Boxtribute

Why work with us?
This is a great opportunity for an experienced software developer who wants both more flexibility in the schedule for family, personal growth, or health reasons to still apply their skills in making a positive contribution to the world.

Tech for Good : Use your valuable skills to contribute to a product that has real impact in a world of increasing humanitarian crises. We are

Open Source : We support organizations making an impact, but we never shut anyone out! Our software is fully open-source on Github.

Great people : We have experienced startup founders including an ex-Amazonian, who have decided to put the experience they’ve had building amazing products, running systems at scale, and operating in fast-paced, high growth environments to work in the humanitarian sector . We believe in making sure that we keep ourselves honest about what impact we’re having in the space, while also making sure that each person gets the growth and development they’re looking for.

Collaborative decision making : You will always know what you’re building, why, and how that makes a difference to the people on the ground. With many people on board having either contributed directly to the first prototype, or having worked in technical teams for many years, you can be sure that your contributions will be treated with thoughtful consideration.

Career : Grow your experience working in distributed, multicultural teams.

What will be my main responsibilities?
Boxtribute is starting a new pilot program with the aim of helping people in need, such as refugees and long-term unemployed people, transition back into the workforce. We plan to do this by placing eligible graduates of nonprofit coding schools into a work-study program where they can learn how to work in a professional environment while continuing to refine their skills. We are looking for an experienced engineering lead who would act as both a technical mentor to program participants and the lead developer for the product.

This person would have the opportunity to participate in the co-designing of the program, and eventually be responsible for establishing and upholding a culture of engineering excellence. They would have the active support of our Head of Product (Roanna) and Senior Advisor, Technology (James) for architecture decisions, and would be supported by both our Head of Product and the Head of Operations (Hans) for team onboarding and management.

In this context, some of the tasks you’ll be expected to manage include:

Familiarizing yourself with the existing code base, using that knowledge to assist the team in sizing up the work then breaking it down into manageable chunks
Engaging in product development conversations in order to come to good technical decisions, with a demonstrated ability to evaluate, understand and clearly articulate the impact of those decisions
Establishing and upholding best practices of modern software development methodologies (Agile, TDD)
Help the rest of the development team when they are blocked, and helping them learn independent problem solving skills.

How we work
We are an international, all-remote team We deploy using a scaled trunk-based development approach. We rely on Slack, Trello, and regular calls to make things come together 🙂

Our technology stack
Our partners are currently working off of our legacy PHP application. However, we have started the process of planning and building out a new progressive web app based on Python / Flask and ReactJS, which would eventually completely replace the PHP app. The technical design and build-out of this new app is the main initiative that your software development efforts would be contributing to.

We use modern continuous delivery methods, and try to use the best tools for the job, with an eye for the sustainability of our project and financial constraints.

[New App] Python / Flask on the back-end, ReactJS on the front-end
A GraphQL API powered by MySQL / Peewee ORM for the data layer
Google App Engine and Cloud SQL to host for minimal operational overhead
CircleCI for continuous integration
Cypress for browser-based testing
Sentry and Google Stackdriver for error monitoring & tracing
GitHub, Trello and Slack for collaboration

About you
You’ll be motivated by our goal, and have some experience leading diverse engineering teams. Working with a volunteer engineering team will provide some unique challenges and hopefully some fresh perspectives! Hopefully you have:

5+ years experience in software development, including 18+ months of experience with ReactJS or other modern front-end capable of creating a progressive web app
Prior experience in Python, preferably in data analysis and / or web development environments
A successful track record of working with test-driven development (TDD) in an agile environment and shipping production-ready code at a high velocity;
A solid understanding about how to tool code for maintainability and scale, while simultaneously being able to make intelligent trade-offs with time to market
A strong knowledge of modern approaches to web application architecture, including API design and integration
Excellent collaboration and communication skills;
A demonstrated ability to coach and mentor while sustaining a positive relationship with junior team members
High comfort level in working with a diverse, remote, and dynamic / fluctuating team

BONUS:

BSc. in Computer Science or a related field, or similar coursework and credentials
Prior experience with Apollo GraphQL, PHP, relational database modeling
Proficiency in API security frameworks, token management and user access control including OAuth, JWT, etc
Familiarity with common web development tools like Docker and Github;
Prior experience as a tech lead, or strong recommendations from the same
Prior experience working or volunteering in the field on humanitarian aid and / or on the refugee and displaced persons crisis
Prior experience working in a remote team

How much time do I need to commit?
We are looking for someone who can commit 20+ hours a week for 3 months or longer. We can offer an initial stipend of up to € 1000 / month, with an option to expand depending on the state of our funding applications.

Apply to us here, via LinkedIn or by email to [email protected]!