Senior Software Engineer – Frontend

Padlet is building software for a good education. A good education is one that inspires curiosity, creativity, and community. Our software enables that through visual content creation and collaboration in millions of classrooms worldwide.

Think of an exceptional product, say the Dyson vacuum cleaner or WD40. What makes it exceptional is that not only does it perform its function well, it makes you feel great using it. It almost makes you want to have more problems so you could use the product more.

We want Padlet to be an exceptional product. We are looking for Frontend Engineers to improve our web apps and delight a billion people.

Responsibilities

• Building new features. E.g. creating beautiful slideshows in Padlet.

• Creating delight. E.g. through animations and micro UI.

• Making the web apps faster. E.g. reducing javascript payload.

• Improving how we work. E.g. improving our component library or tools we use to translate the web app into 40+ languages.

• Mentoring and supporting the development of junior engineers.

• Driving architectural improvements and long-term technical strategy.

Qualifications

• At some point in your life, someone has told you: “you write exceptionally good code.”

• You thrive in dynamic environments, taking ownership of complex problems and leading teams to solutions.

• You know how to copy-paste code from Stack Overflow (or ChatGPT).

• Bonus: you have a good sense of humor.

About Padlet

• Vision: Every child in the world will grow up with Mickey Mouse and Padlet.

• Product: We are making the default way of collecting and sharing thoughts on the Internet. People love the product.

• Impact: We have over 50 million active users making Padlet one of the most used apps on the planet. Our goal is to be THE the most used app on the planet.

• Money: We are venture backed AND profitable. We are built to last one hundred years.

• Badassery: We are 50 people (plus a baby crane that we've adopted but it doesn't really do much). That's about a million active users per employee. Some badass people work here.

Tech stack

• Web: VueJS, Tailwind (with ReactJS where necessary).

• Mobile apps: React Native (with Swift and Java where necessary.)

• Backend: Ruby (Rails), Typescript, Elixir (Phoenix), and Python.

• Storage: Postgres, Redis, Elasticsearch, Firestore, and Snowflake.

Joys of engineering at Padlet

• We have very few meetings. We value keeping you in flow.

• A lot of people use Padlet. We have to solve interesting real-time collaboration problems. Your work will have a tremendous impact on global education.

• Our users are in over 200 countries, using all kinds of devices and connections, and speaking over 40 languages. We have to solve interesting internationalization problems.

• We like to craft delightful user experiences. They’re satisfying to build.

• We try to solve problems creatively instead of just throwing money at them. We are engineers! We thrive in constraints, not in the absence of them.

• We ship often.

• We value beautiful code.

Sorrows of engineering at Padlet

• We grew pretty fast last year and our processes are still catching up. E.g. we don't have 100% code coverage yet. Our deployment process isn't as painless as it could be. This sometimes leads to spending time on things that aren't the most fun. We’re working on it!

• Work can be chaotic. "Change of plans. Let's do this instead." is not uncommon.

• Our codebase has a long history. Sometimes you could be working with 4-year-old code or obsolete tech stack. We’re working on it by getting better at doing migrations!

Some people you‘d be working with

• Josh Hewitt: insists that wallabies and kangaroos are different animals, artificially inflating the biodiversity of his homeland. Is excellent at surgically improving an existing, complicated system.

• Colin Teahan: lives for one-liners. E.g: Colleague: “Wouldn’t it be funny if Iron Man were anemic?” Teahan: “It would be IRONIC.” Single-handedly wrote early versions of our iOS and Android apps.

The office

• Our office is in the middle of Presidio, a beautiful national park. We’re 5 minutes from the beach, a walk we take often. The WiFi works outdoors. You can work sitting in a lawn overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.

• The office itself is designed to be a space for all your interests and hobbies. We have a meditation room, game room, library, podcasting studio, art studio, kids room, and full makerspace with 3d printers, presses, laser cutters, sewing machines, and more.

Benefits

• Top tier medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family.

• One Medical and Cue memberships for you and your family.

• 401(k) with matching.

• Commuter benefits.

• FSA.

• Good stock options.

• Catered lunches and dinners.

• 20 vacation days. Plus sickness and bereavement days for when life happens.

• All the gadgetry you need, including a new phone every year.

Special time to join

Because we're small, there's a lot of energy. And because we have tremendous traction, your first commit touches millions. This combination is rare and quite satisfying.