We’re hiring a senior 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, The Washington Post, and FiveThirtyEight.

We strive to make best-practice data visualization available to everybody. A large part of that happens behind the scenes, in server-side, backend, and infrastructure development.

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To help us fulfill our mission, we are hiring a Senior 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. The compensation for this role will be between 60,000 and 90,000 euros per year, including 30 days of paid vacation and benefits. You can choose between regular full-time employment (5d/week), or a 4-day workweek on 80% salary.

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We’re looking for someone with practical experience in building modern backend and server-side software for web applications.

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.

For collaboration, we use Notion for project management, GitHub to manage our repositories and code reviews, and Slack for direct communication.

Who we’re looking for

You might be a good fit if you…

• bring strong experience in web backend development, and have built and maintained web application backends before.
• 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, continuous integration, and code reviews.
• 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.

Who uses Datawrapper?

Visualizations created with Datawrapper reach over 200 million unique visitors every month and get viewed billions of times. Our chart editor is used by tens of thousands of users — writers, statisticians, data scientists, public servants, financial analysts, and many more. But our most prominent and visible customers are newsrooms. Datawrapper is used by data visualization teams at organizations like The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, FiveThirtyEight, and many more.

We build and support Datawrapper with a team of under 20 people, which gives everyone a critical and important role in shaping the future of our company.

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What to expect from working at Datawrapper

A happy work life! Datawrapper team members appreciate a shared feeling of doing meaningful work, a high degree of freedom, their helpful coworkers, and a nice work environment.

• Competitive compensation and benefits, including:
  • salary between 60,000 and 90,000 euros per year, on a full-time employment contract
  • 30 days of paid vacation
  • annual 2,000 euro education budget
  • the latest and greatest hardware of your choice.
• Growth, development, and personal initiative. We’re a small startup, which means there are lots of opportunities to grow and learn. If you’ve got an idea and the drive to make it happen, we welcome it.
• Few meetings. We try to keep meetings infrequent and short. Instead, we believe in written discussions, good meeting preparation, and short 1:1 check-ins.

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Application & interview process

We don’t believe in whiteboard coding or leetcode challenges. The application process will consist of 1-2 non-technical interviews with our tech leads, a paid one-day take-home assignment, and a cultural fit interview with the wider development team.

We care deeply about finding the right people to join our team and company, but also strive to be respectful of your time and attention.

How to apply

Does all of this sound like something you’d like to do? Great! Send along your CV and tell us about your previous experience and how you think it makes you a good fit for this role.

→ Send it all to jobs@datawrapper.de with the subject line “Senior Backend Developer”

We hope you apply, especially if you’re from a group that’s underrepresented in our office.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

David, Gregor, and the Datawrapper team