Backend Software Developer / DevOps

Duckietown is looking for a backend software developer / DevOps.

Duckietown is an American and Swiss robotics education startup company whose goal is to provide accessible and state-of-the-art robot autonomy education for everybody. 

Duckietown started as a class at MIT;  you can see this duckumentary [1] from the early days.

You can see our recent story on our website [2], such as the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) we organized on edX [3] and the AI Driving Olympics [4] at NeurIPS.

[1]: https://vimeo.com/duckietown/duckumentary 

[2]: http://www.duckietown.com/ 

[3]: https://vimeo.com/duckietown/mooc-trailer 

[4]: https://vimeo.com/duckietown/aido-intro 

What you will do

As an early employee, you will take ownership of part of our backend and plan its extension. 

The backend includes regular functionality, e.g.:

• user registration, group/roles management;
• infrastructure for content creation, storing, sharing;
• payment infrastructure;

 as well as robotics-specific functionality, including:

• archive of agents container, 
• competitions management infrastructure, 
• handling data collection (collection of user statistics for classes, students, projects, etc.), 
• software updates for a fleet of thousands of robots in the hands of users.

You can look at the challenges server [5] as an example of part of this infrastructure that is public.

[5]: http://challenges.duckietown.org/ 

The basics technologies we use are:

• Docker;
• Python;
• SQL (Postgres).

Our infrastructure runs on AWS, Cloudflare, plus some self-hosted servers.

Who we are looking for

The developer we are looking for has:

• A Master's degree in Computer Science or Engineering subject, Robotics, or similar disciplines;
• Experience with working on large Python projects;
• Familiarity with server-side programming;
• Previous experience with at least one of Docker and SQL (Postgres);
• (Strict) Professional English language writing, comprehension, and speaking skills: our work is done and documented in English. 

Additionally, nice to have for this position:

• Understanding of tech startup working environment (higher risk, higher reward than typical corporate job);
• A track record of taking ownership of development and maintenance of complex software systems;
• Intrinsic motivation and passion for the position;
• You work well in a loosely coupled, tightly aligned environment.

Company values

Our values describe how we work and what we give importance to when making decisions on who to bring on board, reward, or let go. We look for team members that share these values and demonstrate them with their behavior. Read our values carefully. 

Pragmatism: We are to the point and avoid unnecessary frills. We find that showing works better than telling and value concise and articulate communication. 

Impact: We like to do work that is impactful and we exhibit a bias to action, always improving upon what exists avoiding paralysis by analysis. 

Ingenuity: We are inventive. We welcome challenges and find clever ways to tackle hard problems. We question the status quo and like thinking of new and better ways of doing things while striving for simplicity.

Curiosity: We value curiosity and questions. We love being asked questions, asking a lot of questions, and learning from the answers. Our curiosity leads us to be broadly knowledgeable about technology, business, and education, and to help our team members even outside of our specialties. 

Tenacity: We persevere and keep the bar straight in stressful situations. We know that what we do is hard - and hard things don’t come easy. We take smart risks, make decisions with strategic judgment and passionately care about Duckietown's success. 

Selflessness: We admit mistakes quickly, help, and rely on our colleagues to create something bigger than the sum of our skills. We value candor, directness, intellectual honesty and put the mission above our egos as we do what is in the best interest of Duckietown. 

Diversity: We are an international team, counting 5 nationalities so far working from 6 countries. We welcome minds from all backgrounds regardless of age, color, ethnicity, gender or gender identity, genetics, physical ability, protected veteran status, race, religion, and sexual orientation. We encourage all qualified candidates to apply.

Duckietown is a high-performance environment driven by results and the ambition to revolutionize robot autonomy education worldwide. It might not be the best fit for everyone, and this is ok. If you are still wondering if you would like to work with us, read our values again. 

Compensation

We offer a very competitive compensation package and a stock options plan. Details vary by experience.

We will also give you as many duckies as you wish to receive. 

Logistics

Duckietown work is done remotely. 

We expect to have meetings in the 9 am-3 pm EST / 15:00-21:00 UTC zones. 

Occasional international travel may be required.