Software Engineer (Custom slack bot)

About Work on Climate

Work on Climate (WoCl) is a leading non-profit focused on building the workforce to solve climate change equitably and justly. You probably know us for our online community that has helped thousands of people find jobs and start companies, highlighted in most major business press, from Fast Company to New York Times. However, our work goes even farther, seeking to mobilize the entire workforce as a force for system-wide change.

Being part of our volunteer team means more than just joining a community. It’s an invitation to create real-world impact by confronting urgent climate challenges with the skilled minds ready to solve them. Together, we’re bridging the talent gap to build the climate-focused economy we envision.

About the team

The Member Experience team ensures that the Work on Climate community’s tools, resources, and standards make Work on Climate a positive place where members help one another make climate work mainstream.

Our community has grown substantially in the past year. With that growth comes greater opportunity for connection and community building, but also greater risk of spam and other behaviors that go against our Community Guidelines.

Role Summary

We are seeking a Software Engineer volunteer to help maintain and improve current tools supporting community moderation and member experience. You’ll work with other software engineers to implement new features, fix bugs, and contribute technical expertise to the team’s strategies for facilitating a great experience for our community of 30,000+ climate professionals.

Time commitment

• 5 hours/week consistently for at least 3 to 6 months – but we’d love if you stayed longer!
• Weekly meeting attendance is required (Fridays at 9am PST)

What’s in it for me?

Work on Climate is one of the largest, most active communities helping people make the transition to climate work. Not only will you work with and enable your fellow team members to focus on engaging community members, you’ll have a direct impact on improving the community experience. You’ll get to:

• Apply your software engineering skills within a climate-focused organization
• Contribute to strategies surrounding community engagement and product development (as it pertains to the WoCl Slack Bot)
• Collaborate with top-notch teammates from different backgrounds who are passionate about climate
• Build a strong climate network in your area of interest

What will I do?

You will work with other Member Experience team members, primarily moderators and other software engineers, to build and refine WoCl’s custom Slack bot. Software Engineers also work with various other volunteer teams such as the Impact Research team and Metrics and Data team to help Work on Climate measure its impact and improve internal processes.

Your work over the next 3 to 6 months may look like:

• Developing and/or improving methods for automating moderation of common community guideline violations, such as mass DMs, survey requests, or excessive cross-posting.
• Architecting and implementing features and tools to streamline volunteer work, such as optimizing Slack features and managing survey roll outs.
• Reviewing PRs for new tools other volunteers are working on.
• Documenting (and improving upon!) our current processes for the above.

As you dive deep into the Work on Climate member experience, we also expect that you may have additional ideas for projects to support it! There’s a ton of potential projects to improve the member experience, and we look forward to working with you to implement your ideas.

What skills and commitment do I need?

The most effective candidates will have:

• At least 1-2 years of experience in software development
• Experience overseeing and implementing projects
• Experience with node.js, Typescript, and Google Cloud (logs), or interest in learning these tools
• Excellent individual and group communication skills, with the ability to work with people of different work and communication styles.

Common Challenges

• Work on Climate’s technical processes and documentation are not robust…yet! You will help us collate and update any existing documentation, as well as develop best practices.
• Balancing the work to do with the amount of time you (and others) have to do it: Volunteers can commit ~5 hours per week. You’ll need to be thoughtful about how to make the best use of scarce time (yourself and others’).
• Asynchronous work: Our team usually works asynchronously, and coordinates work primarily through Slack and Asana. You’ll need to be comfortable proactively communicating progress, asking for help when you need it, and being responsive to team messages.

I’m interested! What do I do?

Yay! We’re excited to learn more about you. Please fill out this application form to tell us about your skills and interests in volunteering with our awesome team. If you are selected for an interview, our team will be in touch in 1-2 weeks.