The company
Prolific (www.prolific.ac)
brings people together to power the world’s research. It is the first
scientific, highly scalable, ethical participant recruitment platform
for researchers around the world. Quantitative and qualitative
researchers, data scientists, and entrepreneurs all need valid and
reliable data sources to make predictions about human behaviour, social
change, and global developments. Thanks to our online platform,
researchers collect responses fast and participants earn cash rewards
for themselves or for charity. It takes 5 minutes to start data
collection, there's no middleman, and the product easily integrates with
any survey software. In a world of unreliable results, Prolific makes
data trustworthy and connects the public with science.
The role
At the core of Prolific is our fast growing platform, which connects
thousands of researchers with tens of thousands of participants. This
allows researchers to screen for samples of verified participants,
manage the process of running studies with them online, and paying them.
You’ll play a key role in helping us develop the Django REST backend
and supporting technologies, take ownership of the development of new
features, solve difficult technical challenges, be part of architectural
decisions and the planning around scaling our throughput by 10-100X,
investigate the suitability of new technologies and approaches, and be
grow with our fast growing team and company.
The ideal candidate will have worked in a
developer/software-engineering role for at least 3+ years, including
preferably at other high growth startups. We value a broad range of
experience and skills, the salary is negotiable based on experience and
very senior candidates are also encouraged to apply.
This is your chance to get involved in a fast-moving startup where
you’ll have huge influence over the trajectory of the product. Since
it’s a startup, you’ll have the opportunity to suggest how you can best
add value, and make any recommendations about improving the processes
and product. We're a fast-growing company and we want to help you grow
with us.
Key Responsibilities
- Planning and implementing complex features, that is, working on new and improving existing functionality, with our users in mind
- Reviewing work of other team members
- Discussing features and business decisions
- Fixing bugs/Writing tests
- Help provide technical support to customer facing staff investigating issues
Our stack
These are some of the tools and frameworks we are use, however we
aren’t wedded to any particular technology. Experience with these tools
is valuable, but we are also interested in what you like to use and why.
Python 3, Django, Celery, MongoDB, Redis, Javascript, Vue.js, Kubernetes
Key Requirements
Experience working with Python in web development (ideally Django/Flask).
Experience in creating secure, high-performance web applications.
Experience several of the following, or similar technologies:
- NoSQL databases (ideally mongoDB)
- Relational databases (e.g. PostgreSQL)
- Redis
- RESTful services using JSON
- Docker
- Jenkins
- Cloud services (Azure/AWS/GCP)
- Knowledge of best practices such as automated testing and continuous integration
- Strong communication skills: the ability to clearly articulate your choices and the reasons behind them
- If
you aren’t completely confident that you fit our exact criteria, please
get in touch. Driven, self-motivated candidates are encouraged to apply
Nice-to-haves
- Experience from a startup or a fast-growing company
- Experience of automated testing and continuous integration
- Knowledge of Django REST framework
- Kubernetes or other DevOps frameworks
- Experience of working in Agile teams
- Team Leading/Mentoring experience
- Interest in or knowledge of the academic research sector
- You can get excited about the prospect of growing into a leadership role
- Enjoy being a generalist, self-driven and autonomous.
Benefits
- Salary: £40,000-50,000+ (p.a.), negotiable based on experience, qualifications, and location
- Pension (employer contribution 3%)
- Flexible working: Work equipment of your choice, you can work flexibly from home or from our coworking space, flexible hours
- 25 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays
- Flexible budget for any books and/or educational material
- Personal
growth opportunities (e.g., learn about the startup ecosystem,
mentoring from executive team, learn about psychological science and
research methods)
- Open, transparent, and inclusive culture
- Self-made cider and home-baked cookies
How we interview & hire
Our hiring process usually begins with an introductory online
interview to help you get to know us better, and vice versa. At this
stage, we would like to better understand your motivation for the role,
get to know about your interests and personality, and learn about any
relevant past experience or skills you might have. If this initial
interview is successful, we'd then invite you to complete an assignment
(<2 hours, you'll be compensated for the time spent), which will be
reviewed by one of our engineers. This will be followed by an in-depth,
face-to-face interview in Oxford, UK, with the key people in our startup
(CEO Katia, CTO Phelim, and COO Jim), which will provide an opportunity
to discuss the assignment, explore value fit, which incentives you care
about, and learn how you would work with the team on a daily basis.
What’s it like to work at Prolific?
Our core values:
Curiosity and openness: We like to think big, ask creative questions, and tackle difficult challenges
Transparency and honesty: We care about constructive debate and having transparent, democratic processes
Striving for excellence: We continuously seek to improve in all areas, but make sure we stay lean
Doing good: We care about research and want to empower scientists and companies to be more data-driven
You’ll be joining an enthusiastic team of eight based in Oxford, UK
(although two of us work remotely, in Glasgow and Newcastle).