Director of Engineering
At Prolegis, we're on a mission to inform policymakers and empower citizens to level up democracy.
Prolegis provides free, non-partisan, world-class tools that help policy professionals to legislate, regulate, and govern smarter, and offers free public resources which demystify government and shed light on constantly evolving policy issues.
Launched by invitation in 2020, Prolegis is steadily growing its user base within the federal public policy community. Feedback from our current community of users confirm that our products save people time, surface comprehensive information that is difficult to find, and provide useful insights into complex topics.
As Director of Engineering, you will be working within a tight-knit team of engineers to help push the Prolegis application forward. You'll be responsible for building and maintaining our server-side architecture and your work will directly impact the work of policy professionals engaged in the complex effort of debating and crafting legislation and regulations.
Qualities We're Looking For
Problem Solving: Our product is solving novel problems. You can break down large problems into a clean plan, and you can work with your teammates to systematically find the right solution
Pragmatism: You believe pragmatism trumps novelty, and can choose frameworks and libraries without losing sight of the tradeoffs in any architectural decision. You put aside ideologies to work towards the bottom line
Empathy: You always approach your work with the mindset of the user, and focus on their needs with everything you build. You consider dissatisfaction to be a weakness of the product, not a weakness of the user
Strong Communication: You communicate well in an asynchronous format. You know when to ask for help, and how hard to push. You clearly articulate technical decisions, and you take creative risks when brainstorming ideas. During disagreements, you understand others' perspectives and thoughtfully work towards a solution
Growth Mindset: You are intrigued by new challenges, approach your work with joy, and have an indelible eagerness to learn
Key Responsibilities
Lead, manage, and recruit a growing team of world-class engineers
Translate business requirements into engineering plans in close collaboration with the Product team and CEO
Foster a fun and fulfilling working environment among a remote and DC-based team
Design and implement features, improvements, and fixes
Pursue knowledge about the stack, the product, and the user's needs
Test your work in the form of automated tests, as well as working through edge cases and self-QAing your work
Give thoughtful feedback during code review, and thoughtfully receive feedback
Minimum Qualifications
Strong working knowledge of OOP, design patterns, relational databases, and API design
5+ years experience with MVC frameworks in a production environment
Expert knowledge of at least one OO language
Working knowledge of at least one scripting language
Understanding of postgresql, knowledge of relational db optimization best practices
Strong knowledge of testing principles
Experience with Git, continuous integration and regular deployments
Passion about American government, the United States Congress, and the federal public policy ecosystem
Preferred Qualifications
Deep knowledge of Ruby on Rails (6+ years experience preferred): You can describe the framework’s weaknesses and can keep a large codebase organized and understandable
Familiarity with NLP techniques and tools
Experience using Elasticsearch
Experience using and explaining data structures and their various tradeoffs
6+ years of experience shipping real-world products in a similar role
Startup experience highly preferred but not necessary
Our Stack
Prolegis uses a variety of technologies throughout our product. They include:
Ruby on Rails
Python
Elasticsearch
Javascript
Typescript
React
Postgresql
Git
AWS
Heroku
Compensation and Benefits
Competitive salary
Stock options in an early-stage, fast-growing start-up
25 days of annual paid time off
Regular compensation reviews
Comprehensive health insurance for you and your dependents