Senior Software Engineer

About Bocoup

Bocoup is a justice-focused consulting firm that partners with tech companies and nonprofits to increase inclusion on the web. We started in 2009 with a focus on JavaScript and open source ethics. Over the past four years, we have shifted to focus more explicitly on increasing access and equity with web technology by working with partners on engineering, design, and product and organizational strategy. Our recent projects include engineering for Scratch (the beginner-friendly programming language), web standards for assistive technologies like screen-readers, and eviction defense tools for tenants in Los Angeles County.

We are looking for a diverse pool of applicants who are committed to justice and equity, including those from historically marginalized groups — women, people of color, people with disabilities, formerly incarcerated people, people who identify as LGBTQIA+, first and second generation immigrants, and people from low-income backgrounds.

Why Work at Bocoup?

Welcoming Environment

At Bocoup we believe everyone is equally welcome on the web. Together we work to support a safe and inclusive environment which prioritizes the safety and wellbeing of marginalized people in our office, on our projects, and in the communities we work with.

Professional Development

Everyone at Bocoup is provided with a discretionary professional development budget for books, software, conferences, trainings, travel, or anything else that moves us forward professionally. Additionally, Bocoup invests in your annual professional development planning and follows through by providing dedicated planning and check in time with managers.

Other Benefits

As a member of the team, you will receive a computer and generous paid vacation time. You will also be eligible to participate in other benefits such as a 401k account, PPO or HMO health insurance with company reimbursements for your deductible, dental insurance, vision insurance, and paid parental leave.

The Position

As a Frontend-Focused Senior Engineer at Bocoup, you’ll collaborate on internal and partner projects that advance our social justice mission and values. You’ll contribute technical product vision, write software, identify product improvements, and work directly with Bocoup’s customers (from business, product and engineering) to help them achieve their product goals.

You’ll love this role if

• You’re looking for opportunities that challenge you as an engineer, and care about centering people and communities that have been systematically marginalized by tech. We do this in our projects, with partners, and within our own team. You must have a passion (no matter how new) for social, economic, disability and racial justice.
• You have a team mindset and a commitment to the success of others.
• You enjoy collaborating with your teammates on diverse projects. You can expect to be working on 1-3 projects at a time, which typically span from 3-12 months.
• You value the expertise of and enjoy learning from people with a broad range of backgrounds and experiences beyond engineering, including product strategy, accessibility, activism, and community organizing.
• You are comfortable working with a distributed team, remote customers, and communicating with both via text- and video-based channels—across 3-4 timezones. Despite these timezone differences, we ensure all team members maintain a locally-based schedule that works for them.
• You appreciate the importance of excellent documentation, and know how to produce it in a collaborative way, applying your strong written and oral communication skills.
• You enjoy either talking or writing about the work you and your team are doing for public and partner-facing communications.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities

• Work with our partners to solve problems and help them succeed.
• Engage directly with clients of all sizes to find the right-sized technology from wordpress to a low-code prototype to a custom web application.
• Deliver projects focused on improving web platform interoperability with browser implementers, or web application development with values aligned organizations, depending on experience and interest.
• Share your passion through creating educational content for our blog, workshops, and other educational resources and forums.
• Share your work at Bocoup through attending and contributing to community events, and representing the team at conferences abroad.
• Mentor developers and guide their adoption of new technologies.
• Contribute to internal projects, and work on tools and products for your peers at Bocoup.
• Advocate for Bocoup’s code of conduct and values, including social justice.

Location

Remote. U.S.-based preferred, for timezone alignment. We will consider other locations case-by-case. For reference, roughly half of our team is in US EST.

Reporting and Team Structure

This role reports to the Engineering Manager, and works with project teams of 2-6 engineers, designers and project managers. Our small team cares about individual mentorship, close collaboration, and opportunities to pursue stretch projects. We are committed to maintaining a safe and inclusive work environment, and expect all team members to uphold our company values and adhere to our Code of Conduct.

Requirements

• Commitment to our mission and values, including Transparency, Quality, Service, Learning, Inclusion, Respect, and Social Justice. You developed this commitment through your own lived experience, education and/or activism.
• 4-6+ years of engineering experience, including 2-4+ years of experience in a collaborative consulting capacity at a project-based organization.
• Solid understanding of:
• Web application architecture and security, web accessibility, web performance, and the privacy model of the web.
• JavaScript, including the core language, Web Browser APIs, and the Node.js global.
• Building web applications with Node and at least one front end framework such as React, Ember, Angular, or Vue. Experience with, or willingness to learn, TypeScript.
• Strong experience centering users through research, co-design, or testing.
• Ability to think broadly and strategically coupled with the desire to directly manage projects and tasks.
• Strong risk assessment and time estimation skills.
• Nice to have: Experience with relational databases and writing secure, performant queries.
• Nice to have: Experience with GraphQL and non-relational databases
• Nice to have: Experience developing web standards, and building consensus between stakeholders.

Our Hiring Process

• After you submit your application, it will be reviewed by the hiring manager and select members of the team.
• If it seems like we’re a good fit for each other, we will follow up and schedule a 30 minute phone call with one of our leaders to get to know you.
• If we jointly decide to move forward, you can plan to (virtually) attend a technical interview with the Engineering Manager with questions geared to understand how you solve problems, and then meet (2-4) other members of the team for additional conversations about your approach to collaboration, your relevant experience to current projects, and alignment with our values. All in, you can expect the time commitment for this stage to be 3-4 hours of synchronous interaction, scheduled to fit your needs. We aim to accommodate different communication styles in our interview process, and don’t use tools like “live whiteboarding” for interviews.
• If you complete interviews, we will provide a decision or clear next step within five business days.
• We are hiring multiple senior engineers, on a rolling basis. We are ready to hire as soon as we find the right candidate.

We can’t wait to meet you!

Benefits

• The base salary range for this position is $130-145K. This is determined based on experience and is negotiable within this band. In addition, we offer bonuses whenever sustainably possible, based on company financial performance, and also routinely adjust compensation based on cost of living needs.
• Flexible PTO, including vacation, personal and sick time. Company-wide closures on Federal holidays. Regular closures during the 2020/21 pandemic and uprising to prioritize team health.
• Competitive health plans (medical, dental, vision), and Bocoup covers deductible costs through HRA reimbursement.
• 401k and life insurance.
• Paid parental leave (12 weeks).
• Computer and equipment.
• Professional Development Budget and support from leadership on setting and completing annual professional development goals
• Quarterly All Hands meetings and paid team days of action in solidarity with social justice movements like Black Lives Matter.
• We reserve a portion of our profit to contribute to anti-racist organizations, with selection input from team members. (For reference, in 2020, we committed 50% of our profit to charity.)