Software Engineer (Python/Django)

The Texas Tribune, the state’s go-to source for Texas politics and public policy news, is hiring an entry-level, full-stack engineer to maintain our software infrastructure and systems, strengthen our security, grow our capabilities and improve our technical processes. Do you like working in a fast-paced newsroom environment? Are you interested in opportunities to improve workflows and collaborate as a team on complex ideas? Do you have a desire to strengthen your technical understanding of back-end systems? Then the Texas Tribune wants to hear from you.

You will be part of a team that is constantly improving our newsroom’s systems (including a Django CMS and its interaction with external APIs), as well as prototyping new tools. This is not a journalism position, but you will work closely with journalists and contribute to building news products.

Our engineering team works across departments — editorial, membership, audience, events, sponsorships and design — to build tools and websites. This position reports to the Engineering Manager.

The salary for this position starts at $90,000+ depending on qualifications.

Duties include:

• Extending Django models to build out new content capabilities
• Adding more functionality to our APIs
• Collaborating with our DevOps engineer to help plan and reimagine our infrastructure
• Improving our content management workflow and admin interface
• Leveraging third-party platform integrations to improve team processes
• Assisting staff in troubleshooting and navigating products we build and tools we use

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree and at least 1 year of relevant work experience, which can include internships/fellowships and open source projects
• Experience with one of the following: Python, Ruby, Java, C++, C#, or Go (Python being the language of choice)
• Familiarity with API development and integrations
• Ability to improve and monitor server-side performance, database schema, indexing and query optimization
• A strong understanding of unit and functional testing
• Knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Understanding of Git and code collaboration best practice
• Strong communication skills and the ability to explain technical topics in design/editorial meetings

It would be nice if you have experience with:

• Experience using AWS, Docker, Heroku, and/or Google Cloud Platform
• Developing content management systems (CMS) and/or customer relationship management (CRM) technologies
• Salesforce and Stripe integrations
• Container services like Kubernetes and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
• Serverless technologies (AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Run, GitHub Actions, Cloudflare Workers, etc.)
• Web security threat models and prevention tactics (XSS, CSRF, DDoS, etc.)
• The ability to think in terms of objects, scalability and extensibility, and to explain these concepts to editors

We know there are great candidates who won’t check all of the boxes above, and we also know you might bring important skills that we haven’t considered. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself.

About The Texas Tribune

Here’s what you should know about the Tribune. From day one we’ve had disruption, innovation and risk-taking in our DNA. We’re ambitious as all get out but still have the punch-above-your-weight mentality of a scrappy start-up. We believe we can meet the demands of our audience and our own expectations for excellence without breaking the bank — or our staff. We understand not everything is a story for us — we have to make choices — but we’re always looking to expand our boundaries. We’re nonprofit because the challenging economic reality for media these days obligates us to find a different way, reliable and sustainable, to fund serious journalism. We’re nonpartisan because we live in the United States of Confirmation Bias — and we don’t need to be part of the problem. We don’t need to be yet another source of information affirming the voices and perspectives that are already in people’s heads. At the same time, nonpartisan is not non-thinking. We call B.S. when B.S. needs to be called.

All of us at the Trib believe the best way to achieve that mission is to resemble the state we cover. We’re committed to building an inclusive newsroom for people of all backgrounds and ages, and we’re taking steps to meet that commitment. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply for this role, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.

Location

The Texas Tribune office is located in downtown Austin, steps away from the Texas Capitol building. We have colleagues in the organization that come into the office and colleagues that are based in various cities throughout the United States. We encourage our engineering team members to work from a location that allows them to do their best work with the exception that we do require that the person in this role be based in the United States.

Benefits

This job is full time and has the following benefits:

• Medical, vision and dental insurance
• A cell phone stipend
• 20 days of paid time off each year
• Up to 16 weeks of paid family leave plus four weeks of additional job protection
• 401(k) matching
• Support for professional training and attending industry conferences
• Remote working flexibility

How to Apply

Click here to submit your application by March 15 with a resume and examples of your work, please submit a cover letter detailing your vision for this position and how you would approach the work. We can't wait to hear from you.

The Texas Tribune is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for all, and we encourage applicants of all identities, backgrounds, ages, and abilities to apply. Learn more about The Texas Tribune here.