To figure out if Spantree might be right for you, we’ve answered a few key questions that might help you decide. Our answers are by no means comprehensive but we think they’re a good start.

Are you actively hiring right now?

Yes! We’re looking to grow our full-time team with smart people and good communicators, ideally folks that have some experience or interest in our technology and practices. We are currently looking for Senior Software Engineers.

What do you look for in a new hire?

Strong communication skills. We’re constantly working alongside people with widely ranging technical backgrounds over many mediums. Sometimes we’re in the same room as a client stakeholder with no technical expertise and sometimes it’s a pairing session over Zoom with a DevOps guru. The ability to adapt and communicate well under different contexts is critical for success.

A passion for learning. We’re constantly experimenting with new technology, so you should be ready to regularly learn new things and help others learn as well. This can be overwhelming (and really amplifies imposter syndrome) but we’re all in the same place. “I don’t know” is one of the most important and valuable phrases we use daily because it opens doors to group learning.

Openness and flexibility. We aim for stability, but we’re a small shop with diverse clients so the ability to roll with the punches and be flexible is key. Our clients rely on us in times of uncertainty and change and we need to be able to keep our heads on and work towards solutions when things go sideways.

An interest in being involved. We don’t have it all figured out yet, so we want you to be looking for ways to proactively contribute and help our team grow. This could be anything from recognizing and vocalizing a project management bottleneck to championing linter configurations for projects to organizing a game night when everyone is in town.

A nice person. Juggling everything we have to do is hard enough as it is without people being jerks.

I’m a junior engineer. Is there room for me?

We are all junior at something. What makes an effective junior at Spantree is a passion for exploration. We are Humble and Curious. If we’re not an expert, we’ll be the first ones to tell you. We are at our best when we are learning and teaching together. To that end, people are successful at Spantree when they feel empowered to ask for help. Wherever you want to go as a person, Spantree is fully invested in getting you there.

How much will I work?

We emphasize work-life balance and we typically make ourselves available to clients 9-5, Monday through Friday. Since we’re dealing with all sorts of software in production, there will be times that we’ll need to jump in after hours to mitigate a production emergency or deploy some code, but this is the exception, not the rule.

What will I do besides writing code?

We like to say Spantree is a place where you will wear many hats. As much as we all enjoy designing architectures, building systems, and writing code, there are other tasks to get a project over the finish line that we all pitch in on. This could be...

• Jumping on a sales call to explain why a serverless architecture fits a prospective client’s domain
• Speccing out a project and writing a corresponding Statement of Work (SOW)
• Crafting and delivering regular status communications with a client to effectively manage projects

Outside of client-focused work, we also like to foster a rich internal culture where we knowledge share and stay connected. To this end you could find yourself...

• Building and participating in a curriculum to spin team members up on a new skill
• Writing a blog post on your experience at the Strange Loop Conference
• Presenting a new tool you’ve been playing with to the team on our weekly demo day
• Brainstorming with an internal team on website personas to contribute to our marketing efforts

Will I be able to have a life outside of work?

Our team members have interests and hobbies that are all over the map, from playing jazz to skiing. While it is not uncommon to have deep technical discussions on our Slack late at night, they are always opt-in. We encourage a sense of ownership over your project, never the other way around. Need a day to recover? Take it. Want a day to work from home? We do every Wednesday. The best ideas come from teams with different outlooks and we value your time gaining life experiences. We encourage you to have a life outside of work (and outside of tech!). We believe that it enriches your point of view and that helps you be better at everything, including stuff you do for your day job.

What technology do I need to be familiar with before I start working at Spantree?

This is a tricky question to answer because we come from all different backgrounds. You can take a look at our technology page to get an example of the things we have skills in across the team, but in general it helps if you are comfortable using:

• One or more emergent languages: Kotlin, Scala, Go, Elixir, Reason, TypeScript, etc.
• One or more established languages: Java, Javascript, Python, Ruby, C#, PHP, etc.
• One or more frameworks: Apollo, Serverless, Spring, Rails, Phoenix, Django, Play, React, Angular, Vue, etc.
• One or more database ecosystems: SQL, document, key-value, graph; we like it all.
• Git, or a colorful excuse for not knowing it.

We build things on the internet, so if you build things on the internet, too, there’s probably some overlap in technology or approach.

What’s awesome about working for Spantree? What's challenging?

It’s hard to answer this one because what brings you energy and what drains your energy is a fairly personal thing. Even trickier is that many times, aspects of our work can do both.

What are benefits like?

We’ve got all the standard benefits like...

• A great health and dental plan (100% covered by Spantree and 50% covered for spouses and dependents)
• Paid time off
• Life insurance
• Long term disability
• 401(K) plan with matching

We also provide a ton of great non-standard benefits like...

• Lunches during the week at our office
• Optional work from home Wednesdays
• Offset the cost of learning materials like books or an online course
• Cover the cost of a conference of your choice

We also want to make sure that you have everything you need to get your work done including...

• Fully-loaded Macbook Pro
• Large monitor
• Standing desk (if that’s your thing)
• Membership at a co-working space if you work remotely (and need to get out of the house every once in a while)

How do I let you know I’m interested in a job?

If you like what you just read and are interested in starting a conversation, shoot us an email at roles@spantree.net with the following information:

• Why you’re interested in working with us
• Your resume
• Link to your GitHub or other portfolio work, if it’s public

Or, use this form to help you do just that: