Caktus is a team of sharp web developers and designers who build high quality web applications. We are based in Durham, NC and we love collaborating on projects with our clients, who range from small non-profits (State Educational Technology Directors Association) to universities (UNC, UChicago) and large organizations (UNICEF, Mozilla, and CBS). We especially enjoy education and health focused work. Our passion is creating high quality, custom products. And we do it well.

We are looking for a Django Web Developer who is excited to tackle new and diverse projects and enjoys writing Python. As a member of the Caktus team, you’ll be involved in every aspect of development, from brainstorming, to prototyping, front-end HTML/CSS, Python/Django development, and JavaScript development. We would like to develop a long term relationship with someone seeking full time work. This position requires on site work in our Durham, NC office. 

As a Django Web Developer at Caktus you will:

Within 30 days:

• Follow agile development methodologies and take part in weekly team scrums and standup meetings
• Provide and incorporate constructive feedback on code reviews and use established Git/Mercurial branching models to stay in sync with the team
• Deploy changes to development servers frequently so client stakeholders see progress and feel connected to the process
• Create, implement and edit Django templates with compliant HTML5/CSS3 and use LESS/SASS to organize and make CSS easier to manage
• Model and implement intricate data structures using relational databases such as PostgreSQL

Within 60 days:

• Write complex Django apps following client specifications and Caktus and community development best practices
• Collaborate on 3-5 multiple ongoing projects and commit changes frequently to provide project leads and project managers with updates on progress
• Maintain a high level of unit test coverage across assigned projects to catch and prevent feature regressions
• Lead productive and collaborative implementation discussions with internal and client stakeholders
• Distill and transpose high level project requirements into user workflows and intuitive user interfaces
• Stay on top of and incorporate latest technologies into Caktus’ standard development stack

Within 90 days:

• Fulfill project development lead responsibilities when designated as lead on projects
• Help setup and run projects in production environments on Linux (Debian-flavor) with Nginx, Gunicorn, RabbitMQ, Celery, Redis and other tools frequently deployed alongside Django web apps
• Work with internal team and client stakeholders to scope and estimate development needs for new projects with potentially limited requirements
• Use JavaScript and frontend frameworks (Backbone.js, AngularJS) to achieve desired user experience and functionality when needed
• Help architect scalable solutions and performance-test applications to find and eliminate bottlenecks

Qualifications

• At least 2 years of experience building dynamic web applications in any language
• Has a strong grasp of Django development techniques
• Strong test driven development skills and familiarity with other agile methodologies
• A deep knowledge of relational databases, such as PostgreSQL or MySQL
• Proficiency in HTML and CSS
• Familiarity with Linux (Debian-flavor) desktop and server environments
• Excellent interpersonal and communication (both verbal and written) skills
• Self-motivated and resourceful, with the proven ability to multi-task and operate successfully under tight deadlines and time pressures
• Enjoys a fast pace, dynamic, challenging and team-oriented work environment

Bonus Points For

• Familiarity with JavaScript front-end frameworks (Backbone.js, AngularJS)
• Deployment experience using Apache, Ngninx + Gunicorn, or other WSGI-based web servers
• Familiarity with CSS preprocessors (LESS, SASS)