportive and collaborative, which makes it a great environment for growth. On the topic of growth – I have been super lucky to attend events such as Scotsoft 2024 in Edinburgh with the software team to learn about emerging trends and technologies in the industry. 

What talents or skills does someone in this job need to have? 

Being a software developer requires strong problem-solving skills and an ability to think logically. You also need a good understanding of various coding languages and frameworks, as well as the ability to adapt quickly to new technologies. Communication and teamwork are also critical, especially when working in a collaborative environment like ours. I often find that the people skills are far more important than the technical skills in order to translate requirements as specific as “make it better,” into actionable enhancements which still ensuring the change is beneficial for customers across a diverse range of industries.

What has been your favourite project to work on so far? 

One of my favourite features I have implemented based on customer feedback is the ability to assign actions to users, who will then be notified in app and optionally by email. It involved learning a totally new technology to handle the delivery of notifications in real-time which was exciting but also opened my eyes to the horrific state of HTML and CSS support across different mail clients – something I’m sure many developers can sympathise with. 

What would you like to achieve by 2029? 
I struggle seeing 5 days ahead never mind 5 years but all going well I’ll have graduated with my masters in computing and be firmly settled into a senior developer role at a company making a real difference, much like here at Salus.

What do you like to do outside work, have you any hobbies/activities? 

Outside of work, I don’t have a ton of free time, but I always make room for things that help me switch off. Badminton is my go-to, and I play multiple times a week—it’s a great way to de-stress, stay active, and get a bit of friendly competition in. 

When I’m not on the court, I’m usually catching up with friends, whether that’s grabbing food, heading out somewhere, or just having a good chat. I’ve also been trying to level up my cooking skills, though some meals definitely turn out better than others. 

On the university side of things, I’ve got coursework to juggle, but a big chunk of my time goes into the Computing Society at Robert Gordon University, where I help run events. One of the biggest projects I lead is RGUhack—the largest hackathon in the north of Scotland. Organizing it is a massive task, but seeing students come together to build cool projects and push their skills is 100% worth it. Between sports, social life, and keeping up with tech, there’s not much downtime—but I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

If you had an unnecessary superpower, what would it be? 

If I could have any superpower, controlling time would be the ultimate choice. But if we’re talking unnecessary superpowers, I’d go with the ability for my coffee cup to magically refill itself—no trips to the kitchen, no waiting for the kettle, just an endless supply of caffeine right at my desk.