Packback,  a quickly growing, venture-funded Chicago EdTech Startup, is looking for a Midlevel Frontend Engineer to join our engineering team to help us build and improve product features with an eye towards performance, testing, and flexibility. 
 

What does Packback do?

Packback exists to awaken the fearless, relentless curiosity in every student. We are a social learning platform powered by a proprietary A.I. that college professors use to help their students fall in love with the subject matter, drive personalized learning, and most importantly, quantify and improve critical thinking skills.

Named as a 2014 Chicago Innovation Award winner, Packback has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and the Washington Post, while its founders have been named as Crain’s Chicago 20 in their 20’s, the 2017 Techweek100, and Chicago Inno’s 50 on Fire.

If that sounds like a mission that sparks your curiosity...we want to meet you!
 

What YOU will do:

We're looking for a Midlevel Frontend Engineer to join the Packback team to help us build and improve product features with an eye towards performance, testing, and flexibility. This individual will oversee projects through their full lifecycle, and will be responsible for ensuring the feature, change, or bugfix after its release. While we are seeking someone who is strong in Frontend engineering, we would eagerly welcome someone who self-identifies as a Full-Stack engineer to our team.

As a member of the Packback team, you will also be expected to uphold the values of our culture, bring your own insight, thoughtfulness, experience, and strengths to the table to help us grow and improve our culture. All of our team members are encouraged to ask big questions about the business, recognize problems, and take ownership overseeing them through to completion.
 

What you should bring to the table:

• 3+ years experience working with Javascript frameworks (Angular preferred). Note: we are currently in the process of upgrading to Angular 5
• 3+ years with HTML and CSS/SCSS/SASS
• Experience translating design comps to functional, responsive pages
• Familiarity with design patterns and domain-driven design
• A strong grasp of object-oriented programming
• Experience writing unit tests and end-to-end tests for AngularJS (or similar Javascript framework) using Jasmine, Karma, Selenium OR other frontend testing tools
• Experience working with RESTful web services
   

It’s also great if you have:

• Experience working with the Angular CLI
• Experience working with and contributing to a 'Living Style Guide'
• Experience adhering to the Web Content Accessibility Standards (WCAG) 2.0
• Experience with another object-oriented programming language (PHP preferred)
• Experience with any of the following:
  • REST API design
  • MySQL
  • Elasticsearch
  • Python, particularly in applying Python ML libraries
  • Redis
  • Azure, or AWS (Amazon Web Services)
• Open source contributions with a variety of technologies
• Experience working in an Agile Scrum project flow with a code review process and Git for change management
• Startup or small company experience
   

Job Details & Benefits:

Start Date: Desired start date for this role is January 2018.

Competitive Salary: Our salary ranges are competitive, and have clear expectations for professional growth.

A culture that you can be proud to build: We work hard at building a culture of curiosity and continuous learning at Packback, where every voice matters and can make an enormous impact on the business.

A company that invests in you and your family: Packback offers 6 weeks fully paid, gender non-specific extended leave policy (for either parent welcoming a new child through birth or adoption, to care for a family member in need, or for bereavement).

Benefits for your health and well-being: Health insurance; option for dental, vision, and life; Short-term disability insurance.

Location & Commute: We have a lovely, comfy office located conveniently in South Loop, close to CTA lines, Metra, and affordable paid parking lots. 

Flexible "Unlimited" Vacation Policy: Packback offers a flexible vacation policy, with a minimum of 10 vacation days recommended. We know that "unlimited" vacations can sometimes feel like a minefield to take advantage of; we really want our employees to take time for travel, discovery, and self-care. 

Other Benefits of being a part of the Packback team: 

• Biannual paid company offsite retreats and outings (that are actually fun!). 
• Access to creative and educational events hosted at the Packback office
• Super casual dress code
• Our office pup, Pepper!

Learn about our technology stack, open source projects, career path and culture in our hiring Careers at Packback Repo.
 

Who you will be working (and learning!) with on the Engineering Team:

• Product Officer with experience in UX, user research, and product management
• Senior Frontend Engineer with 15+ years experience
• Frontend Web Content Accessibility Specialist, dedicated to making our site accessible to all users according to the WCAG 2.0 Standard
• Backend Engineer with experience in security and site reliability
• Backend Engineer with product, spec writing, and fullstack experience
• Engineering Fellow with machine learning and Data science experience
   

Our commitment to diversity:

Working in the Education Technology space, Packback believes it is an ethical necessity for us to work to build a diverse and inclusive team, to help us better consider the needs of our diverse audience of students with a wide range of educational backgrounds and educational needs.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity in our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Curious to learn more? Hear more about our mission in our founder, Jessica Tenuta's TEDx talk: