Full Stack Engineer (Digital Democracy)
CalMatters · Sacramento, CA (preferred) / Remote (US)
Overview
CalMatters/The Markup seeks an experienced Full Stack Engineer who believes in the power of journalism to strengthen democracy and wants to use their skills to make a real difference in people’s lives.
This is an exciting opportunity to work with the latest technologies and top collaborators to help journalists, hold government accountable and encourage civic engagement. The Digital Democracy project at CalMatters is one of the nation’s most advanced applications of artificial intelligence to journalism. It includes an unprecedented database and real-time capture of data that helps journalists identify stories in California state government. The project may expand to other states and/or to other levels of government.
This developer will work closely with the CalMatters team and some specialized outside contractors. The bulk of responsibilities are those of a full-stack engineer proficient in Node/React and Python. However, some experience with data science, databases, systems, algorithms and AI is expected.
We are looking for someone who is well experienced in the following areas:
- Back end development
- Front end development
- Testing and debugging
- Trello work management systems
- Django
- AWS
- Amazon Linux
- APIs / JSON
- MySQL
- Flask-RESTful
- Experience with Natural Language Processing preferred but not required
This full-time position with benefits is based in California and represented by the Pacific Media Workers Guild. This role is remote and requires occasional travel to our Sacramento office and to San Luis Obispo, where Digital Democracy was developed and where some on the team are based. Our preference is for you to live in California, but we will consider other U.S.-based candidates.
About CalMatters
CalMatters, now in its eleventh year, is an award-winning nonprofit, nonpartisan news venture dedicated to explaining the policy and politics of America’s biggest state and the world’s fourth largest economy. In 2024, we merged with The Markup, a nonprofit national news organization that challenges technology to serve the public good.
We produce vivid, original multimedia journalism, data-driven news analyses and watchdog accountability reporting on calmatters.org and themarkup.org and distribute our work at no cost to more than 250 media partners. Our success metric isn’t clicks. It’s impact. We serve millions of people through a variety of products. For example:
- More than 1 in 5 California voters head to the polls informed by CalMatters’ nonpartisan Voter Guide.
- Blacklight, our real-time privacy inspector, has been used over 10 million times and helped journalists, nonprofits, and academics hold tech accountable.
- Digital Democracy, our unprecedented, custom-built AI tool, tracks everything you’d want to know about state legislators. It has unearthed stories and prompted legislators to call for change.
We also have the most diverse major newsroom in California. Here you’ll be working alongside dozens of experienced people in a supportive, collaborative atmosphere.
Compensation and Benefits
The salary range for this position is $125,000 to $135,000 per year. We offer a complete benefits package with medical, dental and vision insurance — we cover 95% of the cost for employees and dependents — from a range of HMO and PPO providers. We offer a 401(k) match program and provide life insurance at no cost.
The salary range above is our best estimate, in good faith, of what we expect to pay for this position. Our final salary figure will take into account the candidate’s experience and skills, as well as our commitment to pay our staff equitably.
How to Apply
We are an expanding and collaborative news organization, successfully forging a new model for sustainable, intelligent, nonprofit journalism. We’re committed to reflecting the people we serve and especially encourage members of underrepresented communities to apply. Research shows that underrepresented applicants often downplay their skills. Even if you believe your experience doesn’t match the qualifications listed (and we certainly don’t expect candidates to be equally skilled in the areas we’ve listed), we still want to hear from you.
If you’re interested, click Apply to provide a resume and work samples. In lieu of a cover letter, please answer the application questions on our site.
We believe strongly in personal and authentic engagement in our recruitment process and want to hear from you. We ask that you answer these questions yourself without the aid of AI or other automated tools.
Please do not contact the hiring manager or other staffers directly. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, don’t hesitate to contact [email protected].
