Benetech® :: Join Us :: Position Postings

Position Postings: bringing heart and mind together

Want to apply your skills to directly helping society? Do you fantasize about getting paid a reasonable wage to make the world a better place? Benetech® is Silicon Valley's deliberately nonprofit tech company, and we apply technology to directly assist the causes of literacy, accessibility, human rights and the environment.

Software QA Engineer

Benetech is looking for a self-starter and team player with a history of innovation and excellence in software testing and test automation. The individual will be part of an agile software development team and be responsible for testing our enterprise web applications and building/extending our automated test framework.

This contract position on-site in Palo Alto, CA.

Core Responsibilities

Find and report system defects. Think like an owner and act as an advocate for the customer.
Participate in requirements and design review to identify requirements gaps and ensure testability of system software components.
Design, implement, and maintain comprehensive test scripts based upon software specifications and system architecture designs.
Plan, develop, and execute system and regression level testing scenarios.
Create and maintain test data sets for use by test scripts.
Build and maintain an automated web application-testing infrastructure and integrate into our continuous integration system.
Develop automated functional and regression tests for our web applications.
Help define, implement, and refine best practices for software testing using agile processes.
Work with cross-functional team to troubleshoot software issues and perform root cause analysis of system problems.

Qualifications

Genuine passion for software testing, problem solving, and quality assurance.
Development of comprehensive data driven automated test suites for web applications.
Test Planning, Test Case Design, and Testing. This is a hands-on testing role, not just automation development.
Functional domain knowledge of one or more of the following areas: web site security, web site accessibility, assistive technologies, accessible file formats.
Proficiency using SQL and experience working with complex data sets within a relational database.
Experience with UNIX/Linux command line tools.
Professional experience illustrating dedication, loyalty and progression.
Demonstrable history of improving your skills inside and outside the workplace.
Bachelor's degree (or its equivalent) in Computer Science, Engineering or related field.

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User Interface Engineer

Benetech is seeking a part time User Interface Engineer who will play a critical role as a front-end designer & developer for Bookshare and occasionally other Benetech products and sites. The UI Engineer will design and improve web page layout, graphics, site navigation and look and feel, while working in concert with the Product Manager and Engineering team with regard to improved interaction design. S/he will take on the role of implementing front-end centric business priorities on the product roadmap, including improving & extending the CMS, as well as helping fulfill content change requests not yet implemented in the CMS.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Work on UI aspects of development projects, impacting the effectiveness and usability of Bookshare and Route66 Literacy products, as well as on the Benetech website or new micro-sites as needed. These may include such projects as: navigational redesign, implementing a web analytics solution, redesigning/personalizing the home page based on user role, adding visible "counters" based on system data, UI work on book workflow tools, formatting reports and suggestions on other site redesign both visually and from an interaction design standpoint.
Act as the primary engineer supporting certain Marketing and other projects, such as:

New CSS for brochureware
New international pages and customization of interior pages by country
SEO
Support for contests
Blogging platform and other embedded social media

Improve CMS interface so content changes can be made by Marketing & Ops; develop & update CMS page templates, such as for landing pages, bulletins and press releases. Assist Marketing and Operations personnel in utilizing CMS as needed.
Approx 5 hours/week on pure content changes - goal to reduce this to near zero via CMS development.
Take direction from Product Manager on product priorities. Work as part of the Engineering development and QA process, working with assignments via Jira. Content updates will be driven by Marketing, Operations and others via Product Manager.

Qualifications

Minimum of 5 years experience in web user interface design/development and the use and development of analytics, SEO, and other front end functions
Demonstrated experience in Java, XML, CSS, HTML ; understanding of Ajax and ARIA preferred; experience with design tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Visio, and Dreamweaver
Strong UI mindset with a deep understanding of how to develop easy to use interfaces that solve for workflows
Understanding and some experience with accessible website design and understanding of basic web security concerns. E.g., cross-site scripting
Experience rapidly building and testing UI prototypes, moving concepts along through iterative thinking, developing detailed wireframes, flowcharts, mockups, etc.
Experience with end-user usability testing & analysis of user behavior data
Familiar with multiple frameworks, UI design pattern
Experience with some kind of dynamic templating solution like JSP (we use Freemarker)
Experience/familiarity with agile development methodology, working with QA, familiarity with bug tracking systems ( e.g. Jira), and experience with any brand of revision history management tool (we use Subversion)
Understanding of content management systems and implementation within a dynamic web engineering environment
Familiarity with Web 2.0 tools and widgets & manipulation of images to optimize for web; flash animation and web analytics
Bachelors Degree in Computer Science or related discipline. Preferred: Focus on Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science or related field

Interpersonal Skills & Critical Success Factors:

Ability to manage multiple inputs and speak up when problems and questions occur
Comfortable sharing ideas in a group of diverse people
Thorough documentation of technical work
Prompt turn-around; able to make changes within 24 hours if necessary
Meticulous, thorough with page edits and code changes
Driven to make a difference in society

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Vice President, Engineering (#VPE)

The Vice President of Engineering defines and oversees the technology and systems required to maintain Benetech operations and projects. Responsibilities include product development, managing an existing talented development team and representing the technical side of the Benetech externally to partners, both tech and financial. The Vice President of Engineering will work with the existing team to establish a comprehensive strategy for new application development and the migration of existing applications.

The Vice President of Engineering will work in a team environment, understand business requirements and lead the creation of corresponding technical solutions. S/he will set technical direction and will mentor and manage the technical staff.

Candidate should be a self-starter who is process oriented, able to see the big picture while paying attention to details and have an aptitude for systems architecture. Creativity in problem solving with minimal resources is a core capability. Candidates must have a demonstrated passion for improving the world: this is not just another technology management position!

This position is on-site in Palo Alto, California, and reports to the CEO.

Essential duties

Provide primary technology leadership for Benetech.
Provide day-to-day management and strategic direction for the technology team, both directly and through existing engineering management.
Ensure the performance of the technology team as measured by objectives and within budgets.
Help define the core Benetech messages and positioning and ensure accurate communication to technical audiences.
Assist in the development of Benetech and project business and operational plans.
Leverage limited resources to achieve incredible results.
Mentor staff for personal development and to improve technical performance.
Steward Benetech culture through position responsibilities, including internal and external relationships.

In addition to core Benetech management responsibilities, other duties and responsibilities may include the following:

Brainstorm innovative technical solutions. Work with members of the Benetech technical staff, technology leaders and others to develop cost-effective and innovative solutions to social needs.
Build and direct teams to work on specific projects, including paid staff, fellow, interns and volunteers.
Maintain and expand Benetech’s relationships with the technology community.
Provide technical leadership in the technology development process and represent the interests of users by working with product managers.
Provide leadership and direction for IT infrastructure and oversight for operational functions encompassing systems acquisition, system support and maintenance, networking and direction of all IT services across Benetech
Be aware of social needs for technology that cannot be solved by the for-profit sector.
Maintain familiarity with current technology innovations to ensure that Benetech is developing solutions with best practices and current technology.
Assist in raising capital for specific initiatives. Work with fund raising staff to identify and secure funding for specific projects.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree (B.A./B.S.) in computer science or a related field with at least ten years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience; graduate degree preferred
An excellent manager with a track record (7 years +) of achieving results in software development
Experience with web services and content delivery
Demonstrated skill in capacity planning, budgeting and conflict management, and the ability to impart these skills to others
Track record of successful technology leadership outside of a single company
Nonprofit and/or volunteer service highly desirable
Familiarity with technology policy and standards
Aptitude for streamlining engineering operations
Strong communication abilities, including writing and public speaking
Ability to excite and inspire technologists behind a vision
Ability to plan, organize, implement, evaluate, and modify programs, informational support systems and processes
Ability to read, analyze, interpret and write business plans, financial plans and general business documents
Ability to effectively present information to top management, public groups and/or boards of directors
Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts and draw valid conclusions
Creative problem solving skills
Ability to work well with a wide range of people
Personal belief in our mission

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Volunteer Coordinator, Interim (#VCI)

Position Summary: Lead the national Bookshare.org volunteer community in expanding Bookshare.org, the world's largest collection of digital electronic books for the blind and print disabled. The library currently contains over 80,000 volumes. Through a special mandate from the US Department of Education, the collection will grow over to include over 100,000 additional volumes in support of all print-disabled students nationwide. Bookshare.org is a very different library, where our volunteers are the engine of book creation. You will educate and train new members, and set policies which lead to the highest quality books for the Bookshare.org collection. The volunteers are an active and passionate community of people with disabilities and others who love books and are dedicated to the growth and excellence of the Bookshare.org. collection. The individual will also lead communication and support for the volunteer community, recruiting volunteers and meeting the needs of a dynamic and growing movement around providing access to books for all.

The Volunteer Coordinator will assist the Bookshare.org volunteer community to educate and train new members, and set policies which lead to the highest quality books for the Bookshare.org collection. The individual will also have responsibilities to handle recruitment and outreach for new volunteers and provide technical support to the volunteer community.

This is a six to eight week interim position to cover while Benetech's Volunteer Coordinator is on leave.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Recruit, train, educate and support the Bookshare.org volunteer community
Create and publish regular written communication with the volunteers
Provide phone-based and email-based customer support for the volunteer community
Maintain a website for the volunteers
Be an active Bookshare volunteer and provide a role model for volunteer activity
Submit bug reports and feature requests from the volunteer community and work closely with the Operations and Engineering teams to guide their implementation

Qualifications

Excellent communication skills, both written and oral
Experience being part of a large volunteer community with some experience in a leadership position
Familiarity with and belief in the mission of Bookshare.org
Demonstrable experience as a leader of a volunteer community a strong plus.
Knowledge of scanning, validation and OCR technologies for printed materials.
Experience with assistive technology for print-disabled users.
Basic skills in web page design and maintenance
Some experience with publishing, editing or librarianship.

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