Senior Software Engineer - Backend

60 Decibels is a tech-powered impact measurement company that makes it easy to listen to the people who matter most. We've been in business as an independent entity since early 2019, when we spun out of the global Impact Investor Acumen.

We believe that the best way to understand social impact is by talking to the people experiencing that impact. It sounds obvious when you say it, but that is not the typical practice for many impact investors, corporations and foundations working to create social change. 

We collect social impact data directly from beneficiaries (customers / employees / suppliers) using our network of 1000+ trained research assistants in 75+ countries. We do it quickly and without the fuss typically associated with measuring social impact. Our research assistants speak directly to customers to understand their lived experience; and our team turns all this data into benchmarked social performance reports, with accompanying insights, to help our clients demonstrate and improve social performance. 

By making impact measurement simple, scalable, and comparable, we not only enable organizations to improve their products and services; we also help transform what it means to credibly measure impact, ensuring that the voices of those who matter most are always part of the story.

About the role: 

You’ll be an early engineer in a newly formed engineering team. This is a unique opportunity for you to learn, build, demonstrate, and subsequently own diverse components of our tech stack and evolve as we scale our business. As a core engineer in a small team, the role demands a high degree of self-drive and ownership, on a path to achieving outsized impact.

Your Primary Responsibility Will Be:

To Advance Our Integrated Data Capture And Insights Platform (Ruby/React/PostgreSQL) And Associated Tooling (Python)

Specifically, your responsibilities will include:

• Work with a diverse multidisciplinary team across Engineering, Product & Operations, to translate product specs into clean, functional, production-ready code.
• Participate actively in defining of the systems architecture vision to better support our team’s needs
• Grow our technical capacity by mentoring other engineers and interviewing candidates
• Collaborate with team members to identify systems, practices & technologies that suit our needs the best
• Seek, learn, adopt and advocate industry best practices. Contribute towards the engineering culture
• Troubleshooting coding problems quickly and efficiently to ensure a productive workplace

About You: First and foremost, you bring compassion and dedication to this work because it matters to you.

You are a pragmatic and product-driven engineer who is interested in solving user problems and delivering value while taking into account tradeoffs between Business and Tech. You have a bias towards action: you get your hands dirty and actively tackle problems in a way that leads to the best outcomes and brings teams together. You successfully balance flexibility and rigour, using informed judgment to make decisions. You model critical thinking and introspection, taking strategic risks and growing from mistakes. You are decisive and bold, have a growth mindset, are an excellent communicator, and know the value of being a part of an effective team

Minimum Qualification:

• At least 4+ years of experience in software engineering building SaaS platforms, products and APIs
• At least 1+ years in your current role as a senior engineer
• Strong proficiency in Ruby on Rails (primary) and Python (additional)
• Strong proficiency in data modelling, RDBMS (Postgres preferred) and NoSQL databases.
• Proficient in software design, modularity, testability and software quality
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills

Additional desired qualifications:

• Preferred prior experience in the following stack: Python, Ruby On Rails, React, Postgres, AWS
• Experience in working on natural language processing, and ML for text and audio.
• Fast self-learner, with aptitude and interest in learn new technologies, languages & frameworks
• Experience working on data-pipelines, and data transformation systems.
• Experience setting up, managing and ensuring best practices on public clouds like AWS, GCP, or Azure (we use AWS)

Working with 60 Decibels

We are a fun, international and highly-motivated team who believes that team members should have the opportunity to expand their skills and career in a supportive environment. We offer a competitive salary, the opportunity to work flexibly and in a fun, supportive working environment. If this sounds like the role for you, get in touch!

60 Decibels is deeply committed to having a workplace that is inclusive and anti-discriminatory. We believe that our team must embody the compassion, listening, and sense of shared humanity that is so central to our goal as an organization. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation age, marital status, veteran status, or disability.

As a growing company, we are building towards a more universally accessible workplace for our employees. At this time, we do use some cloud-based technologies that are not compatible with screen readers and other assistive devices. We would be happy to discuss accessibility at 60 Decibels in greater depth during the recruitment process.

 About our team and our culture: we are a fun and hardworking global team that is full of smart, mission-driven folks who combine an entrepreneurial spirit with a commitment to make a positive change in the world.  

We consistently hear from our clients that the best thing about 60 Decibels is the people. To get a feel for our slightly nerdy, not-take-ourselves-too-seriously vibe, check out our monthly newsletter, The Volume.

Compensation: 60 Decibels offers a competitive salary and benefits package and the opportunity to work in a flexible, fun and supportive environment. The salary range will be adjusted according to costs of living in our country offices. 

Extra Perks: We have an unlimited leave policy and 12 monthly recharge days, on the first Friday of each month. We are a globally distributed team and we give team members opportunities to cross-pollinate and visit our different offices. 

Want to get to know us a little better?

> Sign up to receive The Volume, our monthly collection of things worth reading.

> Visit our website at 60decibels.com.

> Read about our team values here.