Senior Frontend Engineer - Riot.im Full-time

Who We Are

New Vector is the open source software development startup which employs the core team behind Matrix.org – the leading project for secure open decentralised communication. Matrix’s mission is to create a universal open network and protocol for real-time communication. New Vector builds flagship apps for Matrix such as Riot.im as well as contributing to the core Matrix open source clients, SDKs, servers, bridges and the protocol itself.

We believe that the future of the internet should be decentralised and open, that previously siloed communications platforms should be interoperable and that individuals should control their own data and choose who they share it with.

Ultimately, our aim is to make it as simple to message or video call anyone in the world as it is to send them an email.

Our products are for everyone and we know we cannot succeed without a diverse team. Our hiring process is designed to be humane and give candidates the best possible chance to show us what you can do. If we ever fall down on this, please let us know.

The Role

You’ll spend most of your time working on Riot.im, the flagship Matrix client built with React.

As Frontend Engineer it’s your job to work with the Product Owner and the UX Designer to turn their dreams into reality. But this is your product too – you’ll use Riot.im daily to work with the New Vector team and our energetic FOSS community across London, Rennes and the rest of the world; your voice will help shape Riot.im into the world’s best decentralised encrypted messaging client.

Since (almost) everything we do is open source you can get a great feel for exactly what it would be like to work on Riot.im – joining dev-centric channels such as #riot-dev:matrix.org provides a window into the core team and the community. Come and say hi!

Requirements

The most important thing is that you believe passionately in the mission of decentralisation of the internet. More specifically that you believe that communications should not be centralised in the hands of a small number of very large organisations and instead individuals should control their own data and choose who they share it with.

Additionally we are looking for someone who is:

• smart, curious and enthusiastic
• passionate about building software people love
• a tireless advocate of code quality (understanding the need for trade-offs in the short term whilst keeping us honest in the long term)
• empathetic, with both their colleagues and the end user

We don’t have hard requirements for the role, we just want to build the best possible team, but we’d be particularly excited to speak to you if you have experience with some of the following:

• designing and building performant, maintainable web applications in React
• employing established UX conventions with an eye for aesthetic design
• writing maintainable unit tests for React components
• working with or as part of an open source community
• providing and receiving peer code review
• working in an Agile/Lean development environment
• mentoring more junior developers and volunteer community members
• profiling complex React applications to hunt down performance bottlenecks

Benefits

Our general approach is to treat people like adults and acknowledge that by being flexible we create an environment for people to do their best work. That said specific points that differentiate us.

• Work (almost) full time on FOSS projects with high visibility and a large enthusiastic community
• Since our technology is relevant to anything that requires real-time comms, the role provides exposure to a wide range of domains from web and app dev through to VR, VoIP and IoT.
• Health, dental and travel insurance.
• Family friendly environment, many of the team have small children and we look to accommodate that as best we can.
• People tend to stay with the company for a long time, we take this a sign that we have a cohesive supportive culture, that we have engaging challenging work and that people can develop their skills and careers here for the long term.
• Free ‘good’ coffee.
• We like food a lot, we have some excellent chefs on the team, and Chiswick has some great places for lunch. You will eat well :)

New Vector does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, colour, religion, age, national origin, marital status, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other reason prohibited by law in provision of employment opportunities and benefits.