Work for Democracy

Software Engineer

Democracy Works

Democracy Works

Software Engineering
United States · Remote
Posted on Feb 23, 2024

Location: Remote within the US

Salary Range:

  • Most regions in the United States: 104,400- 111,600
  • California-specific: 104,400- 124,000
  • NYC-specific: 116,000- 124,000

Offers will vary based on experience and location-based cost-of-living calculations.

  • Level: 3
  • Supervisory role: N
  • Classification: Exempt, full time

About our organization:

Democracy Works is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that collaborates with election officials, leading tech platforms, and world-class partners to drive voter access and participation. We help Americans vote by providing reliable, useful voting guidance through the sites, apps and groups they trust. This includes TurboVote, Democracy Works Election Data, the Voting Information Project (VIP), and Ballot Scout. We also co-founded the Civic Alliance alongside the CAA Foundation. Democracy Works is committed to diversity and inclusion in everything we do and aspires to have a team that's representative of the voters we serve.

The impact you’ll make:

Our teams work closely together to build the next generation of tools for both voters and election administrators. Our suite of tools include TurboVote, the Voting Information Project (VIP), and How To Vote. To power these tools we use a variety of languages such as: JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Ruby, Clojure. We employ a microservices architecture and run our applications in AWS. We are evolving our program offerings to deliver new experiences that increase our organization’s impact on voters and election administrators.

As a Software Engineer on the team, you will:

  • Collaboratively solve problems, by researching solutions, writing high quality, supportable code
  • Work on projects of moderate to large scope which will require navigating ambiguity by researching and discussing solutions with the team
  • Enhance applications by identifying opportunities for improvement, making recommendations and designing and implementing systems
  • Work closely with product and design teams to iterate on and refine product requirements
  • Provide technical mentorship to members of your team
  • Execute other tasks as may be assigned

Software You are someone with:

  • At least 2 years of hands-on experience delivering technical projects using a functional, object-oriented or scripting programming language such as JavaScript, Typescript, Ruby, Python, Clojure, etc.
  • Understanding of performance, scalability, and security concerns
  • Experience with automated testing frameworks
  • Experience working with relational databases and relational data modeling or NoSQL databases.
  • Experience with distributed version control system (such as Git or Mercurial) and its advanced features
  • Hands-on experience deploying and working with web applications in the cloud and automating DevOps processes
  • Experience thinking critically about software systems and understanding tradeoffs

It’s a plus if:

  • You have experience working with public facing web applications, APIs, or Software as a Service (SaaS) applications
  • You have experience in at least one functional programming language with a desire to learn Clojure/ClojureScript
  • You have experience working with geospatial data and lookups

How we work

Because elections take place everywhere, our employees work from all across the country. We embrace working remotely as the default. Our positions require regular, daily use of a computer (including the use of G-Suite and Slack) to conduct work and communicate with colleagues. We also have regular operating hours (10 am to 6 pm Eastern, Monday to Friday).

For those who prefer to work from an office, we are headquartered in Brooklyn, NY. We are happy to share more details about the office, including accessibility information, as on-site visits are planned.

There may be travel for occasional staff retreats or meetings as part of certain roles.

Benefits

As a member of the team, some of the benefits you’ll enjoy include:

  • 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision option for you and your dependents
  • 12 floating holidays and 25 days of Paid Time Off (PTO) per year
  • 12 weeks of paid parental leave
  • $1,000 per year towards professional development activities

We also offer a 403(b) retirement plan, stipends for equipment and internet reimbursement, and annual Calm or Headspace subscription reimbursements.

To Apply

Please attach your resume and answers to the following questions:

  • How did you find this job listing?
  • Why are you interested in this role and working at Democracy Works?
  • Describe a bug you had a primary role in fixing. How did you troubleshoot and resolve the issue?
  • Are you authorized to work lawfully in the United States for Democracy Works?

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) in Hiring

Democracy Works is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against applicants based on race, religion, color, disability, medical condition, legally protected genetic information, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, gender identity or expression, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions), age, veteran status or other legally protected characteristics.

As part of our application, you’ll see an optional form used to collect U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) demographic information. Please note the categories used in this survey are set by the EEOC and may not reflect all existing categories.The data collected in this form is anonymized and is used in our EEOC reporting and in ongoing assessment of our recruitment practices.

Democracy Works follows the I-9 requirements of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Immigration sponsorship is not available for this position, and you must possess your own work authorization in the U.S. now and in the future to continue working in this position.

Please reach out to hr@democracy.works if you have any questions about our process or if you need an accommodation for a medical condition during the hiring process.