Principal Software Engineer (Ruby on Rails)
Published on June 10, 2024
Ameelio was launched at the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Two Yale students, Uzoma "Zo" Orchingwa and Gabe Saruhashi saw the effects that family separation and isolation had on incarcerated individuals and their families. Zo and Gabe went on to launch the fist and only nonprofit provider of incarcerated persons communication services (IPCS). They envisioned Ameelio as an ecosystem of prison communications that enable loved ones to communicate with their incarcerated family members, and a powerful advocate taking on the billion-dollar IPCS industry, dominated by two exploitative companies.
We are a team of technologists, advocates, designers, lawyers, and engineers who are committed to fundamentally transforming the correctional system for the better. At the core of our work is an understanding that poverty is a key driver of mass incarceration. 50% of prisoners have no earnings in the eight years leading up to their incarceration. In the year immediately preceding the imprisonment, that percentage jumps to 80%.
We are and will always strive to be one of the boldest and most innovative approaches to criminal justice reform, not only because of our ability to build powerful technology to tackle the most challenging problems in the space but also because our tools are informed by the profound understanding that sustainable decarceration is only possible if we provide the incarcerated with the vital resources and pathways that they lacked prior to incarceration (i.e. educational equity, economic mobility, societal support, and more).
Technology is rapidly transforming the world around us; we intend to use it to solve one of society’s greatest social crises — mass incarceration.
- Technical Leadership:
- Lead the technical implementation of the product, ensuring high-quality, scalable, and maintainable code.
- Provide technical direction and mentorship to other engineers.
- Oversee prioritization and maintenance of technical debt.
- Product Management:
- Collaborate with the product team to define and prioritize feature development.
- Become a product expert and provide insights that guide development.
- Work with designers and product managers to plan, estimate, and deliver new features.
- Canvas LMS Integration:
- Leverage your expertise or quickly gain proficiency in Canvas LMS.
- Implement and oversee integrations with Canvas LMS and other relevant educational platforms.
- Team Collaboration:
- Foster a collaborative and positive team environment.
- Mentor junior engineers, providing guidance on best practices and career growth.
- Proven experience as a Principal Engineer or similar leadership role.
- Required Skills:
- Strong proficiency in Ruby on Rails.
- Deep understanding of software engineering best practices.
- Excellent problem-solving and debugging skills.
- Experience working with PostgreSQL or similar relational database
- Familiarity with container technology (like Docker)
- Willingness to learn/use basic Kubernetes (kubectl) to troubleshoot deployed environments, get Pod logs, etc.
- Preferred Skills:
- Familiarity with Canvas LMS
- Experience working with applications in Kubernetes is a big plus. You don’t need to be hacking operators, but if you can check the status of running Pods, read logs, and understand basics about how the application is running, you’ll have a much easier time getting up to speed.
- Experience working in the EdTech or non-profit sector, not required at all but can be helpful
- Soft Skills:
- Effective communication and team leadership abilities.
- Ability to thrive in a collaborative and mission-driven environment.
- Comfortable taking sometimes ambiguous requests/requirements and through collaborative engagement, defining them and turning them into work tickets.
- Competitive salary and benefits package.
- Opportunity to contribute to a meaningful mission that positively (and measurably) impacts society.
- Ability to strongly shape the development/outcome of the product, lay a sustainable foundation, and set the team up for long-term success.
- Be an early part of a high-impact startup that has a bright future ahead of it.
- Work with a talented, passionate team committed to making a difference.
- Enjoy a great work/life balance