Full Time Lead Back End Developer (Rails) at Calibre (Remote, Australia, 4 days a week)

Company: Calibre
Geo: Remote, Australia
Head Office: None
Level: Mid - Senior
WFH: Remote (from home or we’ll sponsor a co-working space of your choosing)
Type: Full Time (4 days a week, Mondays off)
Salary Range: $121,000–$143,000
Closing Date: until the role is filled!

About us

Calibre is an (intentionally) small company building a web performance platform to help create faster, more equitable internet. We have hundreds of customers and thousands of users from all over the world. We pride ourselves on building thoughtful, easy to use tools with less.

We value a supportive environment, sustainable growth and are in it for the long haul. Our purpose is to serve people: our customers, teammates and the community.

Your role

Here’s how we work together and what you can expect from this role:

  • The role is permanent and full time (four days a week). We are located within Australia and work remotely. You must be eligible to work in Australia to apply. We are unable to offer sponsorship or relocation at this time.

  • We are a small company which means each person we hire becomes a lead of their area of expertise . We will expect you to contribute high-quality code, establish processes and make architecture decisions to improve the back-end at Calibre.

  • You’ll be working on a diverse set of tasks. While we focus on bigger initiatives, no two days are the same. You might be developing new functionality to support a growing application, optimising SQL or GraphQL queries, finding and fixing bugs or updating technical documentation.

  • We rely on resilient and modern technologies. You’ll be working in an environment including Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, RSpec, GraphQL, JavaScript, Terraform, Heroku, AWS (EC2, SQS and Lambda) and GitHub Actions.

  • We use tools that help us do our best work. You’ll collaborate primarily via Linear, Slack, GitHub and Notion.

  • We value deep work and written communication, which is why we’re light on meetings. Apart from weekly team sync and fortnightly 1:1, you can focus on what you do best.

  • Everyone at Calibre talks to our customers. You will help with support conversations, and if you’ve never done this before, we will coach you in how we approach delivering the best customer experience.

  • The salary range for this role is between $121,000 and $143,000 (including superannuation).

Your day-to-day tasks might look like this:

  • Communication: we might be in a similar timezone, but we often work asynchronously. Clear, strong communication and collaboration is something that comes naturally to you.

  • Building and maintaining application functionality: you’ll be primarily working on the Calibre application and its supporting infrastructure. Some of our upcoming projects include migrating the primary metric store from PostgreSQL to Clickhouse and updating the GraphQL API to support new performance metric dashboard functionality and using the Github API to improve our Pull Request Reviews integration.

  • Housekeeping: keeping our codebase in tip-top shape is as important as building new features. You’ll ensure our dependencies are up-to-date, work on web performance improvements, refactor old code and address customer issues raised in our support channels.

You will work with:

  • Ben Schwarz, CEO and Founder
  • Karolina Szczur, Co-founder and Design Lead
  • Our upcoming Lead Front-end Developer (React)

About you

It’s important to us that whoever joins Calibre thrives in this role. Here are skills and knowledge that will set you up for success:

  • You have substantial professional experience in Ruby and Ruby on Rails . You have a deep understanding of core concepts, scalability and maintenance.

  • You are comfortable with PostgreSQL and can write optimised SQL queries to obtain and write data as efficiently as possible.

  • Your code is thoroughly covered by integration and unit tests. You know how and when to add tests .

  • You are at home with the Unix shell. You often write bash scripts to automate your work .

  • You’re well-versed in deploying your code to production and owning the release process.

  • You show resilience and patience when working with third-party services and APIs.

  • You care about the impact of your code on customers from multiple axes: privacy, security, experience and usability.

  • Your process involves documenting your work . Your code is understandable and predictable to your colleagues.

  • You are a proactive and clear communicator . You regularly express your work’s scope, context and impact.

  • You’re self-motivated and can work independently. You take the initiative to ensure that you have everything you need to work efficiently and call for support when required.

How Calibre supports you at work

  • Work four days a week (Mondays off). We believe working less is the future. We show up four days a week, at 32 hours maximum. No overtime!

  • Be anywhere in Australia. Calibre doesn’t have a fixed office. You can be wherever as long as you’re legally allowed to work in Australia.

  • Receive a fair salary. We base salaries on market rates, your skills and experience. All open positions come with a transparent pay range. We don’t offer equity.

  • Get regular pay increases. We raise our salaries by 5% each year. You shouldn’t need to switch jobs or be an expert negotiator to get higher compensation.

  • Rest when you need to. 4 weeks of annual leave and 2 weeks of sick leave a year, plus national, state and territory government public holidays.

  • Create your schedule. We trust you to tailor your workday as long as you’re accountable for your work. Do a school dropoff, go to therapy or run an errand!

  • Spend time with your family. All new parents get 12 weeks of paid leave after twelve months of employment, including adoption and foster care.

  • Receive and share feedback. You’ll always know where you’re at with regular 1:1s. We want your candid opinion about how we can improve, too.

  • Be autonomous. We trust you to work independently. We will encourage you to create processes and own your area of expertise.

  • Continue learning. Spend A$1,500 per year to attend events, take courses or buy books. Available after six months of employment.

  • Get the hardware you need. You will receive a MacBook Pro laptop (or the equivalent of your choice) plus required peripherals.

  • Create your perfect workspace. You’ll have a budget of A$1,500 to make your work environment enjoyable. We also cover up to A$500 a month for a coworking desk!

Read more about our transparent hiring process and apply here: