Experienced Software Developer

Job Opportunity: Experienced Software Developer at Vanags IT

Location: Sigulda, Latvia (Remote work with occasional office visits)

Backend: Rails API App

Frontend: VueJS 3

Vanags IT, based in the scenic town of Sigulda, Latvia, develops a robust well established web application for a German partner. We operate with a flat hierarchy, valuing open communication and a solution-oriented approach.

Small, collaborative team including the founder, 2 junior developers, and 2 experienced developers from India plus this position.

We are using Linear and Slack to manage and track tasks in cycles and are working mostly remote. Because the team is small, we are keeping in close contact to specify and review development. Fair bidirectional communication and a proactive stance are necessary to operate in this "informal" way. There are structures in place, but they are evolving on demand.

Key responsibilities include code development, maintenance, refactoring. The software is 7 years old and underwent several structural updates, so it is quite clean and easy to maintain. We have a small (2000 tests) rspec test suite that needs attention. We need a developer with initiative and experience in object-oriented development. I don't value "of the book" knowledge, but practical, solution-oriented and maintainable code. An open mind and a good balance between detail awareness, diligence, and feature-relevant orientation. Things need to be accomplished, but they need to be done well. Instead of SQL, we are using a MongoDB, which is non-standard. The Rails app is just an API, while the frontend is a stand-alone VueJS application. The API adheres to the JSON API Specification.

It matters what the candidate delivers, how well they comprehend code architectures, and how well they can track and manage multidimensional requirements such as: code cleanliness in syntax and semantics, code structure and organization, performance, and maintainability. I don't require formal certification, but you should be prepared to discuss and review code samples.

Typical employment benefits will be in place. Due to the rather informal and partnership-like relationship, you will maintain a considerable amount of freedom. I will try to integrate your skills into the team and cater to your interests and strengths as much as possible. I have an open ear and consider myself a fair player. I am not very familiar with typical compensation in Latvia, but I am willing to pay a fair amount for a good developer. I am open to discussing this with you.

We have a beautiful but rather small office in Sigulda. Personal appearance is less likely necessary the more experienced you are. Personal interactions will establish better mutual understanding which in turn will improve communication so, occasional office visits are required especially in the beginning. Coffee, lunch and snacks will be on the company. I don't count peas.

With a relatively mature backend, we are moving to refactor the application to be a configuration-based software. The CRUD operations, for example, are each handled with a resource-agnostic class. We are currently building a custom generator to create the file structure needed to engage CRUD endpoints automatically. We also developed a custom authorization mechanism that is working quite well. Performance enhancements (via Mongo aggregations) and a few custom designated frontend endpoints are about to be developed. Instead of writing tests ourselves, we would appreciate a developer who can develop infrastructure and develop an AI agent for our testsuite. Initiative for performance enhancements and code quality improvements are appreciated.

Our team currently consists only of males, which is more due to circumstance than preference. I personally don't care about your background as long as you have self-respect, take care of your well-being, and treat others fairly.

Email us at [email protected].

You don't have to waste time with a tedious and generic application process. You should introduce yourself in a natural manner and explain your motivation to work with us. I would then look at code that I wrote and you wrote, discuss your opinion about code and software and get a personal feel. I would like to hire asap.