Senior Front-End Engineer (m/f/d) — Design Systems and Tooling @ ResearchGate
This is a full-time position based in Berlin
The Mission
The web was created by scientists, to foster scientific collaboration and drive progress for a better world. Here at ResearchGate, we’re looking for a committed front-end engineer to join our Design Systems and Tooling team. We are a bunch of passionate optimists from all around the world and many different backgrounds. Together, we focus on taking the web back to its original mission and changing the way scientists communicate for the better.
We love what we do. We connect the world of science and make research open to all.
The Opportunity
Work with impact At ResearchGate your input can help over 15 million scientists and researchers to solve global challenges. Whether studying the first moments of our universe or tracking global warming, our users are making a real difference.
Building at scale Building at scale means to create solutions that facilitate an end-to-end design workflow that enables designers and engineers in over a dozen product teams to continuously ship reliable features and great user experiences.
Grow at work At ResearchGate we put people first. You’ll join an environment where your personal development is our number one priority. In regular one on ones, quarterly feedback talks and annual check-ins you and your manager will identify possible paths for you to grow and the right amount of guidance needed to reach your goals. We provide education budget and free days to attend conferences to make sure you can gain knowledge in the fields you are most interested in.
Have ownership As a member of the Design Systems and Tooling team, you’re given the opportunity to own medium to long-term initiatives and potentially entire solutions. Your thinking, your processes, and execution will be key to the success of new ideas.
The Requirements
To be successful in the role of a Senior Front-end Engineer Design Systems and Tooling at ResearchGate folks will need to have:
- Deep understanding of JavaScript and CSS principles and architecture
- Expert knowledge on React ecosystems needed to build rich front-end applications and scalable design systems
- Common understanding of accessibility best practices
- Experience working with tools to orchestrate, test, build, release and publish your work (e.g. webpack, yarn, lerna, npm, node, babel, jest, eslint, jenkins, etc.)
- Passion for the nitty gritty details that create great user experience
You’ll join an environment where people come first. Your increasing scope of ownership and autonomy will be one metric to your successful personal development. You can expect that…
- in 3 months you’ll be able to work completely independent, creating small to medium features while continuing to gain insights into our ecosystem via pair programming.
- in 6 months you’ll actively drive mid-term goals, give meaningful feedback to your colleagues in code reviews, and actively contribute to the core processes and best practices of your team.
- in 1 year you’ll become an expert and own an entire product in the range of our solutions. You’ll create and manage roadmaps, coordinate contributors and stakeholders, and constantly identify new opportunities.
The Team
You will join a dedicated Design Systems & Tooling team that works at the intersection of design and technology and is shaping the future of ResearchGate’s UX. We’re experts in creating scalable cross-platform design systems and tools that bridge the gap between design and engineering. Our mission is to create solutions that facilitate an end-to-end design story lifecycle so that designers, engineers and copywriters are enabled to collaborate closely and ship features that make a real difference.
Meet the crew:
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Nika is our CSS specialist. She knows how to make things flex across platforms, devices, and other distant galaxies.
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Ryen’s focus is on design tooling. His solutions are like superglue that connects designers and engineers.
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Tim is our architect. He decodes our most complex problems and makes rocket science easy to understand for everyone.
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Roland is the captain. If this was a Hollywood movie, he’s the one willing to sacrifice himself for the crew.
Achievements
In the past four years we’ve bootstrapped and championed a design system for the web and emails. With custom tools like plugins for Sketch or a tailored design-to-engineering handoff solution, we’re facilitating an end-to-end design workflow that is relying on the design system’s codebase without becoming overwhelming for designers. This makes us one of the few UX organisations worldwide to have successfully established code as the single source of truth on standards for both designers and engineers. You can read more about it over here on Medium:
Challenges
There are countless opportunities for you to make an impact. Next on our road-map is to further improve the design-to-engineering handoff by turning it into a one-stop-shop for engineers with all the resources needed to translate designs into functional features. That includes copywriting deliverables, accessibility instructions, static assets and code snippets of individual elements.
Designing and prototyping with real data is in high demand. Instead of using just any kind of data, we want to be able to use our own data to create high fidelity prototypes for user tests and more realistic designs that can stand the test once they are implemented. Our goal is to seamlessly integrate the possibility to access and spread this kind of data into the designer’s toolbox.
Our Story
ResearchGate was founded in 2008 by three friends who believed it was possible to connect all of the world’s scientists.
We started out with just a handful of members. By 2011, one million ResearchGate members discussed their research questions and shared advice on the then newly launched forums.
By 2015, four complete rounds of financing had fueled ResearchGate’s growth and investors included Benchmark Capital, Founders Fund, Bill Gates, Tenaya Capital, Goldman Sachs, Wellcome Trust, and Four Rivers Group.
Today, 15 million scientists connect on the network, collaborate, and share their research. They report on their research as it happens and get feedback to make progress faster. They post 500 questions and give 2000 answers daily. They find jobs that fit their interests and research profiles. They connect to universities and companies through advertising solutions.
We’re now closer than ever to fulfilling our mission to connect the world of science and make research open to all.
Hiring Process
Our hiring process is transparent and uncomplicated. You’ll have a chat with one of our recruiters as the first step. Instead of expecting you to work on a take-home assignment for hours by yourself, we’re going to pair-program together with you on-site where you’ll also meet the people you’ll be working with. With respect to your time we might ask you to complete a concise online questionnaire upfront.
We’re located in the heart of Berlin, one of the most exciting cities in the world and a place where people from all walks of life feel welcome.
If you are interested please DM me or apply over here: https://www.researchgate.net/careers/senior-front-end-engineer-design-systems-and-tooling-m-f-d-5c2bfe6d-8950-4d2b-b55d-8b3a10ff3a2a
