Apprentice Ruby on Rails Developer (Europe, West Asia, Africa)

thoughtbot is looking for an Apprentice Ruby on Rails Developer to join our team. The apprenticeship is our position for people early in their career that provides structured support and mentorship to get you to the point where you are promoted to be a billable thoughtbot Developer. It is ideal for intermediate Ruby on Rails developers looking to build upon their already strong foundation.

Since 2011 we have worked with well over 50 apprentices. Some members of our leadership team started at thoughtbot as apprentices. The majority of people who join us as an apprentice developer are already working as a developer. You can read more about Apprenticeship at thoughtbot.

thoughtbot is a remote company. This is a fully-remote, full-time position. We're looking for teammates who overlap with our clients' working hours. This position is available to anyone in Europe, West Asia, and Africa time zones (UTC-2 through UTC+3). If you live in a country that has a work week other than Monday through Friday, you are welcome to follow that work week.

We are committed to ensuring a representative applicant pool before we begin reviewing applications. We will stop accepting applications on or shortly after April 28th. The targeted start date for this role is July 2023.

Salary and benefits vary by location. Please view the annual Apprentice salary and benefits for where you live in our compensation calculator.

As a thoughtbot apprentice, you will be paired with a thoughtbot mentor to set goals and grow your skills. You will build upon your existing experience as a Ruby on Rails developer and strengthen your consulting skills while working alongside your mentor. You will rotate mentors monthly and gain exposure to a variety of client projects. Additionally, you will work on special projects designed to give you additional time and training toward the goals you set with your mentor. This combination of rotations and individual projects enhances the learning process by exposing you to new client projects and new people, while also allowing you to reapply what you've learned in a new context.

The apprenticeship is a full-time paid position. We expect apprentices to be promoted to the developer role after approximately 3 months. You can use the compensation calculator above to see the salary range for the designer role in your location. Newly promoted developers are typically at the start of the range.

We believe that it is possible to continuously learn and improve the way people work while building higher-quality products that make positive contributions to the world. We work with companies in every step of the product development and maintenance process to help identify and solve problems. We lead and participate in product design sprints, build high-quality apps, and then deploy them.

We proactively work on improving diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at thoughtbot. We aim to maintain an inclusive work environment where everyone can thrive professionally, as well as have full lives outside of work. Read about our DEI efforts in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion section of our Playbook. We acknowledge that DEI work is never done and that we will make mistakes along the way. We are continuously working on learning, and improving ourselves, and the company.

We work hard to ensure that we only accept people that we believe will be successful as an apprentice and will be promoted to developer. The majority of people who join us as an apprentice have already held a position working as a developer.

Ruby on Rails developers are promoted from an apprenticeship when they are very comfortable building and shipping Rails & JavaScript applications while doing fully test-driven development along the way.

We find that well-qualified web developer apprentices will be:

Additionally, you possess our desired character strengths: good communicator, demonstrates initiative, motivated, enthusiastic, focused, composed, curious, optimistic, displays grit, emotionally intelligent, and conveys gratitude.

Well-qualified candidates value diversity, equity, and inclusion, and contributing to an inclusive working and learning environment.

We especially appreciate candidates that demonstrate commitment to valuing DEI and contributing to an inclusive working and learning environment. We also understand that not everyone has had the opportunity to commit to this work, and that’s okay.

We encourage you to apply even if you don’t match 100% of the requirements. Let us know if you need any specific accommodations during the interview process.

The earliest we will start reviewing applications for the apprentice Ruby on Rails developer role starting in July 2023 is 27 April 2023. We will review all applications submitted in a batch. We have one position available for July 2023, and we anticipate that we will get more qualified applicants than available positions. The overall application and selection timeline for Apprenticeships starting in late July 2023 is as follows:

The earliest we will start reviewing applications is 28 April. We will begin reviewing applications on or after that date.

Benefits vary by location, but all team members accrue at least 20 paid annual leave/vacation days per year and receive paid holidays and paid sick days. thoughtbot ensures at least 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave for birthing parents, and at least 6 weeks of fully paid parental leave for non-birthing parents. All new parents have the ability to take up to at least 6 months off by combining different types of leaves. In addition to country-specific benefits, all team members receive a monthly remote work stipend to offset the cost of internet, electricity, etc., and a remote workspace budget to set up their workspace. Please see our benefits page to learn more about benefits for team members located in your country.

Our team works in a relaxed and educational environment to develop excellent products for our clients. We work at a sustainable pace of 40 hours/week. We also reserve at least 4 weeks per year for investing in ourselves, the company, and our community. Everything we do is predicated on having a great team and a culture of growth. We use the latest technologies and are always down to try new methods on both internal and client projects.

thoughtbot does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, age, national origin, marital status, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other reason prohibited by law in provision of employment opportunities and benefits.

thoughtbot does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than directly from a candidate. Any unsolicited resumes not originating directly from a candidate and sent to thoughtbot or any thoughtbot's employees, including unsolicited resumes sent to a thoughtbot mailing address or email address, are rejected. thoughtbot will NOT pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume. thoughtbot considers any candidate for whom the recruiter has submitted an unsolicited resume referred by the company free of any fees.