Backend Engineer

ruby on rails python elasticsearch javascript typescript

At Prolegis, we're on a mission to inform policymakers and empower citizens to level up democracy.

Prolegis provides free, non-partisan, world-class tools that help policy professionals to legislate, regulate, and govern smarter, and offers free public resources which demystify government and shed light on constantly evolving policy issues.

Launched by invitation in 2020, Prolegis is steadily growing its user base within the federal public policy community. Feedback from our current community of users confirm that our products save people time, surface comprehensive information that is difficult to find, and provide useful insights into complex topics.

As a Backend Engineer, you will be working within a tight-knit team of engineers to help push the Prolegis application forward. You'll be responsible for building and maintaining our server-side architecture and your work will directly impact the work of policy professionals engaged in the complex effort of debating and crafting legislation and regulations.

Qualities We're Looking For

Problem-Solving:

Our product is solving novel problems. You can break down large problems into a clean plan, and you can work with your teammates to systematically find the right solution

Pragmatism:

You believe pragmatism trumps novelty, and can choose frameworks and libraries without losing sight of the tradeoffs in any architectural decision. You put aside ideologies to work towards the bottom line

Empathy:

You always approach your work with the mindset of the user, and focus on their needs with everything you build. You consider dissatisfaction to be a weakness of the product, not a weakness of the user

Strong Communication:

You communicate well in an asynchronous format. You know when to ask for help, and how hard to push. You clearly articulate technical decisions, and you take creative risks when brainstorming ideas. During disagreements, you understand others' perspectives and thoughtfully work towards a solution

Growth Mindset:

You are intrigued by new challenges, approach your work with joy, and have an indelible eagerness to learn

Key Responsibilities

Design and implement features, improvements, and fixes

Pursue knowledge about the stack,the product, and the user's needs

Test your work inthe form of automated tests, as well as working through edge cases and self-QAing your work

Give thoughtful feedback duringcode review, and thoughtfully receive feedback

Minimum Qualifications

3+ years of experience with MVC frameworks

Familiar with relational databases, and can write a SQL query and explain what it’s doing and why

Knowledge of testing best practices, and real-world experiences writing tests for software

Experience with Git and continuous integration methodologies

Preferred Qualifications

Knowledge of, and experience with, Ruby on Rails (3+ years experience preferred): You know Rails and the Rails/Ruby community well, and know how to find or build the right tools for the task at hand

Familiarity with Python

Experience using and explaining data structures and their various tradeoffs

3+ years of experience shipping real-world products

Startup experience highly preferred but not necessary

Our Stack

Prolegis uses a variety of technologies throughout our product. They include:

Ruby on Rails

Python

Elasticsearch

Javascript

Typescript

React