Rails / Elixir Software Engineer

ThinkCERCA is an education technology startup that helps educators teach critical thinking through argumentative writing. Named a "game-changing" education tool by Bill Gates, our product is proven to help students achieve two years of academic growth per year. We're on a mission to make these results a reality for all students across the country.

We’re looking for someone is who passionate about web development, works well with a team, and is interested in joining a fast-paced startup as a backend developer to drive our product to the next level. Primary skills desired include proficiency with Ruby on Rails, Elixir, Postgres, and an eye for simplicity and usability.

What you’ll be doing

• Building our core server-side API with loosely-coupled, thoughtfully abstracted microservices in Elixir. From the green field development of our many upcoming new features, to bringing ever increased simplicity by migrating our existing Rails architecture, you’ll be helping us write succinct, modular, and reusable code.

• Test-driving your work and pairing both in person and remotely with a team across North and South America

• Helping improve our core technology stack; making sure our dependencies are useful, minimal, and up to date

• Working with other senior developers on occasional DevOps projects to improve the efficiency of our infrastructure and development process

• Competing for the coveted Best With Computer award during our bi-monthly hack nights in obscure new programming languages

• Interfacing directly with our QA team to ensure that the features you build have been rigorously verified and are up to spec

• Meeting with our stakeholders to understand and refine feature requirements throughout their implementation

• Making our team better with your unique viewpoints and interests

What you’ll need

• Experience with Ruby on Rails and Elixir

• At least some experience with the world of GraphQL to help understand the type of data that is sent and received from our front-end

• Knowledge of testing best practices and version control (we use git)

• An understanding of the many difficulties and gotchas in web development, such as: client/server security, cross-browser compatibility, responsive design (especially on mobile devices), and connection volatility.

• A desire to continually improve both the stack that we all work in and your own skillset

• An interest in considering issues of unnecessary complexity, premature abstraction, maintainability, tight coupling, and all of the other grand plagues of the software engineering world

• The ability to give and receive thoughtful, constructive feedback on any incoming changes

• An awareness of when to act, delegate, and ask for help

• An appreciation of discussion and diverse viewpoints

• Big Bonus points: knowledge of education or education technology