[Hiring] Product Engineer @Workbrew

Role Description

At Workbrew we are building the features that companies need on top of Homebrew, the most popular package manager on macOS (and growing on Linux). Workbrew provides commercial support and MDM integration and will in future provide many other features around Homebrew needed by the enterprise.

We're looking for product engineers with high empathy, willingness to give/take direct feedback and a desire to build delightful, high-quality tools that developers love. Our current stack is Ruby and Go.

We define a “product engineer” as an engineer who delivers customer value by learning who users are, empathizing with their problems, and turning those insights into well-scoped, testable outcomes. They balance discovery and delivery by shipping pragmatic MVPs quickly and iterating from feedback, while keeping longer-term strategy and maintainability top of mind. They care about good UX and reliable, high-quality software, and are adaptable, comfortable wearing multiple hats across backend, infrastructure, security, or design.

At Workbrew we work hard but (usually) not long. We value getting things done quickly and then being able to spend time with our friends, family and hobbies. We know that “time spent working” is an exceptionally poor metric for output, happiness or success.

Qualifications

• You have at least 2 years’ experience building either open source software and/or commercial software.
• You can (usually) give and receive direct feedback with kindness and empathy.
• You are comfortable with asynchronous collaboration.
• You use AI tooling to increase velocity without sacrificing quality or security.
• You are willing to do some of your engineering work in the open (e.g. open source or repositories shared with external customers).

Requirements

• You have worked on open source projects before, ideally in the Homebrew ecosystem.
• You have worked on a Ruby on Rails application before.
• You have worked on a Go application before.
• You have worked remotely before.
• You have worked on a timezone distributed team before.
• You have experience working on software deployed on a Unix or Unix-like OS.

A Day In The Life Of A Workbrew Product Engineer

• Start work at a time that suits you and your life.
• Read Slack backlog, emails (we definitely don’t need you to have these on your phone).
• Write code, open pull requests for new features, fixing bugs, etc.
• Review pull requests from coworkers and provide helpful, unblocking feedback.
• Merge pull requests that seem ready.
• 0-2 planned meetings a day.
• 0-1 unplanned meetings a day.
• Respond to Slack messages with colleagues, customers and partners at least 2-4 times a day.
• Write more code, open more pull requests.
• Make sure that your colleagues have what they need to not be blocked by you until tomorrow.
• Finish work at a time that suits you and your life.

30 Day Goals

• You have landed a simple feature in at least one of the (Ruby on Rails) Workbrew Console, (Go) Workbrew Agent or (macOS) Workbrew Installer.

90 Day Goals

• You have landed a non-trivial feature in at least one of the Workbrew Console, Workbrew Agent or Workbrew Installer.
• You have been able to communicate with kindness, empathy and directness when required.
• You have implemented a change based on an (internal or external) customer need from feedback/support request/reported bug/etc.

Benefits

• The starting contract rate or salary for this role is between $50,000 to $200,000 USD (paid in your local currency, through Oyster, if outside the US).
• A generous equity package.
• For employees: we provide a flexible paid leave. Everyone is expected to take at least 20 days off a year (or your country’s legal minimum).
• Paid travel, accommodation and (pre-agreed) expenses to meet coworkers in person a couple of times a year.
• You can do your work from different places around the world (as long as you get your job done and show up for meetings at the right times).
• We will consider part-time on a pro-rata basis (e.g. 80% hours for 80% pay).
• If there’s something else you really want that we’ve not mentioned: please ask.

Company Description

Workbrew is an equal opportunity employer. We make all employment decisions including hiring, evaluation, termination, promotional, and training opportunities, without regard to race, religion, skin colour, sex, age, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, physical handicap, mental disability, medical condition, disability, gender or identity or expression, political affiliation or beliefs (within democratic norms) pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, marital status, height and/or weight.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

If you have read to this point and you doubt if you are qualified: please apply anyway. Looking forward to hearing from you.