Front End Engineer

We're looking for a front-end developer with experience and proficiency in ReactJS/TypeScript to join our team at Vizzuality. Depending on your experience, we can offer a salary range of €24,000 - €38,000.

We are also open to exploring full-time and part-time contract options (with a minimum of 80% time dedication).

Our vibrant team is spread across Spain, Portugal, and the UK. Currently, people work remotely or in our office in Madrid. You are welcome to join us if you are eligible to work in any of these three countries.

Would you like to be part of Vizzuality's story?

Are you motivated by the desire to impact the planet positively? Are you looking to put your skills to work on something truly meaningful?

At Vizzuality, we aim to reach a fair and sustainable planet by creating tools that empower people to make positive changes.

We are a world-leading technology, design, and science agency. We design and develop data-driven tools and applications for international organizations focusing on Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Inequality.

Solving such large and complex problems will bring you into contact with new technology and some of the world's most interesting organizations and academics in machine learning, remote sensing, and planetary data. You'll be working on projects like these:

Our Culture

Our aim is to help the world become a better place. Therefore, we need to make sure we care about our people and give them the power to build great things. These are some of the principles that define our culture:

• We Trust: Our team structure relies on self-organization. We want to work with colleagues who don't have to look 'up' for approval, nor look 'down' and give instructions. As soon as you step inside, we will equip you with all the tools to enable your success, and then we will trust you to do great things.
• We Delight: We use our deep understanding of people's needs to spark delight. Our choices are based on science, research, and design principles.
• We Care: For ourselves, our colleagues, and the organization. We know what we do is important, and we have a strong sense of responsibility for the work we do.
• We Grow: As we are always embarking on new projects and challenges, a continuous learning mindset and a 'Can Do' attitude is a must. We are conscientious, and we focus on learning and achieving our goals. We give power to people so they can make decisions and plot their own paths with help from all around them.
• We have fun: We also know that you need to balance seriousness with fun. If you can make people smile, you will be off to a great start

Want to know more about our culture? Check our Playbook

A day in the life of a Front-End Engineer at Vizzuality

We're looking for a developer who will work with a world-class, super-talented team of engineers, designers, scientists, and project managers.

Someone passionate about using their creativity and technical skills to make a difference in people's lives, the environment, and the world.

• You will design and develop cross-functional, multi-platform user interfaces to visualize, interact with, and manage large amounts of data in the cloud, often in real-time, ensuring their usability, accessibility, responsiveness, and scalability.
• Working hands-on across our stack is one of the primary tasks engineers perform at Vizzuality.
• Our core stack is ReactJS. You will work on JS/TypeScript projects and experiment with new technologies. If you hit a snag or need to learn a new skill, our supportive team is always there to lend a hand and help you conquer any challenge.
• You will take the lead and meet with clients at different stages of the development process to help define requirements and propose solutions and alternatives.
• You will spend a significant amount of your time liaising with data scientists, back-end engineers, project managers, and designers to find novel and creative technical solutions that solve specific client/project needs and integrate disparate technologies such as web mapping, data visualization, responsive design, interactive interfaces, one-page apps, and data management via Rest and Graph APIs.
• You will also communicate with users, colleagues, leading scientists, and decision-makers to collect requirements, describe features and technical designs, and define product strategy.
• Lastly, as an Engineer at Vizzuality, you will ensure software quality, robustness, and compliance with standards by reviewing code, documenting, and creating automated tests.

These are some things you will do and achieve in your first year at Vizzuality.

A junior Front-End Developer at Vizzuality is autonomous in performing simple technical tasks, mainly code-focused, and they can also understand the implementation plans and ask pertinent questions to the rest of the team. They are progressively involved in performing complex tasks with supervision. More importantly, they want to grow their skills and rely on team mentoring.

Meanwhile, our mid-front-end developers implement entirely new features from scratch and work through integrating these features with the rest of the codebase. They have a good understanding of the software development life-cycle and can work most of the time with minimum supervision. They have a good understanding of businesses' requirements and provide insights and suggestions for improvement. Finally, they can translate them into technical solutions and autonomously implement them. They also know how to interact with other team members efficiently and effectively and can serve as a guide for junior profiles.

In your first month:

• You'll learn about all the projects and the stack we use in each of them.
• You'll familiarize yourself with much of the lifecycle of a project.
• You'll have time to learn the various software systems we use for managing people, tasks, and projects, and contribute to project meetings.
• You'll start to get to know people from other functional areas: design, science, back-end, and business development.
• You'll be assigned to a project and have the opportunity to start working closely with other team members and functional areas within the company.

During the first 3 months:

• You'll continue to get to know and collaborate with people from different functional areas, and you will better understand how our role interfaces with theirs.
• You will share ideas and collaborate closely with team members.
• You will learn about the methodologies in place and have the opportunity to suggest improvements.
• Now that you are more familiar with our project's lifecycle, you will work closely with another front-end engineer colleague in a specific project, already autonomously implementing features.

As of month 4 and depending on your progress:

• You will be the main developer on a given project, responsible for the design and assisting project managers with client communication when needed.
• You will apply your experience to solve complex challenges and act proactively when identifying and communicating issues ahead of time, even when they're not directly related to your work.
• You will make the most of your experience by knowing when/how to prioritize the project's goals, overall value, and maintainability over less significant implementation details.
• You will contribute to the team's code standardization by proposing improvements and keeping high-quality standards.

Skills and experiences we are looking for in a candidate

(*) Even if you think you don't tick all the boxes below, we'd still love to hear from you. Nobody checks every box, and we are looking for someone excited to join the team and aligned with our purpose

A. Behaviors and Mindset.

Anyone joining the team, regardless of their seniority level (junior or mid profiles), should demonstrate the following:

• Global Perspective and Team Collaboration: We seek individuals who combine a global perspective with a strong inclination towards teamwork. Ideal candidates will understand the wider impact of their work and recognize how individual efforts contribute to our collective goals. This role suits those who excel in collaborative environments, sharing knowledge and working together to overcome challenges, drive innovation, and achieve success on a global scale.
• Commitment to 'Just Enough Complexity': We're looking for candidates who value and practice 'Just Enough Complexity,' ensuring solutions are straightforward, maintainable, and perfectly tailored to our project needs. This principle emphasizes simplicity, avoiding over-engineering, and focusing on delivering direct value.
• Agility with Resilience to Change: We're seeking agile-minded candidates who excel in environments characterized by rapid change and iterative development. Ideal applicants should possess a keen understanding of project requirements and the flexibility to adapt and iterate on solutions as those requirements evolve. This role is perfect for individuals who view change as an opportunity for improvement, demonstrating resilience and a proactive approach to navigating the dynamic landscape of project development.
• Passion for Coding and Lifelong Learning: We seek individuals with a deep-rooted passion for coding and an unwavering commitment to continuous learning. The ideal candidate thrives on exploring new technologies and techniques, constantly seeking to expand their skill set. This role is perfect for those who view challenges as opportunities to grow and are excited by the prospect of pushing the boundaries of what is possible through code.
• Growth Mindset for T-Shaped Team Integration: Candidates should possess a growth mindset to develop T-shaped skills – deep expertise in a specific area complemented by a broad range of capabilities across other domains. This role is for those eager to deepen their specialty while expanding their horizons, enabling seamless collaboration within multidisciplinary teams. We value individuals who are not only experts in their field but also possess the versatility to contribute and adapt across various aspects of our projects.
• Flexibility and Adaptability: Ideal candidates should be able to step out of their comfort zones and adapt to evolving project needs. This role demands a proactive approach to learning new skills, embracing change, and tackling unforeseen challenges with creativity and resilience. We value individuals who can pivot quickly in response to new information or shifting priorities, ensuring our projects stay aligned with our goals and deliver impactful results.
• Empathy and User Focus: Understanding and prioritizing the user's needs is essential for creating effective and user-friendly software.

B. Technical Skills.

• React library
• Typescript
• Modern CSS and responsive design
• State management (i.e., Redux, Jotai, React Query)
• Web mapping libraries (i.e., Mapbox, ArcGIS), especially with client-side rendering technologies (i.e., DeckGL, MapboxGL JS)
• Data visualization libraries (i.e., , )
• Modern front-end frameworks (i.e., )
• REST API and web services
• Testing and QA (i.e. Cypress, Playwright, Jest)
• Continuous integration tools (i.e., GitHub Actions)

Nice to have: Headless CMS (i.e. Strapi, Payloadcms), and Express, Tailwind CSS, Design tools (i.e., Figma), Web accessibility

Compensation, Benefits & Growth

Our compensation and benefits are part of a great career opportunity with the potential for you to grow and work in an organization with a massive transformational purpose. So, if you care about the real-world impact of your work and are inspired by our mission to transform the world, here's what we have to offer

Compensation:

• Annual salary between €24,000 - €38,000 (your final salary will be based on your experience and profile).
• Annual profit-sharing bonus plan (team bonus up to 10% of salary based on company performance).
• €1,000 Referral Bonus after six months of hiring (for every successful referral).

Growth:

• €1,500 annual training allowance for courses, conferences, volunteering, innovation projects, or meetups of your choice, including travel and lodging.
• Peer mentoring and support in designing your own career path.
• Support for personal projects and initiatives, such as giving talks, contributing to open source projects, and giving and receiving internal training.
• '4 Weeks Growth Sabbatical' when you reach 10 years at Vizz.

Wellbeing & Paid Time Off.

• 26 days of vacation (plus local bank holidays).
• Additional birthday holiday. :)
• Up to 2 extra vacation days when you make sustainable travel choices.
• Up to 3 extra vacation days after 5 years at Vizzuality, which will be added to your holiday allowance forever.

Care:

• Mental health support via Spill, our third-party provider, to connect you with qualified counselors and curated resources.
• Live in Spain? You'll have the option to enroll in our company-subsidized health and dental insurance plan.

Flexibility & Remote Work

• Remote work if you are based in Spain, Portugal, or the UK.
• Flexible schedules.
• We will provide you with everything you need to do great work (i.e., laptop, tools, and work-from-home equipment).
• 1 or 2 annual company-paid gatherings.

Recruitment Process Overview

Do you have what it takes to change the world? If, after reading the description of the role, you like our culture and believe you have what it takes to join Vizzuality, please send us your application.

This is what the recruitment process looks like. Below are some suggestions for you to include and consider in your application.

Application: December 10th - January 9th

• Please send us your CV and Cover Letter explaining why you would like to work with us and what you can bring to the team. Please include any samples of your work and projects you find relevant to the offer.
• Fluent English is important to us, so if it's not your first language, please demonstrate your abilities in your CV and Cover Letter. We will not consider applications that are not sent in English.

First Interview: January 14th - 30th

• This is a 60-minute informal interview so you can get to know the company and our culture better and ask any questions about the role and our ways of working.
• From our side, we are interested in learning more about what you are looking for, your current skill level and experience, and what you care about.

Challenge: January 26th - February 10th

• We will invite you to complete an assignment to better understand your skills, how you organize your ideas, and how you would share what we do with our partners and clients.

Second Interview: February 9th onwards.

• You will meet with a few of us, and we will deep-dive into your experience and skills.
• This will be another opportunity for you to ask us questions about the role and the company.