Back End Engineer - NodeJS (Spain, Portugal, UK)

We're on the lookout for a back-end developer with experience and proficiency in NodeJS/TypeScript to join our team at Vizzuality. We're open to both mid-level and senior developers, and we can offer a salary range of €30,000 - €49,000, depending on your experience. 

We are also open to exploring full-time and part-time contract options (with a minimum of 80% time dedication) depending on your needs.

Our vibrant team is spread across Spain, Portugal, and the UK, and currently, people work remotely or in our office in Madrid. You are welcome to join us if you are eligible to work in any of these three countries. 

Would you like to be part of Vizzuality's story?

Are you motivated by the desire to make a positive impact on the planet?  Looking to put your skills to work on something truly meaningful?

At Vizzuality, our purpose is to reach a fair and sustainable planet by creating tools that radically empower people to make positive changes now.

We are a world-leading technology, design, and science agency. We design and develop data-driven tools and applications for international organizations that focus on Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Inequality.

Solving such large and complex problems will bring you into contact with new technology and some of the world's most interesting organizations and academics in machine learning, remote sensing, and planetary data. You'll be working on projects like these:

https://www.globalforestwatch.org/

https://supplychains.trase.earth/

https://resourcewatch.org/

https://www.half-earthproject.org/maps/

https://www.landgriffon.com

Our Culture

Our aim is to help the world become a better place. Therefore, we need to make sure we care about our people and give them the power to build great things. These are some of the principles that define our culture:

We Trust: Our team structure relies on self-organization. We want to work with colleagues who don't have to look 'up' for approval, nor look 'down' and give instructions. As soon as you step inside, we will equip you with all the tools to enable your success, and then we will trust you to do great things. 

We Delight: We use our deep understanding of people's needs to spark delight. Our choices are based on science, research, and design principles. 

We Care: For ourselves, our colleagues, and the organization. We know what we do is important, and we have a strong sense of responsibility for the work we do. 

We Grow: As we are always embarking on new projects and challenges, a continuous learning mindset and a 'Can Do' attitude is a must. We are conscientious, and we focus on learning and achieving our goals. We give power to people so they can make decisions and plot their own paths with help from all around them.

We have fun: We also know that you need to balance seriousness with fun. If you can make people smile, you will be off to a great start!

Want to know more about our culture? Check our Playbook. 

A day in the life of a Back-End Engineer at Vizzuality 

We're looking for a developer who will work with a world-class, super-talented team of engineers, designers, scientists, and project managers. Someone passionate about using their creativity and technical skills to make a difference in people's lives, to the environment, and the world.

• You will design and develop cross-functional, multi-platform application systems to ingest, process, analyze, and serve large amounts of data in the cloud, often in real time, and ensure their craftsmanship, availability, resilience, and scalability.
• Working hands-on across our stack is one of the primary tasks engineers perform at Vizzuality. 
• Our core stacks are NodeJS/TypeScript (with Express/Koa/NestJS as the main frameworks depending on projects). You will work on NodeJS/TypeScript projects and experiment with new technologies. If you hit a snag or need to learn a new skill, our supportive team is always there to lend a hand and help you conquer any challenge.
• You will take the lead and meet with clients at different stages of the development process to help define requirements and propose solutions and alternatives.
• You will spend a significant amount of your time liaising with data scientists, front-end engineers, project managers, and designers to find novel and creative technical solutions that solve specific client/project needs and integrate disparate technologies such as remote sensing, machine learning, image processing or statistical computing into public APIs.
• You will also communicate with users, colleagues, leading scientists, and decision-makers to collect requirements, describe features and technical designs, and define product strategy.
• Lastly, as an Engineer at Vizzuality, you will ensure software quality, robustness, and compliance with standards by reviewing code, documenting, and creating automated tests.

These are some of the things you will do and achieve in your first year at Vizzuality.

In your first month:

• You’ll pair with your peers on the backend team so you get used to the way things are done at Vizzuality.
• You’ll read documentation, write new features, and participate in team meetings (weekly, with the possibility of daily stand-ups on some projects). 
• You’ll get to know people from the rest of the functional teams (science, design, front-end, business development) and development teams. 
• You'll join a more extended project at the end of your first month.

During the following months:

• You'll develop ownership of the project you've been assigned to. 
• You'll write features, documentation, tests, and fixes. You will join the back-end work within your project team and with support from the back-end functional group. 
• You'll also have opportunities to develop your skills in data-rich application engineering, cloud computing, and data processing. 
• Finally, you'll participate in the definition of architectures and functional features for new project phases or new projects.

By the end of the first year:

• You will have written several innovative features for ground-breaking projects with significant real-world impact (we mean this!).
• You'll take ownership of substantive features within larger backend projects.

Skills and experiences we are looking for in a candidate

(*) Even if you think you don't tick all the boxes below, we'd still love to hear from you. Nobody checks every box, and we are looking for someone excited to join the team and aligned with our purpose!

A. Behaviors and Mindset.

Anyone joining the team, regardless of their seniority level (mid or senior), should demonstrate the following:

• Global Perspective and Team Collaboration: We are looking for individuals who combine a global perspective with a strong inclination towards teamwork. Ideal candidates will understand the wider impact of their work, recognizing how individual efforts contribute to our collective goals. This role suits those who excel in collaborative environments, sharing knowledge and working together to overcome challenges, drive innovation, and achieve success on a global scale.
• Commitment to 'Just Enough Complexity': We're looking for candidates who value and practice 'Just Enough Complexity,' ensuring solutions are straightforward, maintainable, and perfectly tailored to our project needs. This principle emphasizes simplicity, avoiding over-engineering, and focusing on delivering direct value.
• Agility with Resilience to Change: We're seeking agile-minded candidates who excel in environments characterized by rapid change and iterative development. Ideal applicants should possess a keen understanding of project requirements, coupled with the flexibility to adapt and iterate on solutions as those requirements evolve. This role is perfect for individuals who view change as an opportunity for improvement, demonstrating resilience and a proactive approach to navigating the dynamic landscape of project development.
• Passion for Coding and Lifelong Learning: We seek individuals with a deep-rooted passion for coding and an unwavering commitment to continuous learning. The ideal candidate thrives on exploring new technologies and techniques, constantly seeking to expand their skill set. This role is perfect for those who view challenges as opportunities to grow and are excited by the prospect of pushing the boundaries of what is possible through code.
• Growth Mindset for T-Shaped Team Integration: Candidates should possess a growth mindset to develop T-shaped skills – deep expertise in a specific area complemented by a broad range of capabilities across other domains. This role is for those eager to deepen their specialty while also expanding their horizons, enabling seamless collaboration within multidisciplinary teams. We value individuals who are not only experts in their field but also possess the versatility to contribute and adapt across various aspects of our projects.
• Flexibility and Adaptability: Ideal candidates should exhibit a strong ability to step out of their comfort zones and adapt to evolving project needs. This role demands a proactive approach to learning new skills, embracing change, and tackling unforeseen challenges with creativity and resilience. We value individuals who can pivot quickly in response to new information or shifting priorities, ensuring our projects stay aligned with our goals and deliver impactful results.
• Empathy and User Focus: Understanding and prioritizing the needs of the user is essential for creating effective and user-friendly software.

B. Technical Skills.

Mid-level profiles:

• Proficiency in NodeJS/TypeScript. 
• A few years of experience in a relevant position (i.e., Back End, Software Engineer, etc.)
• Code Readability and Documentation: Write clean, understandable code and maintain good documentation.
• Knowledge of relational and non-relational databases, including proficiency in SQL.
• Experience with the entire life cycle of a project, including production deployments.
• Experience working and designing with services and components within larger, modular architectures such as microservices systems.
• Docker or container technologies for development environments and production deployments.
• Essential cloud infrastructure setup knowledge.
• Some knowledge of infrastructure as code (Terraform) and willingness to keep learning and expanding their capabilities.
• Knowledge of algorithms and data structures.
• Proficiency in writing automated tests.

Senior profiles - Technical Skills.

For more senior profiles, in addition to the above-described mid-level skills and experiences, we're expecting candidates to be able to show high levels of ownership and add value in all/some of the following areas with little supervision after the onboarding process:

• Technical Leadership and Mentorship: We are searching for candidates with a proven track record in technical leadership and a passion for mentorship, being a strategic thinker who can share knowledge, inspire innovation, and cultivate the skills of team members, driving collective success through shared expertise and visionary leadership.
• Solid experience and proficiency in NodeJS/TypeScript.
• Solid experience with general server-side programming concepts and patterns and designing and building APIs.
• A high level of ownership and autonomy.
• Experience working and leading conversations with clients and other key stakeholders.
• Some knowledge of Kubernetes or willingness to learn.

Got something else that makes you stand out from the crowd? Over time, we'd like the person in this role to take on more responsibilities. If you have experience across some/all of the following areas (or would like to learn more about any of them), we would love to hear more about it: Python, Other programming languages, Cloud Infrastructure, Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning), Geospatial Development, Data Engineering, and ETL (Extract, Transfer, Load). 

Our compensation and benefits are part of a great career opportunity with the potential for you to grow and work in an organization with a massive transformational purpose. So, if you care about the real-world impact of your work and are inspired by our mission to transform the world, here's what we have to offer!

Compensation:

• Annual salary between €30,000 - €49,000 (your final salary will be based on your experience and profile).
• Annual profit-sharing bonus plan (team bonus up to 10% of salary based on company performance).
• €1,000 Referral Bonus after six months of hiring (for every successful referral).

Growth:

• €1,500 annual training allowance for courses, conferences, volunteering, innovation projects, or meetups of your choice, including travel and lodging.
• Peer mentoring and support in designing your own career path.
• Free English & Spanish Lessons.
• Support for personal projects and initiatives like giving talks, contributing to open source projects, and giving and receiving internal training.
• '4 Weeks Growth Sabbatical' when you reach 10 years at Vizz.

Wellbeing & Paid Time Off.

• 26 days of vacation (plus local bank holidays).
• Additional birthday holiday. :)
• Up to 2 extra vacation days when you make sustainable travel choices.
• Up to 3 extra vacation days after 5 years at Vizzuality, which will be added to your holiday allowance forever.

Care:

• Mental health support via Spill, our third-party provider, to connect you with qualified counselors and curated resources.
• Live in Spain? You'll have the option to enroll in our company-subsidized health and dental insurance plan.

Flexibility & Remote Work

• Remote work if you are based in Spain, Portugal, or the UK.
• Flexible schedules.
• We will provide you with everything you need to do great work (i.e., laptop, tools, and work-from-home equipment).
• 1 or 2 annual company-paid gatherings.

Fluent English is really important to us, so if it's not your first language, please demonstrate your abilities in your CV and Cover Letter. We will not consider applications that are not sent in English.