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Please note: this position is full time and in Berlin (you need to already be in Berlin too). We don't use agencies.
Most messaging networks are created to serve their creators. Email is designed to serve humankind. For over 50 years inspired technicians have architected email to provide the greatest good to the greatest number. Their openness and design principles made email the world's #1 communication channel and identity provider with 4.2 billion users (2x Facebook). Email is a critical foundation stone of the Web.
Lightmeter is reinventing email infrastructure to overcome threats from centralised tech oligharchs like Microsoft and Google. An epic platform war is behind fought behind the scenes to wrestle control over digital comms and incorporate it into closed service platforms, where the customer is a product to be sold to the highest bidder.
We are 3 years of research and 1 year of development in to building Lightmeter Control Center - the all-in-one mailops management system repeatedly featured in Heise and ZDnet. It's fully Open Source (on GitLab) -- feel free to check the unit and user acceptance test code coverage : ) . Our engineering team has a background in embedded and fintech, with a focus on performance and feedback.
A mix of public and private funding fuels our work, and we've been recognised by the European Commission as part of 'Next Generation Internet'. We have hundreds of active users, a few of whom we interview each week, including banks, public universities, Internet Service Providers, and marketing agencies.
Our mission is to strengthen the foundations of digital society by making mailtech easy and convenient.
That’s a brief intro to what you’ll be working on. But first, you need to know if you’ll even like working with us. Let’s talk about life at Lightmeter and then we’ll go into detail about what we’re looking for.
Who you’ll be working with
One luxuary of being an early-stage team is that you get to work directly with everyone. That said, you'll be reporting to Sam, our CEO. He gets easily excited about engineering patterns and workflows, and likes bright colours and house music with vocals.
You'd work along-side Lead Developer Leandro, who calls himself a Software Craftsman, and who others call a philosopher. Leandro has deeply held unfashionable beliefs like "all code should be fast and light", and cares more about design patterns than what language he's coding in. He love the outdoors and pines for the mountains.
Suela is our Product Manager and x-ray seer of quality and value. She has a nack of turning our telescopes around, pointing out better perspectives, opportunities, and efficiencies. She's an Open Source fangirl, community organiser of the OpenLabs Hackerspace, and secretly learning Python so she can make bots to replace herself. Just kidding!
How You’ll Work at Lightmeter
We work hard to make working here a great experience, and have a team of truly exceptional people — the kind you’ll be excited to work with. You'll get to design and create new components and services, working on features like those on our roadmap (https://lightmeter.io/roadmap).
Here’s how we operate
No Crazy Hours
You'll very rarely work more than 40 hours per week, unless you really want to. Ocassionally things can heat up, but noones going to force you to work more than is comfortable. When you do work overtime you balance it out with time off afterwards. We work hard and smart, planning carefully, but we’re in this for the long haul: sustainability trumps anything short term.
Face time and alone time
Most of us have worked fully remote before and miss the benefits of face time, so we like to work together a lot of the time. However focused time alone, in cafes or home-office is nice too, so we aim for a good mix. So long as you can reach the people you need, when you need them, and vice versa, your preferences for office vs remote work shouldn't be an issue.
Take Vacation
A small team means it's easy to coordinate time off to relax and recharge. Notice you'll be away a week in advance is usually enough.
Up Your Game
We’re serious about helping you improve your craft. Everyone wins when you get better and your job, and enjoy the process. Think conferences, online courses and subscriptions, dedicated time away from work to learn something new.
Compensation and Legal
We can't currently offer you a salary to compete with Amazon or Microsoft. What we can offer you is the same salary that we are paying ourselves: €50,000 / year.
We’re an early-stage startup, funded, pre-revenue, and growing. We are owned and managed by our Founders. Making sustainable, profitable products with a committment to openness is hard; we're demonstrating how it's done. If you care deeply about digital freedom, empowerment, and collaboration, you'll probably fit right in!
What we're looking for
Lightmeter has ambitious goals and our team is growing to meet them. You're the Software Engineer we're looking for if you're collaborative, mission-motivated, creative, disciplined, and productive. (So far, so good?)
You love solving complex problems — both internally and for your users — and know what it means to build a mature, evolving product. You are more focused on the outcome than on the output of your work, and prefer to deliver something useful sooner, rather than something perfect later. You welcome feedback, and are curious about users' challenges and how to address them. You demand a lot from your colleagues and expect the same in return, taking personal pride in collective achievement.
Requirements (these are real, actual requirements)
Our tech stack (repos: https://gitlab.com/lightmeter)
Recommended skills
Ideal skills
Work Remotely
COVID-19 Precautions