UK Recruitment Portal Rebuilt in 8 Weeks

The Challenge

A UK workforce solutions company had been running a contractor management and recruitment portal built on PHP and Laravel for several years. The platform handled contractor placements, client job submissions, compliance document storage, and candidate search, but performance and operability had degraded to the point that the business was considering a full replacement.

Page loads averaged 10–15 seconds for key dashboards. Recruiters routinely waited for screens to populate, losing productivity during peak hiring cycles. The underlying architecture, monolithic PHP with heavy server side rendering, inefficient queries, and no caching layer, could not be patched incrementally.

Job posting was entirely manual. Each vacancy had to be copied and pasted into multiple job boards (Reed, Indeed, Totaljobs, CV-Library, and LinkedIn). Staff spent hours per week on repetitive distribution tasks instead of candidate engagement. There were no API integrations.

Compliance document management was falling behind. Right-to-work checks, DBS certifications, and contractor agreements were stored in a mix of ad hoc folders and legacy tables. Auditors had flagged gaps in retention policies, consent tracking, and data subject request handling. GDPR readiness was incomplete.

The client had received quotes from UK based agencies for a full rebuild, estimates ranged from 16–24 weeks with teams of 6–8 developers. Cost projections were £80,000–£120,000. They needed a faster path and a more competitive price without sacrificing quality.

The Approach

RG INSYS began with a one week discovery audit. Our engineers reviewed the existing codebase, database schema, and undocumented business logic. We catalogued integrations (payroll, background checks, ATS exports) and mapped user journeys that could not be interrupted during migration.

We chose a modern stack: Node.js with Express for the API, React for the frontend, PostgreSQL with proper indexing and connection pooling, Redis for session and cache, and AWS for hosting. The new system would be API first, enabling future mobile apps and third party integrations.

AI accelerated development was central. Our team used Claude Code and Cursor IDE throughout. Senior engineers designed architecture, security modules, and business rules; AI agents handled scaffolding, CRUD boilerplate, test generation, migration scripts, and documentation. This combination cut development time by roughly 60% compared to a traditional rebuild.

Parallel run architecture minimised risk. The old PHP system stayed live. We built the new Node.js + React platform alongside it, migrating data and business logic incrementally. The client ran both systems in parallel for a 30-day stabilisation period before fully switching. Zero downtime, no big bang cutover.

Timeline: Week by Week

Weeks 1–2: Discovery audit, architecture finalisation, and sprint planning. Database schema design for the new system. CI/CD pipeline setup. Team kickoff with stakeholder alignment.

Weeks 3–4: Core API development, authentication (JWT + RBAC), contractor and client entities, job posting CRUD, document upload and storage. PostgreSQL migrations and Redis integration. Frontend scaffolding with React and shared component library.

Weeks 5–6: Job board integrations (Reed, Indeed, Totaljobs, CV-Library, LinkedIn). Automated posting pipeline with retry logic and status webhooks. Live candidate search with full text and filter support. GDPR document management: consent tracking, retention policies, data subject request handling.

Weeks 7–8: Auto generated contract creation, reporting dashboard, audit logging, and performance optimisation. End to end testing. Parallel deployment. Go live with 30 day stabilisation support.

Tech Stack

• Backend: Node.js 20, Express, TypeScript, Prisma ORM
• Frontend: React 18, TypeScript, React Query, Tailwind CSS
• Database: PostgreSQL 15, Redis 7
• Infrastructure: AWS (ECS, RDS, ElastiCache, S3)
• Integrations: Reed API, Indeed API, Totaljobs, CV-Library, LinkedIn Job Wrapping
• AI tooling: Claude Code, Cursor IDE, GitHub Copilot

Results

Key Features Delivered

• Automated job board distribution: One-click posting to Reed, Indeed, Totaljobs, CV-Library, and LinkedIn. Webhook-based status updates and automatic retries on failure.
• Live candidate search: Full-text search across profiles with filters for skills, location, availability, and compliance status. Sub-second response times via PostgreSQL + Redis.
• Auto generated contracts: Template based contract generation with variable substitution. PDF output with e signature integration. Version history and audit trail.
• GDPR document management: Consent capture, retention policies, right to erasure flows, data export, and immutable audit logs. Document lifecycle tracking for right-to-work, DBS, and training records.