Engineer, CMS

Upstatement (View all Jobs)

Remote

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Interview Process

1. Phone screen 2. Take home project relevant to our work 3. First round interview to discuss background and take home implementation 4. Second round interview to meet more employees and share some of your and our recent work.

Salary

$90,000-$110,000

Programming Languages Mentioned

JavaScript


Overview

Upstatement is looking for a talented engineer with a passion for content management to join our engineering team. The ideal candidate brings an editorial mindset to the challenges facing the news media and publishing industries. They have relevant experience developing custom content management solutions to improve the content authoring experience, streamline publishing workflows, and help teams of all shapes and sizes tell impactful stories on the web.

Code is a means to an end for you, and you place as much value on research, solution architecture, and business alignment as you do on clean code. You want to be involved at every step of the creative process so that you can inspire and influence the strategic direction before you jump and start executing. (Building the wrong thing is worse than building nothing at all).

Last but not least: People who succeed here are empathetic teammates who are candid, kind, caring, and embody our core values. We believe that diverse, inclusive teams make the most impactful work. Upstatement is deeply invested in ensuring that we have a supportive, growth-oriented environment that works for everyone.

Responsibilities

What are engineers responsible for at Upstatement?

  • Code. Clean, correct, and maintainable code developed in concert with design and delivered on time.
  • Quality. Engineers are accountable for the overall quality of our production deliverables – code, infrastructure, and documentation.
  • Communication. Clear and concise written and oral communication, both internally and with our clients and tech partners.
  • Collaboration. We’re not just the last stop in a production pipeline; our engineers contribute critical thinking at every phase of the project life cycle.
  • Research & Solution Architecture. You’ll work alongside technology and creative directors to support the research and selection of technical solutions to fulfill business requirements.

Outcomes

What specific outcomes are we looking for you to achieve in your first 12–18 months?

  • Build and deliver. Fulfill the Engineer role on 2-3 editorial projects. Gather feature requirements with client stakeholders, collaborate with designers on development, continuously test and deliver code to production.
  • Think strategically. Support the Technology Director and Lead Engineer with research and solution architecture in service of high-level technology strategy. Build trust and rapport with client technology stakeholders.
  • Optimize pragmatically. Contribute to tooling and process improvements to increase our expertise and efficiency across editorial projects.
  • Share your expertise. Distribute knowledge accumulated within your practice area across the company.
  • Demonstrate expertise. Support team leads with business development activities (pitches, proposals, technical Q&A, etc.).

About You

What experience and traits have been successful at Upstatement?

  • CMS Expertise. 2+ years of experience developing with popular Content Management Solutions (WordPress, Craft CMS, etc.). Experience with headless CMS’s (Contentful, Sanity) is nice but not required. Comfortable building custom themes and plugins from scratch, integrating with popular external tools like Mailchimp and Salesforce and optimizing the editor experience for a variety of publishing workflows.
  • Front-end Expertise. 2+ years of experience building beautiful, performant, and accessible web experiences with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Familiarity with popular front-end frameworks (React, Vue) is nice but not required.
  • Editorial Mindset. Willingness to interrogate the premise. Ability to simplify complex ideas, make things make sense, and build businesses around content.
  • Editor empathy. High-level understanding of the challenges facing digital publications, and empathy for the editor experience (ex: content curation and production, publishing workflows, etc.).
  • Communication & Collaboration. Proven track record of clear communication with technical and non-technical audiences, ability to collaborate productively with teams of all shapes and sizes.

We Are

  • A full-stack shop doing large and technically ambitious projects
  • Champions of resourceful engineers and best practices
  • Inspired by the bleeding edge, yet pragmatic and tool agnostic
  • Open Source advocates and contributors
  • Pavers of individual growth paths (for makers and managers!)
  • Supporters of ambition and career development

About the Department

Check out our Engineers page to learn a bit more about the technology department, read some blog posts, and figure out what makes our engineers tick.

 

Why Upstatement?

Upstatement is a digital product studio with an editorial mindset. We use the tools of design, engineering, and journalism to enrich lives and create a more just society. Our 50-person team works with established leaders (MIT, ESPN, PBS) and emerging companies who are about to change the world.

  • Work with ethical and mission-driven organizations.
  • Collaborate in a high-trust environment that empowers creative ownership.
  • Build a portfolio you can be proud of.
  • Blossom in a small studio culture full of top talent and peers who help you grow.
  • Find your path at a place that prizes flexibility: We encourage experimentation, support role switching, and help people balance between maker/manager and lead/support.
  • Contribute to a progressive, values-driven culture that has deep commitment to DEI, puts people first, and believes in making each other better.
  • Experience true life-work balance with a 4-Day Work Week.

 

Compensation & Benefits

  • Salary range commensurate with experience ($90,000-$110,000)
  • Health, dental, and vision insurance, and supplementary health benefits (FSA, IVF coverage, TalkSpace
  • A company-matched 401(k) retirement plan 
  • $1,000 home office setup stipend
  • $1,500 annual professional development budget
  • Short/long term disability insurance
  • 3 weeks vacation to start, plus company-wide closure between Christmas & New Year’s Day (fully paid)
  • 12 weeks paid parental leave 
  • One Medical membership
  • Internal events, workshops, and seminars (like our Friday Talks)

FWIW: Worries of “what if I’m not the perfect fit” can sometimes hold us back from applying to jobs. We want to let you in on a secret: there is no perfect candidate. Sure, we’re interested in resumes, but also the narrative beyond that resume—unique backgrounds, experiences, points of views, etc. As such—there is no set of boxes to tick in order to be a good candidate. If this is a job that excites you, we hope you’ll apply.

Interview Process

Our goal is to get to know you in a low-pressure, friendly environment — and to give you ample opportunity to learn more about us, too.

Our typical process includes these types of experiences:

  • A resume screen and introductory phone/video chat
  • A take-home exercise where you’ll have the opportunity to demonstrate your communication and problem-solving skills
  • Additional conversations with potential future team members, the hiring manager, and leadership

Our goal is to create an environment where you can interview at your best. Our interview process is fully remote, conducted via Zoom calls. If we can provide any assistance or accommodations during your time with us, please let us know at hr@upstatement.com. All requests are treated as privately as possible and have no impact on candidate eligibility.

Interested in applying?

Send us a resume, cover letter, and anything else that helps us understand what makes you awesome.
 
Women, people of color, LGBTQIA2S+ individuals, and members of other underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply. Upstatement is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against candidates on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, or veteran status. Upstatement is committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive workplace for everyoneyou are welcome here.
 
FWIW: Worries of “what if I’m not the perfect fit” can sometimes hold us back from applying to jobs. We want to let you in on a secret: there is no perfect candidate. Sure, we’re interested in resumes, but also the narrative beyond that resume—unique backgrounds, experiences, points of views, etc. As such—there is no set of boxes to tick in order to be a good candidate. If this is a job that excites you, we hope you’ll apply.

Please mention No Whiteboard if you apply!
I'm a one-man team looking to improve tech interviews, and could use any support! 😄


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