Software Engineer - Bridging (Node)
Element, United Kingdom

Element is the startup which employs the core team behind matrix.org the leading project for secure, open decentralised communication.

Matrix’s mission is to make messaging as open as email allowing everyone to choose where their data is hosted, enjoy private conversations thanks to advanced encryption, and ultimately be in control of their own communication.

The Matrix protocol is used by millions of people globally, from the French and German governments through to community groups and open source projects like Mozilla, KDE, GNOME and Wikimedia.

Matrix powers Element, our flagship messaging apps for the web, iOS amp; Android, along with EMS, our SaaS platform for personal amp; professional use.

We build things for everyone, and we know we can’t succeed without a diverse team. Our hiring process is designed to be humane and give candidates the best chance to show us what you can do. If we ever fall down on this, please let us know.

1. Tackle varied, interesting problems: The nature of the role means that you will become expert in multiple communications protocols and how they can interoperate with Matrix.
2. Work on highly visible projects: Almost all of the work we do is opensource and we regularly speak at conferences, meetups and talks.
3. Join brilliant people: With a small mission-led team, our early adopters are in the tens of millions, and people tend to stay with the company for a long time we take this as a sign that we have a supportive culture, and that you can develop your skills and careers here for the long term.

Since (almost) everything we do is open source you can get a great feel for exactly what it would be like to work on Element, why not join our bridging developer channel at #bridges:matrix.org to provide a window into the core team and the community. Come and say hi!

Requirements

• Build new bridges to further the reach of the Matrix ecosystem. Most bridges are node apps, written in JS or TypeScript.
• Extend existing bridges to provide richer experiences to include features such as message reactions or quoting.
• Bridge use is growing exponentially and this growth will only accelerate with your help, so keeping up with scaling challenges is an important part of the role.
• Write tools to allow existing communities to migrate seamlessly to Matrix.
• Work with community members to help them with their own bridging projects.

• You believe that communication systems should not be walled gardens and instead ought to be open and free to interoperate.
• You have production experience with Node - we don’t require that you are a Node expert, but some professional experience will help you get going.
• You are familiar with the pros, cons and features of other communications protocols. For instance if you have ever got hooked on IRC, we would see that as a good thing.
• You have experience maintaining and/or contributing to open source projects.
• You naturally enjoy figuring out how things work, reverse engineering if necessary. This role is all about pragmatism and understanding that bridges will always require a series of trade offs.
• You are comfortable with the pace, trade offs and ambiguity of an early stage startup (specifically: how to take care of yourself and get your work done without working crazy hours).

Benefits

Our general approach is to treat people like adults and acknowledge that by being flexible we create an environment for people to do their best work. For more details here is our manifesto. That said specific points that differentiate us.

• Work (almost) full time on FOSS projects with high visibility and a large enthusiastic community
• Since our technology is relevant to anything that requires real-time comms, the role provides exposure to a wide range of domains from web and app dev through to VR, VoIP and IoT.
• Family friendly environment, many of the team have small children and we look to accommodate that as best we can.
• People tend to stay with the company for a long time, we take this a sign that we have a cohesive supportive culture, that we have engaging challenging work and that people can develop their skills and careers here for the long term.

Element does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, colour, religion, age, national origin, marital status, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other reason prohibited by law in provision of employment opportunities and benefits.

Job Rewards and Benefits