Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer

Note: ROOST is hiring multiple software engineering roles at multiple levels from mid-career, Senior, and Staff. This posting is for multiple software engineering roles, both at the Software Engineer and Senior Software Engineer level. Level and area of focus will be determined in the interview process. Please see https://roost.tools/careers/ for additional roles.

These positions are fully remote and available in multiple countries. If you are interested but not located in the country of this post, please apply.

Position Overview
Robust Open Online Safety Tools (ROOST) is seeking Software Engineers to join our team in building the safety infrastructure for the AI powered internet. As a member of our team you will design, implement, and optimize large scale systems for online safety, like rules engines, review tools, and ML platforms for supervised and unsupervised classifier training. You will work closely with ROOST’s team members including our growing engineering team, our Technical Design Committee, and the open source community of contributors.

As a member of our engineering team, you will be responsible for leading projects, managing execution timelines while making decisions about scalability, quality, and usability. You will communicate with the community as well as the users of our infrastructure to explain the project capabilities, status, and listen to feedback for improvement. If you are passionate about online safety, excited about the open source mission, and able to work with a diverse group of developers, this is the role for you.

What We're Building
ROOST is creating foundational infrastructure for a trust and safety workflow. This is the infrastructure that enables an organization to detect policy-violating content or behavior, then route, review, enforce, and log that content and or behavior. This is a system that’s heavy on data ingestion and processing, enforcing user-defined rules, and must be performant at scale.

We also know AI is creating new challenges and opportunities for online safety; we’re building tools that are resilient and relevant to these changes. ROOST’s drafted, near-term roadmap is publicly available, as is the investigation and rules engine, Osprey.

https://github.com/roostorg/osprey
https://github.com/roostorg/community/blob/main/roadmap.md

Key Responsibilities
Bring the best of safety technology for the users of ROOST tools.
Lead the development of ROOSTs online safety infrastructure projects.
Drive decisions for best engineering choices for scalability, interoperability, extensibility, and maintenance. Make implementation decisions and trade-offs in consultation with the engineering team and the CTO.
Bring technical leadership and experience to the software engineering project and be responsible for getting user and community buy-in to engineering decisions.
Collaborate with diverse stakeholders - trust and safety teams, open source community, and academic researchers.
Mentor and provide guidance to community developers, community members, and the users of ROOST’s tools.

As a core contributor to ROOST’s open source projects
Participate in an engineering culture of high quality execution and teamwork. This includes participating in product design and milestone planning; instilling code quality, rigor, testing, and monitoring; and ensuring quality developer experiences through documentation.
Manage timely development and shipping of software with predictable features and bug fixes
Evaluate and incorporate user and contributor feedback into the projects

Qualifications
Must-have
3-5 years of experience in software design and development and at least 1-2 years of experience building large-scale infrastructure like data processing, analytics, or ML platforms.
Exhibits attention to detail in focusing on reliability, scalability, security, and continuous improvement.
Proven record of working with disparate teams and individuals, understanding issues, and making decisions and communicating them transparently.
A language polyglot – comfortable learning and working in new languages. ROOST’s current toolstack is Python and Typescript, with user-created rules in a SQL-adjacent format. Future tools are likely to use common infrastructure languages like Python, Rust, and Go.

Nice-to-have
Understanding of the open source ecosystem and prior contributions to OSS
Experience analyzing and improving efficiency, scalability, and stability of various system resources
Prior experience building or maintaining machine learning platforms
Prior experience in startups, nonprofits, and or small team environments

About ROOST
ROOST is a community effort to build scalable and resilient safety infrastructure for the AI era. Many organizations – big and small – still lack access to basic safety resources, hindering innovation and putting users at risk.

ROOST develops, maintains, and distributes open source building blocks to safeguard global users and communities. Backed by dedicated technical teams and leading experts, ROOST meets organizations where they are and provides hands-on support at every stage of their safety journey. You can learn more about the ROOST launch and our partners’ support at roost.tools.

Compensation and Structure
This is a full time position reporting to the Chief Technology Officer, and collaborating closely with ROOST’s Head of Product.
ROOST is a remote organization with global hiring flexibility; this role will be expected to work a majority of hours overlapping with North American timezones.
ROOST aims to offer competitive compensation based on candidates’ experience and their regional market. In the US, the compensation range is $160,000 - 240,000 USD. This role is eligible for a performance-based bonus.
Comprehensive Benefits Package:
Premium health, dental, and vision coverage for employee and dependents
401(k) with matching
PTO
Remote-first work environment with flexible hours
ROOST is a non-profit fiscally sponsored by Global Impact. Individuals based in the US will be employed by Global Impact on behalf of ROOST.

What you'll experience at ROOST
As part of our early-stage team of 6 people and close to 30 community partners, you’ll have a pivotal role shaping how ROOST evolves during its initial growth phase.
A community that genuinely values different perspectives and approaches
The chance to work across organizational boundaries with partners who share our mission
The opportunity to build technology that makes a meaningful difference in online safety and helps protect vulnerable communities online
The chance to define best practices in an emerging field and contribute to safer digital spaces globally
Regular opportunities to engage with industry and civic leaders and working on Trust & Safety challenges
Flexible work arrangements that prioritize results and impact over traditional office structures

How to apply
Please share your resume and a brief note about why ROOST's mission resonates with you and how your experience could help us advance it. Send these materials to hiring@roost.tools with "SWE - [Your Name]" in the subject line.

ROOST is committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of communities we aim to serve. We especially encourage applications from people whose perspectives are traditionally underrepresented in technology.
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