Blue Squad is hiring an API Developer at our Austin, TX office

[Brian T. Smith]

Introduction

Blue Squad’s mission is to build a lasting and ever-improving progressive society.  We do this by providing tools that deepen and broaden the connection and engagement among people, political candidates, elected officials, and other related groups.  Our platform includes a web app, through which our clients can manage their supporter network, and a mobile app, through which supporters can carry out tasks to help their organizations.  Behind both products lies an API that connects everything together.

Responsibilities

As an API developer at Blue Squad, you’ll be responsible for implementing the core logic for a wide variety of features throughout our platform.  More specifically, your work will cover the following areas:

Implementing backend logic for “missions”

Blue Squad mobile users receive a variety of missions that help them perform different tasks for the groups they’re supporting.  Examples include texting their friends, calling their elected reps, attending an event, going to vote, and more. You will be responsible for implementing the backend services that power creation of these missions, distribution to users, collecting data as these missions are completed, and so on.

Implementing a variety of CRUD features

A significant amount and wide variety of data creation and reporting happens throughout our platform.  Examples include collecting voter registrations, distributing surveys to constituents, reporting activity to campaigns, and so on.  You will be responsible for implementing many of these features so that our users and clients have actionable information.

Scaling the API to handle a growing user base

The Blue Squad user base is growing at a fast rate.  By the end of the year, we hope to be handling millions of users and thousands of clients.  An API Developer on our team should have a solid understanding of how to design software that scales effectively, especially by taking advantage of concurrency and parallelization.

Working hand-in-hand with our data and product teams

The API sits in between our data systems, which handle millions of voter records and user interactions, and our products, which include a mobile app and web app.  While working on the API, you’ll work with members of both teams to ensure seamless connectivity from user-facing applications to back-end systems.

An ideal person for this role will have many, but not necessarily all, of these qualities:

• Experience with designing and implementing APIs

• A conceptual understanding of concurrency and parallelization

• Experience designing fault-tolerant systems with a proven record of scalability

• An understanding of CI pipelines

Specific languages and tools you will be asked to use in this role include (in order of importance):

• Node.js

• TCP/HTTP

• MongoDB

• AMQP/RabbitMQ

• Elasticsearch

• Redis

• PostgreSQL

• Statsd/Graphite/Prometheus/Grafana

• Web-sockets

• Docker

• AWS (EC2, S3, ELB, Route53)

• Kubernetes

• Microservices architecture

• Python

We are not expecting applicants to this role to possess every skill listed above.  We will highly value applicants that possess many of the above and demonstrate a desire and aptitude to learn the rest.  This role will be demanding but rewarding - just like our mission.

Compensation

The compensation package consists of:

• Annual salary between $80,000 - $100,000, depending on experience and skillset

• Medical and dental insurance

• Equity stake in the company

• Flexible vacation policy (take time when needed, be cognizant of deliverable schedules)

Location

We strongly prefer to employ someone who can work from our Austin, TX office.

Contact Us

If you’re interested in this position, please email sh...@bluesquad.co.