The Governance Lab at NYU Tandon School of Engineering (www.thegovlab.org) aims to improve our lives and communities by changing how we govern by using new technology. We work on high impact, multi-disciplinary projects with partners in city, state, and national governments and other public interest organizations and institutions in the United States and around the world.
The development team at the GovLab is a small but agile in-house team of experienced designers, product managers and software engineers who collaborate with GovLab leadership to design, create and build usable tools, platforms and products. As our name suggests, we are in the business of experimentation with new technology to strengthen democracy, and are looking for those who want to build open source software that is optimized for change. We believe in rough consensus, running code and co-creating products with our users through frequent iteration.
As a team member of the GovLab, your responsibilities include:
working with GovLab leadership to bring ideas to life;
creating an IT infrastructure for the development of innovation inside an academic setting;
representing GovLab at conferences, hackathons and on our blogs;
developing quick proof of concepts for prototype testing and iteration;
deploying interactive and data-driven web content.
The GovLab is seeking candidates with proven experience in software and product development for a lead back-end developer position and a junior full stack developer position. You’ll get to work on exciting tech-intensive projects like:
Designing and building an expert network to connect governance innovators within and across public and private sectors;
Developing an online education platform to run high impact courses for civic innovators;
Analyzing data flows in the criminal justice system to find opportunities for data sharing to decrease incarceration and crime;
Developing the user experience to help a Latin American city crowdsource innovative solutions to public problems with its residents.
Here’s what we’re looking for:
Lead Back-End Developer
You’re the kind of person that is passionate for civic tech, open government, and open data. You’re good at problem solving and thinking critically, and are great at communicating your ideas. You’re knowledgeable about cloud server technologies, in particular AWS and Digital Ocean. You have a keen ability to survey technologies and choose a relevant tech stack to meet a project’s needs. You have good knowledge of databases, like SQL and Postgres, and at least some familiarity with NoSQL, as well as expertise with caching and content delivery networks.
You have experience with and are enthusiastic about building scalable systems, and have a strong commitment to documenting the infrastructure you’re building. You have substantial background and expertise in Python, and are knowledgeable about Flask, SQL Alchemy, Docker, and Jinja. You have experience with public and/or private APIs and JSON/XML. You care about unit testing, integration testing, and web security. You’re familiar with Redis and Celery (or similar distributed task queues). And perhaps most importantly, you have a sense of humor and adventure.
Qualifications:
B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science (or related field) or equivalent practical experience
3+ years of software development experience with a proven track record
Excellent problem solving, critical thinking and communication skills
Experience in mobile or web application development
Excellent coding skills in Python and knowledge of SQL and Postgres
Be comfortable developing back-end and designing services on top of a cloud infrastructure (like AWS)
Familiarity with web development languages and libraries, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery
Interest and ability to learn other programming languages as needed.
Eligible to work in the United States
Please send your CV to:
and specify which position you’re applying for.
We’d also love to see some code you’ve written, so please feel free to send us a link to your Github profile or anywhere else we can see your work.