Canary

Software Developer

August 20, 2024
Full-Time

About Canary

Canary (www.workwithcanary.com) is contributing to the evolution of the 21st century social safety net to ensure that, in times of financial need, individuals can access money with efficiency and dignity. Our marquee product, Grant Circle, is an employer-sponsored emergency relief fund platform that delivers cash grants to employees experiencing financial hardship. We are a fast growing, seed stage start-up that has initial traction with several major employer clients, backing from some of the most exciting FinTech and impact investors in the country, a big vision for the future – and a genuine opportunity to make a difference in the lives of our users. We are a fully remote team, with team members dispersed across the United States. 

The role

In the Software Developer role, you’ll have the opportunity to move fast, evolve the product, and collaborate closely with the rest of our mission-driven team. Canary has set ambitious growth targets over 2024-2025 and you will be instrumental in helping to achieve those goals. As a Software Developer at Canary, you will help to implement features, fix bugs, help design and architect our codebase, and deliver high quality code for all aspects of our software.


Tech stack we currently use includes:

  • Python
  • JavaScript
  • Django (Python-based) framework using DRF
  • Vue (JavaScript-based) framework
  • AWS (e.g. Elastic Beanstalk and RDS database)
  • Payment processing APIs, including Stripe and Paypal

The Software Developer role at Canary includes a wide variety of work and exposure, including:

  • Greenfield feature development for a Python/Vue application
  • QA’ing and owning all the software development process from ideation and architecture planning to deployment
  • Fixing bugs based on priority
  • Building infrastructure on AWS
  • Participating in security reviews and our internal security process
  • Actively pairing and communicating with the development team on a regular basis
  • Sharing siloed knowledge with the rest of the team
  • Writing technical feature documentation
  • Helping us define better engineering practices or pick up places where we are falling short

This position will report to the Director of Engineering.

Our ideal candidate

You are driven to own your own code and follow the process we develop and hone as a team. You are willing and able to take a general idea and work with product and other non-technical stakeholders to scope out, build, test, and deploy entire feature sets end-to-end. Additional attributes we look for in candidates are:

  • Curious and driven to generate results
  • Self motivated
  • Excited to work at a small, early-stage, growing, mission-driven fintech
  • Strong communication skills
  • Professional experience with Python and a Javascript Framework
  • Willing and excited to work on our remote-first team, with the understanding that the team will convene in person periodically
  • Experience with AWS 

Canary is a remote-first culture, with a team distributed across the U.S. We meet periodically in person. We provide competitive salaries and benefits, including generous vacation time, contributions to retirement savings and equity. 

Canary is firmly committed to building a diverse workplace and strongly encourages people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, women, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, system-impacted people, veterans and people of all ages to apply.

More about who are are and why we do this work

The Federal Reserve estimates that nearly half of American families cannot pay for an unexpected $400 expense without borrowing or selling something. Small shocks derail financially fragile households; Pew finds that 30% of households experience at least one shock annually that causes sustained material hardship. Further, financial strain among workers exacts enormous costs on businesses through lower productivity and worker retention — the Financial Health Network estimates the bottom line cost to the employer at $7,000 per worker per year. Cash grants delivered in the right way and at the right time can drive positive changes for both workers and employers that far outweigh their upfront costs. 

The Canary founding team brings a unique combination of expertise in financial health, impact measurement, product strategy, and partnership development. Rachel Schneider, CEO, is co-author of The Financial Diaries: How Americans Cope in a World of Volatility, and an early Financial Health Network (formerly CFSI) employee. Keyarash Jahanian, Head of Product, brings expertise on the experience of financially vulnerable households from consulting for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and leading the Workers Strength Fund pilot that preceded the launch of Canary. He also brings product strategy and planning and execution expertise from these projects and his prior role at Beam, a mission-driven startup in the public benefits space. 

To apply

Send an email with the subject “Software Developer” to info@workwithcanary.com, including:   

  • A summary of why you are interested in working with Canary
  • Your resume
  • Any links to projects you’ve worked on in the past that you’d like to share
  • A link to your Github
  • Salary requirements
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