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Position: Junior Software Engineer

Who we are

The News Literacy Project, founded in 2008, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization building a national movement to ensure that all students are skilled in news literacy before high school graduation, giving them the knowledge and ability to participate in civic society as well-informed, critical thinkers. NLP is the country’s leading provider of news literacy education and works with educators in all 50 states.

NLP offers news literacy education to students primarily through our signature e-learning platform, Checkology®, and to the public through our website, RumorGuard®.

Where you fit in

The News Literacy Project empowers educators to teach middle and high school students how to sort fact from fiction in the digital age. Our signature product is the Checkology Virtual Classroom, a digital learning platform. Since its launch in 2016, almost 50,000 teachers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and four U.S. territories have registered to use it. We are seeking a Junior Software Engineer who can take ownership of their learning and productively contribute to our code base quickly. This is a great opportunity for you to advance your skills in support of educators and students across the country.

We are looking for someone who can have an immediate and meaningful impact on our work.

This position will report to the Technical Lead.

About the position

You will join our product team, which includes a Technical Lead, Senior Software Engineer, Junior Software Engineer, Front-End Developer, Product Designer, Product Analyst, and the VP of Product. Our team is responsible for delivering NLP products, such as our e-learning platform and educator portal. Additionally, we focus on improving and supporting websites like NewsLit.org, RumorGuard.org, topical or event-specific websites, digital newsletters, and email campaigns.

Specifically, in this job, you will:  

  • Build deep knowledge of our tech stacks and our products and collaborate with in-house and contract co-workers to update existing features and fix bugs, with a focus on analytics, privacy, and data security.
  • Support data integrations and reporting needs using EdTech standards.
  • Participate in code reviews with your peers.
  • Participate in work breakdown discussions to incrementally deliver value with each deployment.
  • Write automation tests and conduct manual quality assurance tests.
  • Work with the product team to troubleshoot and debug reported issues.
  • Support data reporting needs of the organization.

You will also: 

  • Collaborate with fun and dedicated people in all areas of our organization.
  • Demonstrate and teach best practices in software development through your actions and contributions.

About you

This position will directly impact many thousands of students in schools across the country and plays a pivotal role in shaping and achieving our organizational strategy. As the Junior Software Engineer, you will partner with the Technical Lead to ensure our educators and students have the best experience with our products. In addition to the qualifications noted above, the successful candidate will have all or most of the following:

  • Experience writing, testing, and debugging web services, web applications, websites, integrations, and/or mobile applications, preferably within a cross-functional engineering team or a digital product environment.
  • Knowledge of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and agile software development practices.
  • Proficiency in software testing concepts like unit testing, integration testing, and/or test-driven design principles.
  • Experience within our tech stacks, development tools, and cloud infrastructure such as such as GitHub, NodeJS (React, VueJS, NextJS, NuxtJS, NestJS, and TypeScript), database management systems (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite), and cloud services (Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Entra ID).
  • Familiarity with modern web technologies, frameworks, design patterns such as microservices and service-oriented architecture, and best practices.

This full-time position is virtual. Highly qualified candidates who live anywhere in the United States are encouraged to apply.

Compensation and benefits

The starting salary for this position is $80,000 to $85,000 depending on the candidate’s qualifications and experience. NLP also offers outstanding benefits, including a potential annual bonus of up to 10% for exceptional performance, health and dental insurance, a 401(k) plan match and more. For an overview of our generous benefits package, check out our HR benefits summary.

Important Notice for Job Seekers:

Thank you for your interest in career opportunities at the News Literacy Project. Please be aware that NLP does not engage the services of external recruiters unless it is explicitly stated in the job announcement. All hiring is conducted directly through our official channels. Communication will come from [email protected] or [email protected].

If you are contacted by someone claiming to represent News Literacy Project as a recruiter, please be cautious. These individuals are not affiliated with our organization. We encourage you to report any such encounters to us immediately.

For a safe and genuine application process, please apply directly through https://bit.ly/NLPJobs or recognized job portals. 

To apply, upload a cover letter and a résumé at https://bit.ly/NLPJobs.

The application deadline is 5 p.m. ET Dec. 27, 2024.  We hope to hire as quickly as possible for a start date no later than Feb. 10, 2024.

The News Literacy Project welcomes applicants from diverse backgrounds. We offer equal opportunity in employment for all qualified persons and prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, ancestry, age, veteran status, disability unrelated to job requirements, genetic information, military service or other protected status.

We deeply value diversity in the workplace and strongly believe that a diverse team enriches our organization and strengthens our ability to realize our mission (read/print NLP’s Organizational Values [PDF] and Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion [PDF]).