Jr. Back-End Engineer

In a world where political polarization and media distrust are at an all-time high, Ground News offers people a better way to stay informed and open-minded. Our mobile app, web app, and browser extension are home to a community of mindful newsreaders who use our news comparison platform to easily see every side of a story and engage with news beyond their filter bubble.

Unlike most news companies, our audience and our values do not align with any specific political ideology. Unlike most tech platforms, we don’t use manipulative algorithms to keep users on our platform to sell more ads. 

We are supported by our readers who pay for a subscription to build a more nuanced understanding of the news, the world, and themselves.

• #1 on Product Hunt (Oct 19, '20), #2 (Nov 17, '21), #2 (Mar 26, '21)

• #2 on 2025 Apple Design Awards in the Social Impact category

• Techstars portfolio company

• 3-time winner of US App of the Day 

• Winner of Digital News Innovation Challenge by Facebook

• Winner of Mobile Apps Showdown at CES

• Featured at Mobile World Congress

• Featured in the New York Times, Financial Times, Newsmax, Forbes and more.

At Ground News, our Engineering team is composed of talented, mission-driven individuals. As a Back-End Engineer, you’ll play an important role in shaping our infrastructure and products. We’re looking for someone who’s energized by the idea of building products that help people understand the vast and often overwhelming information ecosystem we live in. You’ll join a team that values autonomy, innovation, and thoughtful engineering.

• Designing, developing, testing, and deploying new features.

• Fixing bugs and driving performance improvements.

• Collaborating with fellow developers, the Product team, and working cross-functionally to incorporate product feedback and user insights.

• Participating in daily stand-ups.

Our Back-End Stack Includes:

• Node.js with Express for routing.

• TypeScript with async/await for modern, efficient code.

• MySQL as the primary data source.

• ElasticSearch for indexing and retrieving complex, cross-table documents.

• Redis and Cloudfront for robust caching and traffic management.

• 1-2 years of back-end development experience.

• Proficiency in TypeScript, including strong understanding of async/await.

• Experience with Node.js in a production environment.

• Solid understanding of relational databases, ideally MySQL.

• Familiarity with ElasticSearch and caching systems like Redis.

• A proactive mindset with a passion for learning and growing as a developer.

• Critical thinking skills and the ability to write scalable, efficient code.

• Experience with Vue.js (used for our internal admin tools).

• Familiarity with AWS services (EC2, ECS, CloudFront, S3, CloudWatch, etc.).

• Working knowledge of Google APIs (e.g., entity analysis, Places API).

• Background in UI/UX design or cross-browser extension development.

• Experience with email development tools like Amazon SES or MJML.

Co-founded by a former NASA engineer and Bain consultant, a position with Ground News provides an unparalleled learning experience both personally and professionally. At Ground, we prioritize growth: both for our business and team members. You’ll have the freedom to work remotely and play a key role in the development of Ground News products. 

This is an opportunity to work with a growing and mighty team that is committed to building a world where cooperative, civil debate is the norm, media is accountable, and critical thought is the baseline of our information consumption. Ground is based in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, but this role is remote.

Ground News is an equitable workplace and we take pride in being a harassment-free and discrimination-free space for everyone. Our culture is one of collaboration, creativity, and diverse perspectives. 

We are committed to building and fostering an inclusive, accessible environment for everyone. If you have any questions, concerns, or require any accessibility accommodations during our interview process, please contact talent@ground.news and a member of our team will be happy to support you.