The Rebus Foundation is a Montreal-based non-profit focused on tech, books, open education, and open culture. We are looking for a Back-End Developer to work on the Rebus Community, where we develop tools and resources to support the publishing of free, open, and adaptable digital textbooks.
The ideal candidate will have a minimum of 3 to 5 years relevant experience, to start in February/March 2019 at the Rebus Foundation headquarters, in Montreal. Salary is in the range CD$65,000–75,000.
About Rebus
We have two main projects:
- Rebus Community, a collaboration platform that helps guide communities through the publishing process, with a focus on supporting open textbook/Open Educational Resource (OER) publishing.
- Rebus Reader, a web-based platform for reading digital content, managing collections, making and using notes, and augmenting the reading experience overall.
Rebus is born of an idealistic vision of the web, and we believe in increasing access to knowledge and education. We love books, and spend our time re-imagining how books can be made and used in a web-connected, digital universe. Then we try to build things to make these re-imaginings come true. We believe in the power of technology, done right, to do good things, and in giving people more access to tools that help them build, share, and interact with knowledge. We are driven by this broad set of values, and it’s important that new team members share our sense of purpose.
About the project
We are looking for a Back-End Developer, whose mandate will be to help shape the development of an open source software platform supporting community-driven, open textbook publishing. The project team is small but focused — for now, the person in this position will be the sole developer on the project. We expect to add a part-time front-end developer to the team as well. This means the candidate will need to be comfortable researching and making technical decisions, touching on everything in the back-end, and will be responsible for setting up continuous integration and testing. However, they will be working closely with the product manager, and can consult with and seek support from Rebus’s existing dev team (one full stack and one back-end dev working on another project). We will also work with an external design agency.
The next phase of our software development project will be to align our tools that support the publishing process with a strong communications foundation in the form of a forum software. Using the APIs of both the forum and our custom database, we aim to create a seamless experience where users can engage with each other and self-organize around the practical work of creating open textbooks, with guiding structures built in. Our custom tools (e.g., project creation widget, progress tracker, dashboards) will be layered on top of a forum engine to bring together communications and project management in one place.
The end users of the software are a dedicated and growing community of teachers, librarians, and students, working on collaborative publishing projects worldwide. Both our team and our users are driven by the values of improving access to education and improving accessibility in educational materials. We want to find a Back-End Developer who holds the same values.
About you
We are looking for a someone with solid experience with Node.js and who is comfortable building and working extensively with APIs. Comfort with front-end (especially Javascript) is also a plus. We work in a small team with big ambitions, so you’ll need to be a problem solver, a self starter, curious, and a keen learner.
Because our product is all about engaging people, collaboration, and knowledge creation, we hope to find a colleague who is passionate about online community building, open education, web technologies, and digital books, and who wants to see their work have a real impact in the world.
Among other things, you should:
- have proven experience working with APIs
- have proven experience working with Node.js
- be comfortable with Javascript (& HTML+CSS)
- be prepared to learn & work extensively with a third-party forum software
- be familiar with the open source/free software ethos
- have an interest in and understanding of higher education and/or publishing
Rebus’s technologies are built with Node.js, PostgreSQL, Discourse forum software, and web components. The Back-End Developer will likely work with all of these technologies.
Note: You should apply even if you don’t feel that your credentials are a 100% match with the position description. We are looking for relevant skills and experience, not a checklist that exactly matches the job description itself.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Rebus is committed to building a diverse team, with people from a range of backgrounds. We believe that diverse teams help drive innovation. Equity, inclusion, and diversity are core values for us, for the technologies we build, and for the communities we support. We strive to ensure that our team reflects these values. Our work environment is also supportive of those with family caregiving responsibilities.
Next steps
Send an email to: jobs@rebus.foundation
Subject: Back-End Developer (Rebus Community)
Please include your CV, links to relevant things, and an explanation of why you’d like to join us.