Vacancy: Lead Developer

Lead Developer

Product Department

WANTED: A Humbly Confident Lead Developer with Aspirations of Becoming a CTO

At Learning Lab Apps we build the world’s best edtech apps. We’ve built an amazing product (WorksheetCloud) that has been a huge hit with parents from day one, and we continue to grow thanks to happy users who can’t shut up about how much of a difference WorksheetCloud has made in the lives of their children (look here).

Our company is growing and we’re looking for a full-time, experienced Lead Developer to help us continue to build the best edtech app ever!

As a lead developer, you need to have the abilities and skills of a senior developer. But more. 🙂

In short, your dev, communication and management skills need to be mint. And when we say mint, we mean really top-notch or find another job.

Are YOU the person who says things like …

“We need to figure out what features our users really need.”

“Let’s build an MVP first, then test.”

“I love writing beautiful code!”

“How can we be certain that our application is going to scale nicely as we grow?”

“We need to balance the business needs against building a perfect product.”

“I try my best to be a humble leader and put the needs of my team before my own.”

If you’ve answered yes to the above, then keep reading …

You can code REALLY well, you have a keen eye for good UX/UI, you can manage the basics of dev ops, you can coach, mentor and manage less experienced developers. You have an understanding of different business functions and how tech can help a business reach it’s goals. You also have experience building SaaS products. But most importantly, you love building beautiful, useful software that real human beings will use.

The above is a very brief intro into what you’ll be doing as our new Lead Developer, but before we tell you more, you first need to know who we are and whether or not you’ll even like working with us …

Who We Are

Learning Lab Apps is an edtech company (6+ years and counting) headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, with a bunch of remote employees working all over. Currently our entire team is working remotely due to COVID-19.

We developed the top edtech app in South Africa called WorksheetCloud which helps learners prepare for school exams and class tests in Grades 1 to 12. We love education and edtech, and we exist to build apps that change children’s futures for the better. We also build apps that make parents’ lives easier and less stressful.

Our company is bootstrapped, profitable and growing. We haven’t taken on any outside funding because we’re in it for the long haul.

Our company purpose is to bring happiness to families. Quite literally, that’s why we wake up every morning. We add a bit of happiness to the lives of our users by making schoolwork a little less daunting and a lot more fun.

We have one pivotal requirement when it comes to joining our small team: that our company purpose is something that really resonates with you and makes you want to scream “hire me, I love it!”.

Let’s look at what life is like at Learning Lab Apps before going into the job details for this specific position …

Our Team

We have a small, but incredibly effective team with a diverse range of backgrounds and skills that all add up to make our company fantastic. You’re a team player? Well our team is full of exceptional people – the kind you’ll love to work with. You’re a recluse with no desire to be friendly? Then this job isn’t for you.

Note that as the lead developer you will effectively be a team of 1. You’ll take over all development from our outgoing contractor and get to build our internal dev team from the ground up as you see fit. You’ll also get to hire new devs to expand your team in the not-too-distant future.

Choose Your Hours and Your Office

We have flexible working hours designed to be mutually beneficial to both you and your role at our company. We expect you to put in 7 hours of work Monday to Friday somewhere between 8am and 5pm, but you get to choose when you start and when you end, as long as your job is done properly. You may also have the option to work remotely depending on how long you’ve been employed by our company and what your job requires. Note: This Lead Developer position is based at our Monte Vista, Cape Town office but remote work is allowed until further notice.

Take Time Off (Seriously)

You’ll get a minimum of 20 paid annual leave days every year which increases the longer you work at Learning Lab Apps. On top of that, you also get 8 extra paid leave days throughout the year to help you unwind and relax. We believe in rest and relaxation and take the mental and physical health of our team seriously.

We hardly ever work overtime. Our company culture discourages overtime work.

Learn Something New (Seriously)

We’ll pay towards classes to help you learn something new or further a skill that helps you advance in your career. We take learning and growth seriously.

Read, Rock Out or Binge-watch

Stay entertained on us. Love reading, listening to music or watching movies and series? We provide free access to Amazon Kindle, Google Play and Netflix to help you unwind.

Bonus!

We have a bonus plan based on profitability that you’ll be in on from day one. Learning Lab Apps wins, you win.

Get Treated Like an Adult

We’re all adults. There’s no need to punch a clock, or ask for permission to take off early one afternoon to go see the doctor. We look at what you’re accomplishing, not how long you sit in front of a computer.

Change Lives Through Education

You’ll sleep well at night knowing that the work you’re doing has a direct impact on the education and future of tens of thousands of children, as well as reducing anxiety and stress on parents. Everybody wins.

Now, back to you, our potential Lead Developer …

Let’s reiterate: You can code REALLY well, you have a keen eye for good UX/UI, you can manage the basics of dev ops, you can coach, mentor and manage less experienced developers. You have an understanding of different business functions and how tech can help a business reach it’s goals. You also have experience building SaaS products. But most importantly, you love building beautiful, useful software that real human beings will use.

You are an experienced developer who can write solid code and you don’t mind doing the “grunt work” until the opportunity arises to expand your team, at which point your daily responsibilities will evolve from purely coding to more of a focus on coding and dev team leadership.

If you’ve launched a beautiful SaaS product but it can’t scale, is it really a success? You know how to answer this one.

To this end, you love looking at data to figure out what users really need in order to successfully use a product. You love getting feedback from users (even when it’s negative) and you know how to pivot a feature when it’s necessary. You’re keen to immerse yourself with user data and know how to analyse patterns in order to make a product better.

While you might be an evangelist for certain languages or tools, you understand the fine balance between “perfection” and “meeting business needs on time”. You’re OCD, but you’re also able to move past imperfection when you need to in order to progress and achieve a goal.

You have experience building “full” solutions as well as a very good understanding of high-level architectural design and patterns. You’re also quick to outline and refine the steps to turn MVPs into full scale products.

You are uber-technically-minded and can help us evaluate, integrate and implement new technology as it comes on the scene, and more importantly you know how to say no to new technology.

This is a new position with a lot of unchartered territory and we’ll look to you to be creative, collaborative, proactive, and communicative. Our product goals for the next 12 months are ambitious and this role will be a big player in Learning Lab Apps’ growth.

It’s all about SaaS and getting WorksheetCloud to turn users (learners and parents) into long-term customers and reduce churn. And you’ll be responsible for the tech that helps us achieve this.

Disclaimer: we’re on the hunt for a current lead who has the ability to turn into a Chief Technology Officer in the future. So there is huge growth potential in this position, if you’re the right person.

Who you’ll be working with …

As our new Lead Developer you’ll form part of the Product Team which means you’ll work with the following people on a regular basis:

Adrian
Adrian is our Product Manager and CEO. He is ultimately responsible for customer development and leading the direction of the product.

Aiden
Aiden is our Lead Designer. He takes care of UX/UI and specs new features and ideas.

Nadia
Nadia is our Curriculum Manager and is accountable for managing and leading the team of teachers who create the curriculum content for the product.

And other folk too …
Over and above the Product Team, you’ll have direct communication with our Customer Service Team and Administration Team. You’ll also be invited to high-level company strategy meetings as your position as Lead Dev will be integral to executive strategy and planning.

Requirements

You’ll need to have ALL these qualifications and qualities in order to be considered for this position. These are non-negotiable:

Dev Experience:

  • You have at least 5 years of professional experience building web applications that use a relational database.
  • You have agile software development experience.
  • You know how to design a DB data schema and can identify and resolve DB performance issues.
  • You can perform basic Linux administration tasks.
  • You have excellent debugging skills in production software. You know how to find problems, and how to architect apps so that problems are discoverable in the first place.
  • You can reason about, and implement, software that is an appropriate solution to the problem that the business needs to be solved.
  • You know how to balance “build versus buy” trade-offs.
  • You favour outcome over input.
  • You have a strong bias for delivering software into production.
  • You believe strongly in automated tests and you practice TDD.
  • You believe that pragmatism trumps purity.
  • You believe in well-commented, well-documented code.

Business Experience:

  • You understand cross-functional businesses and have solid experience working with people from multiple different teams and departments in a company.
  • You understand the importance of customer development (research) and can point to products where you’ve been involved with this.
  • You know how to prioritise a product roadmap to balance customer needs vs business needs.
  • You have solid experience leading a development team.
  • You have solid experience in project management, planning and time management.
  • Exceptionally well organised (really top-notch self-admin skills).

Qualifications and Education:

  • Matric certificate with minimum C symbol for English Home Language OR minimum B symbol for English Additional Language.
  • Very strong comprehension, written and verbal communication skills (impeccable spelling and grammar).

More Stuff:

  • Ability to work from our Monte Vista, Cape Town office Monday to Friday, with the potential flexibility to work remotely in the future. (Note: You will be required to work remotely during lockdown and until further notice).
  • You aspire to become (or are already) a humble, but confident CTO.
  • People often tell you how hilarious and kind you are.
  • An absolutely clear ability to motivate why you are destined to become our next Lead Developer.

BONUS (these are not requirements, but we’ll like you more if this is you):

  • We’ve built WorksheetCloud using PHP Laravel and Angular. So if you’ve got experience in these, it’s a plus.
  • When you were in school, you thought it sucked. You felt it should be more engaging and relevant, and while you cannot do anything to change your past schooling, you’re excited about the prospect of changing education for the better for the next generation.
  • The ability to brew an awesome cup of tea for the CEO.

Position Details

Level: Senior Position

Remuneration: Depending on experience, between R70k to R85k salary per month, as well as up to a 100% annual performance bonus.

Perks: *7 hour work day, 28 days paid leave, internet connectivity allowance, free Netflix, Google Play and Kindle, continuing education opportunities, and hardly any traffic to the office (depending where you’re coming from)

*Note: you may be required to work 8 hour days during your probation period.

Location: Learning Lab Apps Development Office in Monte Vista, Cape Town (possibility to work remotely in the future) – NOTE: currently all employees are working remotely

Employment type: Permanent Full Time

Start date: Negotiable

Department: Product

Reports to: Product Manager

Learning Lab Apps supports workplace diversity and does not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital status, physical or mental disability, or any other protected class. However, if you spell “colour” or “optimise” like an American, we reserve the right to laugh at you at best, or fire you at worst if you continue doing it.

How to Apply

Our application process works like this:

  1. Read the entire job advertisement above to ensure that you are the right fit for this position.
  2. Complete the online application here.
  3. If you are shortlisted, you will be asked to complete a basic English language test (written communication, verbal communication, listening skills).
  4. If you pass our language test, you will be invited to a formal interview as well as take part in some practical tests so that we can determine your suitability for this position. Start practicing how to brew the perfect cup of tea!