Front End Engineer Full-time

Creative Commons is building CC Search, a search engine of openly licensed content, to allow large bodies of open works to be discovered and reused with confidence by digital creators and educators alike. We have a small, talented team, tackling this large challenge. CC Search came out of beta one year ago, and we average 250,000 monthly active users, browsing the 400M+ images currently indexed.

CC Search is an open source software project and the Creative Commons team is 100% remote. This position reports to the Director of Engineering.

As the sole front end engineer on the project, you own building, testing, and release of new features on the front end, working closely across the tech and product teams, to keep implementing great experiences and interfaces for CC Search’s global user base. You will also be the primary maintainer of the open source code and help build an active community of contributors around it.

Primary Responsibilities

• Architect, build, and maintain CC Search, including:
  • Building and testing user interfaces and experiences that will make the openly licensed content discoverable through CC Search more accessible and usable.
  • Writing modular, scalable, and well-documented code.
  • Providing an usable, human-centered, accessible perspective to our code and products.
• Collaborate with the rest of the CC Search team, including:
  • Helping with ideation and design of new features in collaboration with the product and design team.
  • Collaborating with the Backend Software Engineer and Senior Data Engineer to support the smooth operation of CC Search.
• Integrate with and improve Vocabulary, CC’s design system.
• Build an open source community around CC Search actively, including:
  • Participating in conversations with contributors via GitHub and chat (Slack).
  • Participating in programs such as Google Summer of Code and Outreachy as a mentor on behalf of CC.
  • Writing blog posts, maintaining documentation, reviewing pull requests in a timely manner, and responding to issues from the community.
• Collaborate with other outside communities, companies, and institutions to further Creative Commons’ mission.

Qualifications and requirements

• Demonstrated experience architecting, building, and deploying large consumer-grade JavaScript web applications in production
• High level of proficiency with JavaScript language and ES6 syntax and features
• Proficiency with Vue.js
• Superior HTML/CSS skills
• Experience working with a designer and contributing to designs
• Fluent in English
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to work independently, build good working relationships and actively communicate, contribute, and speak up in a remote work structure
• Curiosity and a desire to keep learning
• Nice to have (but not required):
  • Experience with contributing to or maintaining open source software
  • Experience with user testing
  • Familiarity with working with existing design systems or design libraries
  • Familiarity with Python

Diversity & inclusion

We believe that diverse teams build better organizations and better services. Applications from qualified candidates from all backgrounds, including those from under-represented communities, are very welcome. Creative Commons works openly as part of a global community, guided by collaboratively developed codes of conduct and anti-harassment policies.

Work Environment and Location

Creative Commons is a fully-distributed organization — we have no central office. This position is in a remote working environment and you can be anywhere in the world as long as you’re available for meetings between 2 PM to 8 PM UTC. You must have reasonable mobility for necessary travel, and high-speed broadband access. Laptop/desktop computer and necessary resources are supplied. Some travel is required for, among other things, face-to-face meetings and the annual CC Summit, though there will be no CC travel in 2020.

Salary and Benefits

Creative Commons is a leading non-profit employer, offering competitive salaries and benefits, including health and wellness plans, annual retirement contributions, and a positive, supportive work environment. The salary range for this position is $80K – 100K USD (or equivalent).

How to Apply

Please email your resume and cover letter as a single PDF to “jobs@creativecommons.org” with the subject heading of “Front End Engineer / [Last Name].” Your cover letter should address why you are interested in this job and why you’re a good fit based on the requirements and responsibilities.

No phone calls, please. No recruiters.

About CC

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. We are a leader in the global movement for free culture and open knowledge with an active global community in over 85 countries. Our free, easy-to-use copyright licenses provide a simple, standardized way to give the public permission to share and use your creative work — from “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.” The first phase of CC’s work was about establishing the licenses as standard, and growing the archive. The next phase is building a global movement that will create a more vibrant, usable commons powered by collaboration and gratitude. Today, the global commons stands at over 1.4 billion licensed works, made up of images, video, audio, datasets, open textbooks, research, 3D models, and more.