Summary: Work with our small, brilliant IT Team to develop cutting-edge web apps, mostly using Ruby on Rails, in collaboration with community-shared solar power co-operatives, and Node.js

Hours: 30-40 hours a week, negotiable

Starting Date: January, 2023

Compensation: $50-65/hour, based on experience and performance

Expertise Required: Ruby on Rails

About the Organization

Common Good®, the only nonprofit Money Services Business in the country developing financial technology for the Solidarity Economy, shifts power from big business and big government back to communities, where we know and care more, so together we can fund a regenerative society that puts people and planet first. For details, see CommonGood.earth. We are a small nonprofit with a volunteer board and a dozen staff (most part-time). Common Good values diversity and we encourage you to apply, whoever you are, especially women, people of color, and others who have been systemically oppressed or disenfranchised by our society.

About the job

As a software engineer with Common Good, you can do what you love while making a difference in the world – possibly quite a large difference. As a company dedicated to participatory democracy, we nourish a collaborative and supportive work environment, valuing everyone’s ideas, making your work for Common Good an unusually creative experience. At the same time, we pay higher wages than most nonprofits in our region.

Responsibilities

• Participate in conversations with stakeholders to clarify needs.
• Propose new features and modifications.
• Develop user stories for assigned features, to elucidate the desired functionality for both the stakeholders and Common Good’s Tech Team.
• Project how many hours of labor and how much elapsed time it will take to build and test an assigned feature (or fix a particular bug).
• Write regression tests in RSpec (a dialect of Ruby) based on the user stories.
• Design, build, and document elegant code that makes the tests work.
• Communicate transparently with other staff about project progress.
• Participate in Common Good staff activities as a co-creator of Common Good’s evolving culture, building a community of learning toward a more just and sane society.
• Coordinate with other staff using ClickUp.

Structure

• Work from home (or wherever).
• Some online work sessions for active collaboration, companionship, information-sharing, and coordination.

Qualifications

If you think you’re a great fit for this job and can hit the ground running, feel free to disregard the stated requirements. Here’s what we’re looking for ideally:

• 6 years of work experience in software development
• Expertise in Ruby, Rails, SQL, CSS, HTML, JavaScript
• Ability to communicate clearly in writing and in speech.
• Ability to work well independently and as part of a team.
• Crucial: A passion for social change.

To Apply

• Tell us: * (Crucial) What is your relevant experience in technology and social change and why do you want to do this work specifically for Common Good?
• How many years of experience do you have in (a) software development and (b) Ruby on Rails specifically.
• Have you been systemically oppressed or disenfranchised by our society? If so, how? (This is not a deal-breaker, but as an organization working for economic justice, we count lived experience of economic oppression as a plus.)
• Where did you hear about this job posting?
• Email letter and resume to Executive Director William Spademan (wspademan@CommonGood.earth) by November 30, 2023. We may extend that deadline until we find the right candidate.