2 Open Data Backend Developers (Full Time / Remote)
Data Backend Developer Free Law Project hosts the biggest open collection of Federal court data with around half a billion records. Now we're working to expand it to the most populous states in the country. This project is currently funded for one year, but we expect it to be proven in the market and for funding to continue. The data gathered for this project will be made available to hundreds of thousands of people through our website, our search engine, and our APIs. As the first developer on this project, you will work with the CourtListener team to begin collecting data from state courts to share on our platform. This will involve developing and running high-scale crawlers to collect the data, then developing APIs to provide it to our users. We're looking for somebody that has deep experience in the following:
- Languages: Python, SQL
- Scraping: lxml, XPath, Python requests, HTTP
- Building robust, fault-tolerant scrapers to fetch data from diverse state court websites, including experience handling session-cookie flows, pagination, dynamic content, JavaScript, CAPTCHAs, rate limits, etc.
- Automated testing Familiarity with designing and implementing automated tests to ensure code quality and maintainability.
- Database: Modeling, PostgreSQL
- Excellent and detailed written communication and a demonstrated ability to work independently on larger technical projects are also important for this role.
Proficiency with the following is preferred, though expertise is not a must:
- Celery distributed task queues including task canvases
- Django framework, migrations, and Django REST API
- An understanding of the American legal system
The following are nice-to-haves:
- Knowledge of the Github workflow
- Experience working with open source code and in open-culture organizations
- A gnawing frustration with the current legal ecosystem
The base salary range for this US-based, full-time, remote, and exempt position begins at $125,000, not including variable compensation. This is a benefits-eligible position. Free Law Project offers paid time-off, company paid holidays, SIMPLE IRA retirement program with a company elected match, bereavement leave, and assistance with health insurance premiums. You can learn more about our benefits and team culture here. Free Law Project is an equal opportunity employer. The Company offers employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, marital status, veteran status, citizenship, genetic information, hairstyles, or any other status protected by local or federal law.