Front End and Mobile Developer
WHO WE ARE:
Sustain is a Denver-based company focused on changing the way people think about and take action around sustainability. We’ve spent the last two years bringing transparency, accountability, and innovation to the commercial waste industry through a revolutionary data platform - reducing global CO2 emissions, and saving millions of dollars in utility expenses. Now, we’ve set our sights on a bigger challenge - the behavior and habits that billions of people take into work with them each day.
We believe that an engaging platform - used to incentivize people to act more sustainably at work - will save companies billions of dollars in utility expenses, and drive significant changes in the culture around workplace sustainability. These changes are humanity’s best chance to directly reduce the environmental footprint of Fortune 1000 companies across the globe and combat man-made climate change.
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
We look for critical thinking, determination, and a willingness to learn new skills in our team members. When we don’t know how to do something, we learn how to do it. You’ll find that the Sustain team never shies away from a new challenge, even if it falls outside our areas of expertise.
Sustain is an equal opportunity employer. This means that race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected status are not considered when determining your eligibility for a job at Sustain.
We also believe in diversity through inclusivity, true equality, and the importance of creating an opportunity for the underrepresented. We know this has not been the case in the tech-sector historically and Sustain is dedicated to building a workplace that showcases the true diversity of humanity. We believe that the best workplaces reflect the world around us and we are committed to building a diverse team that represents that commitment to cultural diversity.
We know that everyone experiences life differently and we see value in those differences. This means Sustain will never pay someone less, eliminate career opportunities, or otherwise penalize a Sustain team member based on factors other than an individual’s performance and their impact on the business of Sustain or our inclusive culture.
WHAT WE ARE BUILDING
Sustain is building the first-ever SaaS platform designed around driving user-engagement at the workplace. Our platform, initially designed for workplace sustainability, is focused on incentivizing people to take specific actions while at work through an internal gig economy. These actions drive significant bottom-line utility savings for our customers in areas like waste, energy, and water, while simultaneously reducing the environmental impact at facilities and building a positive internal culture around sustainability.
Sustain’s platform revolves around two apps:
A Single Page Application (SPA)
A Native Mobile App on Android and iOS
The SPA dashboard serves multiple purposes via different user role portals
Allowing C-Level Executives (CEO, CFO, CSO, COO) to be able to set and track specific goals for their organization around sustainability and savings
Allowing facility managers to maintain the internal gig economy at their facility to meet those specific goals
Allowing employees to participate in the gig economy at their workplace to earn rewards and recognition
The SPA dashboard will include things like:
Message templating, cadencing, metrics, and multiple-delivery methods
API integrations with other common, modern workplace platforms (Salesforce, Workday, Zestful, Zapier, etc)
Report builders and metrics analysis
Customer onboarding, account management, and payments
The mobile app is built specifically for employees and is the main focus of the platform. The purpose of the mobile app is to maximize employee engagement in the gig economy through a fun and modern interface. Many aspects of the employee portal in the SPA will be duplicated across to the mobile app in a more engaging and fun way.
Gamification to drive engagement, social sharing, messaging, and real-value reward systems are core tenants of the mobile experience. Innovative execution on these tenants is key to the success of our platform.
WHO WE NEED
We believe in hiring people who will make us better and help us avoid pitfalls. We don’t pretend to have all the answers, and we hire the people who can provide the answers we don’t have and ask questions we haven’t even thought of yet. Job titles don’t matter to us and we wear lots of hats to fill in the gaps as they appear. These additional roles provide opportunities to grow our skill sets or try out new job experiences we may have been unable to try before.
Our front-end is currently in early stages of development utilizing the VueJS framework for web, with a plan to use NativeScript to create a native mobile app experience that can be maintained easily alongside the web-app codebase.
However, this does not mean that we are looking specifically for a VueJS front-end developer with NativeScript experience.
We are currently building our front-end with VueJS because our back-end is built on Laravel and we know how to utilize VueJS. We aren’t dedicated to any specific front-end framework at this point and are looking to hire someone who can have those discussions with the product team to ensure we make the best choice. To that end, we are looking for an experienced developer who can build impressive and engaging front-end experiences on mobile and the modern web.
To help you better understand if you’re the person we’re looking for, here’s some (but not all) of the things our ideal new developer knows
Modern SPA dev using a JS framework (Vue 2, React, Angular 6)
Native mobile app dev for iOS and Android based on that SPA using a framework like NativeScript, ReactNative, or Cordova
Modern UI/UX design and animations
RESTful API integrations from 3rd party providers across multiple industries
Gamification
Messaging (SMS, mobile push, Chrome Extension, etc)
Bonus points if you also know:
Laravel
System Architecture
DevOps
OUR CULTURE:
We strive to create an atmosphere where learning and questions are welcome, expected and common. Everyone on the team, including you, is a jack of all trades and a master of some. We love to do pair-programming sessions and are always learning new skills from one another. When you know what you’re talking about, we’ll listen and we expect the same courtesy in return.
While we prioritize an open work atmosphere, we also value focus, efficiency, and the flow-state. We abide strictly by the headphones rule and often code behind closed, but never locked, doors.
What you’ll get:
Sustain offers:
Competitive compensation package
Monthly benefit stipend
15 paid vacation days per year
All public holidays observed
Casual dress every day
Dog-friendly office and co-workers
Company events and retreats
Sustain is a TechStars company, having completed the TechStars/The Nature Conservancy Sustainability Accelerator in October 2018. Not only does this mean you’ll be joining a small company with global recognition, but you’ll also be joining the Techstars network of companies. Being part of Techstars affords unparalleled networking and mentorship opportunities for members, and you’ll be able to leverage this network to unlock career advancement or skill acquisition opportunities unavailable anywhere else!
Sustain HQ will be located in the Flight building on Taxi campus, at the north end of RiNo. The HQ is positioned with public transit in mind, and affords Sustain team members with excellent nearby & on-site amenities, as well as sustainably-minded workspaces. At Taxi you can expect:
Free parking 24/7 with a dedicated parking lot
Bicycle parking
10-minute walk from Blake & 38th station on the A-Line
24-hour building access with a FOB
On-campus fitness center
On-campus coffee bar
On-campus full-service restaurant
On-campus swimming pool
Community garden
5 minutes from RiNo, LoDo, and many other Denver ‘hot-spots’
HOW TO APPLY:
At Sustain, we care less about your curriculum vitae and more about who you are as an individual. We don’t have a specific expectation for what a resume should look like, so get creative. This application is your chance to exercise that individuality. We ask for a few specific things in the hard and fast rules, but then we’ll leave you at the door.
The hard and fast rules:
Send an email to [email protected] and include the following line in the subject: “That’s my purse, I don’t know you!”
Since you are applying for a developer position at Sustain, we’ll want to see some of your work out in the wild. Show us a publically available project - created using a JS framework - that you are proud of building or contributing to, and include the stack details. This can be something from an old job or just a hobby.
We’ll also want to get a peek at how you like to write your code. Send us a link to your GitHub/BitBucket or show us a specific repository you think is particularly slick.
Tell us two of your hobbies, or how you spend your downtime. After a 12 hour code-binge, how do you unwind?
You’ve just been asked to build out an integration with Energy Star Portfolio Manager’s API over the next two-week sprint. This integration will allow us to start tracking direct data correlations between user actions in the mobile app and actual-money savings realized on customers’ utility bills. This is the first time you’ve ever heard of Energy Star Portfolio Manager. Walk us through your approach to building this feature. For example, how would you structure your time? What milestones would you set? This exercise is less about your coding prowess and more about how you structure the tasks that are assigned to you.
The full-stack developer is on vacation for a full week and unavailable. They finished all major features before leaving and did some QA to check for regressions before their final deploy. You’re working the next day when something goes wrong with the Report Query Builder. It’s not pulling the correct data to the front-end when a user requests a report. This is a customer facing bug and, as such, is top priority to fix and deploy. The backend is written in a different language than what you normally work on but nobody is available to make a fix for at least a week. What do you do?