Backend Software Engineer, The Explanation Company
Rails
$165-220k
Internet browser and communications app for children
Job no longer available
Internet browser and communications app for children
1-20 employees
Job no longer available
$165-220k
1-20 employees
Company mission
To simplify the internet for children.
Role
Who you are
- You bring deep experience in backend development. You likely have 7+ years of experience in Ruby on Rails, and you have significant experience with another language and at least one SQL database (we’re on Postgresql). You’ve gone deep on the Rails framework and understand idiomatic Rails
- You bring experience architecting applications of significant scale. You’ve designed and supported a system with more than a hundred thousand simultaneous users. You’re good at stress testing and architecting for speed & reliability, you're excited to focus on all the challenges that come with scaling, and you’re happy to be in an on-call rotation
- You like working in a fast-paced environment. You’ll be joining a small team that likes to ship quickly, making incremental progress forward. We merge into main a half dozen times each day with our continuous integration process running in 10 minutes
- You’re comfortable working in a remote environment. You are strong at communicating complex thoughts in writing and value clear communication
- You’re comfortable working in an ambiguous environment. We set clear goals as a team, but you won’t receive specs and timelines. You’ll be the one asking questions to unpack complex problems, ensuring you understand the product & business needs, and communicating your plan to solve problems
What the job involves
- The Explanation Company (explanation.com) is hiring an experienced Rails programmer to lead our efforts in building a fast and reliable API backend that scales with our product growth
- You'll report to our CEO, a seasoned entrepreneur, engineer, and former product manager for Facebook Messenger and News Feed
- You'll join a small, skilled engineering team in a role we hope will be a defining one in your career
- You’ll take a lead role in the overall speed and reliability of a big backend built in Ruby on Rails
- You’ll have other senior engineers to collaborate with when you need a sounding board
- You'll work on a product that's already found product-market fit, yet the architecture needs serious upgrades for scalability
- You'll design, build, and own key subsystems like queuing, video calling backend, and infrastructure failovers
- You'll be focused on things like reducing Ruby's memory footprint, tuning database configuration, load testing, setting up effective performance monitoring, digging into New Relic, and re-architecting our socket connections for better scalability
Our take
It goes without saying that the next generation of young people will always be more tech-savvy than the ones who came before. However, while children are able to reap the benefits of having access to a range of devices that entertain and educate, they haven't been able to take advantage of the internet in the same way adults can.
The Explanation Company steps in to do just that, make the internet safer and more accessible for children. By making the internet into a tool children can actually use, they will be able to answer their questions and connect with their friends just as adults do.
Lava is the company’s purpose-built browser and communications app for children. Its initial users are kids that love to play games, Roblox in particular. Once the company has reached millions of these kids, then it will expand its services to support all interests. With Roblox being one of the most popular games in the world, The Explanation Company shouldn’t have much trouble boosting its numbers as it aims to put the power of the internet – safely – in the hands of children.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Company benefits
- Competitive equity
- Health insurance
- Vacation
- Travel to team meetups
- Computer equipment
Company HQ
Marina District, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Keith Schacht
(CEO)Current Board Member Higher Ground. Previously Board Member at eSpark Learning, Founder & former CEO at Mystery.org and Product Manager at Facebook.
David Vinca
(President)Current Board Member at eSpark Learning. Previously Manager at ZS Associates and Consultant at Strategic Management Group.
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