Software Engineer

Tern Software Inc., a venture-backed travel industry startup, is looking for talented Software Engineers to join our team. 

At Tern, we're passionate about the power of travel and its ability to broaden worldviews. We're committed to supporting travel advisors and the small businesses they run, helping them make the world more approachable for their clients.

As a Software Engineer, you'll be joining a small, high-performing team of experienced product builders. We’re laser-focused on delighting our customers by providing reliable products that save them time and improve their business outcomes. We value building products with speed and quality, holding ourselves to a high standard and rejecting the notion that it’s impossible to do both. We build, ship, & iterate quickly while remaining dedicated to improving all parts of our products on a continuous basis.

We are not about following strict processes or micromanaging. We operate on trust and focus on making an impact on our customer’s day-to-day lives and businesses. To thrive in this role, you have to deeply care about what you do and continuously develop your craft. We are not for everyone. If you prefer a rigid corporate structure or an in-person office environment, we're not the right fit. But if you're seeking growth, love solving complex problems, and care deeply about your teammates, you've found your place.

As a Tern Software Engineer, you’ll contribute to a small team of productive engineers striving to continually improve the scope and quality of Tern’s product offerings. Your responsibilities will include:

• Impactfully contributing to the development of Tern’s core product. You will need to maintain a consistent pace and measure your impact by the day or week, not the quarter or year.

• Writing well-designed, performant, & testable code.

• Working (remotely) hand-in-hand with other engineers through code reviews, pair programming, written designs, and any other means of collaboration that aids in the successful delivery of product.

• Collaborating with stakeholders, leading projects, and ensuring the successful delivery of product initiatives.

• Supporting our customers by rapidly solving day-to-day technical issues, continually improving core product areas, and writing defect-free features.

The ideal candidate for this role should have: 

• Expertise with the Ruby programming language and Ruby on Rails web framework.

• Proficiency with multiple programming languages, frameworks, and programming paradigms.

• An understanding of the Hotwire technology stack and its integration with Ruby on Rails 7+.

• Experience with all parts of building a web-based product, from development environments to web frameworks to APIs to backend infrastructure to browser capabilities.

• An optimistic disposition and a track record of overcoming complex technical and organizational challenges.

• Independence, demonstrable ownership, and the ability to deliver production-ready systems with high autonomy and minimal guidance.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

• Experience working in a remote software development position.

• Empathy for teammates and a default assumption of good intentions from them.

• Mentored and ramped up other engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth.

While we're looking for a bit of a unicorn, we encourage people who don't have all these skills, but have a strong willingness to learn and the humility to do the work, to apply. We believe in investing in our team and supporting your growth at all levels.

At Tern, we value diversity and encourage applications from individuals with varied experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds. If you're passionate about travel and want to make a significant impact on small businesses around the world, we'd love to hear from you.

Finally, alignment with Tern's values is non-negotiable for this role. Tern’s values are: 

• We are in constant pursuit of growth. We’re endlessly curious and relish learning new things. We’re never satisfied with where we’re at and seek out ways to improve ourselves. We invest in our team and believe in growth at all levels. We believe growth is catalyzed when a diversity of perspectives is combined with an obligation to dissent.
  

• We approach life with an optimistic sense of agency. When life gives us lemons, we choose to make lemonade. We aspire to build an enduring company and know the road to get there is full of peaks and valleys. We strive to stay positive, kind, and authentic in every phase of the journey.
  

• Our ambition is to be extraordinary. We’re comfortable with the fact that the journey to get there takes effort. We put in the work to build something that matters to ourselves, to our teammates, and to our customers.