About Public Lab

Public Lab is a community, supported by a 501(c)(3) non-profit, that develops and applies open source tools to environmental exploration and investigation. By democratizing inexpensive and accessible do-it-yourself techniques, Public Lab creates a collaborative network of practitioners who actively reimagine the human relationship with the environment.

About This Role

Start Date: Early January 2020

Location: Remote, United States (with option to work from existing offices in Brooklyn or New Orleans)

Terms: Part Time (20 hours/week)

Empower our digital development and inspire global collaboration on the pressing environmental health issues of our time!

The Full Stack Developer is responsible for maintaining and administering the Public Lab websites by leading project-based iterative improvements including bugfixes, UI designs and updates, and improvements to stability and maintainability. The primary workflow for this role is to develop project plans with input from staff, delineate and break up plans into discrete tasks, and manage implementation through a combination of community contributions and direct coding. This position manages the maintenance and upgrading of core services, dependencies, and infrastructure of the Public Lab code and code contribution ecosystem.

This position plays an important role in growing Public Lab's capacity to support community science research and advocacy around the world by supporting long-term planning and prioritization of projects to ensure healthy Public Lab web presence, infrastructure, and community. The Full Stack Developer serves a key role by bridging between the program staff and the coding community, and can rely on our long-time sysadmin (also remote). The coding community — see https://code.publiclab.org/ — is supported by an existing group of Public Lab Moderators, and is anchored by the Lead Code Community Coordinator and a rotating set of Code Community Coordinators. This job requires occasional work outside regular business hours and occasional travel.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead long-term planning and prioritization of projects to ensure healthy Public Lab web presence, infrastructure, and community
• Lead project-based iterative improvements to the PublicLab.org website, including bugfixes, UI designs and updates, and improvements to stability and maintainability
• Develop project plans with input from staff, delineate and break up plans into discrete tasks, and manage implementation through a combination of community contributions and direct coding
• Work with the Code Community Coordinators to support and grow the Public Lab code contributor community
• Lead periodic UI/UX/web design facilitation and community input as part of the project planning process
• Maintain and upgrade core services, dependencies, and infrastructure of the Public Lab code and code contribution ecosystem
• Manage contract relationship and systems work with systems administrator
• Maintain and adhere to nonprofit policies and procedures, Public Lab values and the Code of Conduct.

Experience and Training:

• Experience with diversity & inclusion in code communities, newcomer welcoming and onboarding, familiarity with code outreach programs like Outreachy and GSoC
• Proficiency in Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, use of GitHub/git,
• A strong understanding of UI, cross-browser compatibility, general web functions, and standards.
• Expertise and hands-on experience with web applications and front-end programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• UI/UX/web design and facilitation
• Community-oriented project management using GitHub

Areas where you have an interest in growing your skillset:

• Experience with DevOps, test-driven development, Travis/CI, unit and system/integration testing, Rails API/JavaScript integration, and optimization of Ruby on Rails production systems

This position might be for you if you are:

• Respectful: You help produce spaces where people can interact with their dignity intact.
• Community-oriented: You are experienced with Diversity and Inclusion initiatives and onboarding ladders.
• A systems thinker: You seek to uncover how the micro and macro are intertwined, and can be appropriately tactical or strategic.
• A good listener: team-spirited enough to accept mutual aid, self-aware enough to reflect on feedback given, generous enough to share feedback with your team.
• An exceptional written communicator: You write for legibility among audiences of varied experience and expertise.

Compensation and Benefits

Compensation is between $25,000-$30,000, based on experience and qualifications. Public Lab offers a benefits package for part time employees that includes:

• 1.5 weeks starting vacation time, with a bonus week off during the winter holidays
• 5.5 personal days
• 12 federal holidays observed
• Option to enroll in our 401(k) and/or Flexible Spending Account
• A three-week paid sabbatical after five years of employment.

To Apply

Please send a single document containing a cover letter, resume, and your GitHub profile or equivalent with a few highlighted projects to jobs@publiclab.org with the subject line Full Stack Developer by December 8, 2019. No phone calls, please.

Public Lab is an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse, multicultural work environment. We encourage people with different ability sets, people of color, and people of diverse sexual orientations, gender expressions, and identities to apply.