Junior Software Developer

Location: Our office in Marion, IA; no remote option.
Full-time. No part-time or contract option.
Must be US citizen or eligible to work in US without sponsorship.
Competitive salary and benefits.

What We're Looking For

At Laridian we're all about creating a great Bible study experience on our users' mobile devices, Windows PCs and Macs. This is a combination of creating apps that fit the way they study the Bible, then supplying them with Bibles and Bible reference books they need.

We're looking for someone with strong object-oriented programming skills in Java, C++, or C# who has a passion for the Bible and a desire to do something of significance with their Computer Science degree.

What It's Like Here

Laridian is a small company that has varied in size over the years — from as few as 1 to as many as 10 employees. We outsource a lot of the mundane businessy stuff, but we really prefer to employ full-time, in-house programmers to write the apps that our customers depend on.

Our founders created Laridian to be a place where they (and the people who work here) could enjoy working. We don't set hard and fast deadlines. We like to let the work itself motivate us, not the threat of missing deadlines and getting fired.

We use Macs here. Even if you end up developing for Windows, you'll probably do that on a shiny new Mac running Windows in a VM under Parallels.

While you'll be working at our office here in Marion, we spent the first 12-13 years of our company's history working out of our homes and from coffee shops — so we're not averse to doing that as a change of pace from time to time. But most of the time you'll be at the office.

Laridian's Development Philosophy

We don't follow a formal software development paradigm here, but what we do is closer to the agile model than a traditional waterfall model. We've tried to build a flexible foundation in our apps that allows us to add features incrementally without massive redesign. We incorporate user feedback into the process, involving outside testers early enough in the development process that their feedback often affects the design of a feature significantly. User feedback after release is recorded and drives new features and enhancements in subsequent releases, frequently resulting in point-releases in a matter of hours or days when necessary.

We consider all developers to be full-stack developers in the sense that they all need to be aware of our users' needs; they all need to understand the overall architecture of our apps and how their code fits and cooperates with the rest of the app; they all need to be able to implement the solutions they design; and they all need to be able to communicate with users during and after release. Everyone will, at times and as necessary, work directly on front-end, user-experience portions of the code; implement the internals and business logic; design server APIs; write back-end server code; and communicate directly with users to solve problems and learn how they're using our apps.

What You'll Be Doing

We're looking for someone with the flexibility to be coding in Java for Android one week and Objective-C for macOS the next. Or tagging a new commentary or Bible with a little help from a quick little Perl or Java script. It doesn't matter that you don't know all of those languages or that you're not familiar with all those platforms. We'll help you learn what you need to know.

The books we publish start out as XML or HTML documents we get from publishers. You'll learn about the PocketBible ecosystem by writing some simple scripts to tag these files and create some books. Our tagging system is HTML-based. Once we tag a book it goes through our BookBuilder app to create the LBK file that we ship to customers. Understanding the features and format of our books is key to understanding how our apps work, so we want you to thoroughly understand that process.

Next, you'll learn about our existing code by implementing some new features in the Android (Java) version of PocketBible. You may end up being responsible for maintaining that version of PocketBible on your own. We'll also get you into the Mac and iOS versions (Objective-C and C++) and over the long term, get you writing some cross-platform JavaScript under Node.js.

You'll frequently come back to tagging a book for a week or so, and doing a little tech support to keep you in touch with our customers' needs.

Finally, PocketBible is more than an app running on a phone. It has a lot of interaction with our servers to sync user-created data (notes, highlights, and bookmarks) and to give users access to the books and Bibles they own. You may get involved in some of the back-end server work as well.

Minimum Requirements

You'll have the best shot at this position if you meet these minimum requirements:

• A bachelors degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience.
• Strong knowledge of object oriented programming with Java, C++, Objective-C, or C#.
• Experience with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• Familiarity with the Bible, Bible study tools, and Bible study methods.
• Strong written communication skills in the English language.

You Should Apply If...

You are a student of the Bible. You're involved in a small group Bible study through your church. You use an app on your phone for Bible reading.

You've trained to be a programmer but would like to find a job that allows you to marry your personal study of Scripture with the passion you have for technology.

You take a long-term view of your career. Maybe you'd like to work for yourself someday, but you know you need to get some experience first. The idea of working in a small shop where you can gain a broad range of experience in both development and business from a seasoned developer/entrepreneur fits that plan.

Bonus Points

Stand-out applicants will have had some training (formal or informal) in biblical languages (Hebrew or Greek). They will have had to prepare a sermon or Bible study lesson. They are familiar with one or more top-tier Bible study products like Logos, Accordance, or WordSearch.

Since we're primarily a mobile development shop, having developed a mobile app, either personally or professionally, would help you understand better what we do.

A couple years of programming experience would move your résumé to the top of the stack. But we consider this an entry-level position — don't hesitate to apply if you're fresh out of school with a lot of enthusiasm and little experience.

Compensation

Salary will be competitive and negotiable. In addition, we have:

• A generous and flexible vacation/personal-day policy.
• A profit-sharing/bonus plan.
• An innovative option to expensive health insurance.
• Flexible hours. I'd like to see you working 8-hour days but don't care which 8 hours as long as most of them are during daylight.

We expect to fill this position with a local candidate and haven't been planning to pay relocation expenses, but if you are an ideal candidate from out-of-town, go ahead and apply.

Logistics

Send your résumé and cover letter as a PDF attachment to jobs@laridian.com.

Make sure your cover letter addresses any obvious shortcomings in your experience vs. our minimum requirements. If your résumé doesn't mention anything about your Bible background or one of the other requirements, make sure you explain in your cover letter.

We will reply to every application and will keep you informed of our decision-making process.