Rails Backend Developer (Full-time, Remote)

We’re seeking a full-time, remote Rails backend developer in Europe or on the US east coast.

About the Work

• You’ll be the sole Ruby on Rails developer.
• You’ll mostly work on the business logic of our web platform, and only occasionally work on the views (our frontend developer usually handles that part in a separate Next.js app).
• You’ll join a small product team consisting of 1 frontend developer, 1 part-time TypeScript backend developer, 3 designers, and 1 product manager.
• You’ll report directly to the founders (one of whom is technical) and periodically collaborate with people outside the product team.
• You’ll play an active role in the shaping and scoping of new features.

About You

You must naturally thrive working independently. Furthermore, you should be:

• Impatient — You must have an insatiable desire to constantly move things forward and take action without asking for permission.
• Comfortable in uncertainty — You must regularly e into complex problems and systems without knowing all of their details upfront.
• Something to prove — A desire to show the world what you’re made of; ambition matters.

Our Development Principles

The following principles have served us well; you should at least be open to them:

• Get to production — We want to get things into their real environment as early as possible and then rapidly iterate from there. This means constantly shipping incremental pieces, whether it be directly to customers, behind feature flags, on an obscure URL, as a script, or some other form.
• Constantly fight the urge to do more — Everyone, including yourself, will naturally slide towards wanting to make the thing a little bigger and a little better. You must be vigilant in pushing back to avoid scope creep.
• Testing means clicking — Automated tests are great, but actually using the real thing, in a browser, with production data is indispensable. A feature is not tested if you haven’t tried it the way the end-user will.

About Baymard Institute

Baymard is an independent UX research organization of ~50 people distributed across the US and 10 different European countries. Most work as UX analysts and researchers.

We conduct large-scale UX research studies and publish the findings in our SaaS platform. (It’s primarily this platform that you’ll be working on.)

We offer:

• A flat organization with a long-term focus.
• Lots of responsibility from day 1.
• Organization that is remote from the ground-up.
• Founders engaged in the product (both are active in the product team).
• Flexible hours.
• Room for growth.

See the “key work values” section for a description of each of the above bullets.

Practical Details

• Salary: competitive, matched to your skill and ambition.
• Location: remote full-time position from either US east coast, Europe, or Africa. (Most of the product team is located in Europe)
• Start date: as soon as possible.
• Language: fully proficient in written and spoken English.
• Travel: limited; expect only 0-1 week of optional travel each year (in connection with an optional, company-wide meetup).

How to Apply

1. Describe how you fit the role and share evidence of extraordinary ability (max. 1 page). (Required.)
2. Examples of code you’ve written (either attached or as links to public Github repos, PRs, commits). (Required.)
3. A link to your LinkedIn profile or a resume (PDF). (Required.)

Send the above to [email protected].(All applications and materials are treated confidentially.)

**

Deadline: September 24th, 2023.** (Note: you will greatly increase your odds by applying early as we review applications as they arrive, interview on a rolling basis, and will hire the moment there’s a great match.)

If you want to prepare the best possible, consider reading our SaaS sales page and the “work values” section below.

_Sincerely,

Christian & Jamie, founders of Baymard Institute_

_

Referral Bonus:_ If this job isn’t you, but you know someone who’ll be the perfect fit, please send them the link to this page. If we end up hiring the person you referred, we’ll give you 1-year access to a Baymard Premium ‘Specialty’ plan (normally $2,600/year).