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About Us

Shorthand is a growing company that provides a digital publishing platform to many of the world’s best-known publishers, brands, not-for-profits, and universities. With customers on every continent (except Antarctica!), there’s never been a more exciting time to join Shorthand. Our company has the rare distinction in this era of money-burning startups of being both investor-backed and comfortably profitable. We're a small team of geeks with art and heart and a high bar for quality.

To deliver our magic to customers and their audiences, we build software that is scalable, flexible, reliable and as simple as possible but no simpler.

What you’ll be doing 

We’re looking for a Software Engineer to join our team. We tend to do things a little differently at Shorthand. For one thing, we’re a small team distributed around the world. We welcome applicants from Australia and the Asia Pacific region for this role, as long as you are able to work during the AEST time zone (Brisbane).

This role will share responsibility for designing, engineering and scaling our storytelling features, systems and services.

In this role you’ll:

• Deliver storytelling feature development and contribute to other areas of the product.
• Learn, evolve and improve an existing application/system architecture.
• Review code from other engineers and provide feedback.
• Help secure the environment.
• Contribute to the technical direction of the Shorthand tool.
• Report bugs and write tests.
• Communicate with the customer support team and often directly with customers to suggest solutions to issues.
• Assist in the creation of product documentation when required.

What we’re looking for

• A minimum of 1 year of experience in web application development.
• Strong knowledge of JavaScript and the web.
• University qualifications in computer science, or a closely related field, or equivalent career experience or completion of code school courses.
• Is whip-smart, as demonstrated by career achievements and code school or university results.
• Has good knowledge of cloud-based web architectures.
• Has experience programming with JavaScript (and preferably experience or interest in TypeScript, React, Node.js and AWS or equivalent).
• Is familiar with using Git (and preferably GitHub).
• Has experience or knowledge, and a keen interest in CI/CD processes and writing tests.
• Has an extremely high bar for quality.
• Is thorough and detail-oriented.
• Can learn fast.
• Has great communication skills, particularly with respect to writing.
• Gains deep satisfaction from helping to make products better.
• Has experience or interest in working in a small business or startup environment.
• Preferably has experience collaborating with diverse, geographically dispersed teams

You’ll be a great fit for our team if:

• You are a proactive self-starter who does not need to be told what to do and will be resourceful to find solutions to any challenge.
• You thrive in a fast-paced and demanding environment and possess a high level of intellectual curiosity.
• You are collaborative.
• You find fulfilment in the job itself and happiness in a job well done.

Why work for us

We offer:

• Options for working your way: fully remote working, flexible hours and an allowance for a co-working space if you prefer.
• True autonomy, with freedom to own and grow the role you occupy.
• The opportunity to work in a growing SaaS company that is still small enough that you can make a real impact.
• An allowance for setting up your home office, a laptop, and any peripherals you need to do your job.
• An Employee Option Plan for all team members.
• A Health and Wellness fund to support your healthy lifestyle, as well as access to coaching and counselling services.
• Paid parental leave if you are growing your tribe.

We're building a high-performing engineering team where brilliance meets collaboration. Our team thrives on a vibrant mix of talent, including talented women in leadership roles and across all levels of seniority. Alongside colleagues from various backgrounds, nationalities, and age groups, this blend of perspectives fuels innovation and fosters a truly inclusive environment where everyone's voice is heard and valued.

The base salary range for this position is $80,000 - 120,000 AUD. Base salary ranges are determined by multiple factors unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skills, experience and local market benchmarks.

Shorthand’s interview process

We value direct communication here at Shorthand and want to be transparent on how we hire. Our process involves:

1. An initial Zoom screen: You’ll have an informal Zoom meeting with the hiring manager to discuss your background, the role, and what led you to apply.
2. A work task: We’ll ask you to complete a take-home task, similar to the work you’ll be doing in the role, using our software platform. This should take approximately 2-4 hours. This helps you to develop familiarity with our platform ahead of meeting with the hiring panel and helps us to verify that you’d be a great fit for the role.
3. Interviews: You’ll have interviews with the hiring panel over Zoom. This means you’ll typically get to meet another 3 people from Shorthand, including our CEO.
4. Final checks: The successful candidate will undergo a reference and criminal background check prior to us sending the final employment agreement.

Our workplace is 100% distributed and all interviews are conducted virtually unless otherwise advised. Please let us know of any reasonable accommodations you may need during the interview process. Applications close Monday 10 March 2025.