BECOME OWNLOCAL'S NEXT FRONT END ENGINEER

About Us

Founded in 2011 out of Y Combinator, OwnLocal serves local businesses by providing digital advertising and marketing products to newspaper media companies. Our technology establishes and expands the online presence and reach of hundreds of thousands of local businesses around the globe by bringing their print advertising online.

2018 will be an exciting new year for OwnLocal as we bring new products to market that customers will love. We are also looking to expand beyond the newspaper industry while continuing to empower local news to survive. It’s an exciting time to join OwnLocal in a high-growth stage and the opportunity is unparalleled.

About You

We are looking for thoughtful, creative software developers who can build the future of engineering at OwnLocal. Our core values are Ownership, Transparency, and Growth. We expect everyone on the team to demonstrate these values, and we commit to enabling these values throughout the organization. We also value new perspectives, innovation, and respect. If you’re inspired by the chance to grow in your career, do great work, and collaborate with a talented and welcoming team, you should join us.

While our software has been historically built with Ruby on Rails, we have started transitioning into a more service-oriented ecosystem, using technologies such as AWS Lambda, Node.js, Elasticsearch, and React. (But we also know when good old-fashioned Rails will get the job done right). You’re probably a good fit for us if any or all of these apply to you:

• You have enough experience with Rails to tell us your ambivalent feelings about it.
• You know when to use a relational databases vs. NoSQL and can explain your reasons to us.
• You understand and can navigate much of the JavaScript framework landscape.
• You’ve worked in teams across the full software development lifecycle.
• You care about software design but also know when YAGNI.




We strive to move fast and (try not to) break things. We believe that the truth lies somewhere between 100% unit test coverage and merging into master in the middle of the night without a PR. We use style guides and linters for good hygiene, but tabs and spaces are both welcome. (We’ll just convert those pesky tabs into spaces for ‘ya!) We also believe perfection is the enemy of the good, so while we follow best practices as often as possible, we don’t allow ourselves to get too hung up on them.




While our software has been historically built with Ruby on Rails, we have started transitioning into a more service-oriented ecosystem, using technologies such as AWS Lambda, Node.js, Elasticsearch, and React. (But we also know when good old-fashioned Rails will get the job done right). You’re probably a good fit for us if any or all of these apply to you:

About OwnLocal CultureOwnLocal has a culture of ownership, humor, and mastery. Our team is small enough that you can see how your work affects the bottom line, and large enough to be stable. We have a partially centralized approach - we appreciate that some people do their best work at 2 AM and while certain things have to be done during business hours, we're not worried about your butt in a seat; we're worried about getting things done and that's what you will be judged on. We like to experiment. We're proud to make mistakes (but more proud of our successes). We're always trying to get better. People who work for us are expected to question the way we do things. If you're not willing to fight for what's right, stop reading this now. Get Started NowIn addition to all the cliché perks and benefits that tech startups provide, we’ll outfit you with whatever equipment you need, provide catered lunch daily, an unlimited Starbucks card (sorry, coffee snobs--you’ll have to buy your own Medici), stellar health benefits, competitive salaries, paid public transit, and a set of other benefits unique to OwnLocal that make it a pleasure to work here. If you’re ready for new opportunity and career growth, we look forward to hearing from you. We promise to be respectful of your time and will move as quickly as possible through the process to a decision. Our process will consist of a very selective filtering of candidates (be sure to represent yourself well when applying), an initial phone conversation with someone on our engineering team (expect 30-45 minutes), an onsite interview (expect a few hours in our downtown Austin office), and then an offer.