We’re hiring a backend developer

Datawrapper’s mission is to help the world create better visualizations. We provide an easy-to-use, free online tool to create charts, maps, and tables. It’s used by thousands of people every day, among them brands like The New York Times, Quartz, or FiveThirtyEight.

To help us fulfill our mission, we are hiring a Backend Developer (4-5 days per week).

You can join remotely (in the time zones around Berlin, so GMT, CET, or EET) or get a desk in our Berlin office, as soon as the team is back there.

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for a motivated, self-directed developer to join our small team to help us provide the best data visualization tool possible. You might be a good fit if you…

• bring strong experience in web backend development and an understanding of the web as a platform.
• value high-quality, maintainable code, and have an appreciation for sound software architecture.
• are able to balance speed of iteration and quality of code. We follow best practices such as automated testing and code review, and we don’t expect you to reinvent the wheel — we use libraries and tools to get things done quickly without compromising on reliability, usability, or accessibility.
• are comfortable with quickly picking up new tools and languages needed for the task at hand.

You do not need to have experience with all the particular parts of our stack. We are looking for somebody who can comfortably orient themselves in a new codebase with an existing architecture.

What you’ll do

In your day-to-day work, you will…

• implement new backend functionality that will get used by thousands of journalists, editors, and authors worldwide.
• improve the performance, reliability, and security of Datawrapper’s backend services.
• collaborate closely with our frontend engineering, design, and support teams.

Our stack

Our technology stack is based on…

• a NodeJS/ES backend, using the hapi framework and Sequelize as an ORM.
• a MySQL database and S3 as the backend data stores, as well as Redis for caching.
• Docker for local installations.
• hosting on AWS and Cloudflare.

In addition to that, we have some legacy components written in PHP, which are being ported to NodeJS at the moment. For collaboration, we use Notion for project management, GitHub to manage our repositories and code reviews, and Slack for direct communication.

Company mission

Datawrapper wants to help the world create better charts and maps. Initially born out of frustration over how long it takes to create a simple bar chart in a fast-paced newsroom environment, Datawrapper has since grown in functionality to cover dozens of chart types, maps, and tables.

We aim to empower users to create both more and better charts and maps. Be it a journalist at a newspaper, an analyst at a bank, or a public servant in a government department, we want to enable everyone to create beautiful and correct graphics — regardless of their skill level.

Life at Datawrapper

We’re a small team of 17, with a shared passion for design and data visualization. We value a quiet, focused work environment, and have a healthy disregard for distractions, unnecessary meetings, and open-office floor plans. Every employee gets 30 days of vacation per year and an education budget to (for example) go to conferences or buy books.

How to apply

To apply, send us an email at jobs@datawrapper.de. We don’t particularly care about CVs, just skills and attitude. Here’s what we’d like you to include in your email:

• Please talk a bit about yourself and how your skills and experience could be a good fit for this job.
• If possible, please include links to samples of your prior work (for example, links to projects you’ve worked on, open-source work on GitHub, etc.)
• Also make sure to include all the questions that you might have for us.

→ Send it all to jobs@datawrapper.de

As part of the application process, we will provide a take-home software development exercise for applicants who are selected to interview. It should take less than a few hours to complete, and the results will be discussed in a follow-up call with us. Its purpose is to help us understand your thinking, and to help you understand our values and priorities and determine if it’s a good fit.

We hope you apply, especially if you’re from a group that’s underrepresented in our office. If you have any questions, please let us know — we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

David, Gregor, and the Datawrapper team