• One-year contract (with a view to become permanent full-time)
• 4 - 5 days per week
• Melbourne, Australia (Hybrid)
• $75,000 - $100,000 (pro rata) + super + NFP salary packaging
• Starting as soon as possible

The Opportunity

You will be joining an ambitious and compassionate team, motivated by our vision of a world where everyone can access justice. You will be the sixth employee in our social enterprise legal service, and will play a key role in building out our unique service model.

As the first full time software developer you will lead the development and implementation of the organisation’s tech strategy with a high degree of autonomy, with the aim of developing towards becoming our CTO. This will include responsibility for our public website, case management system, client intake form and reporting. All of this infrastructure is in-house, custom built software which we will be continuing to maintain and extend.

We want to change how free legal services are provided using technology. We want to see how far we can scale our services, how efficient we can make them and how we can help people in new ways. We want to build our own software, try new things and take risks. We want you to be a part of that.

Why We Exist

There is an unmet need for legal assistance. Each year, over 4 million Australians can’t access the legal assistance they need. Those who can get it often struggle with services that are difficult for regular people to understand.

There is also an unmet need for practical legal training. Thousands of law students miss out on getting practical legal experience every year, even though they are willing to volunteer their time and services.

What We Do

We provide free, online legal assistance to people who can’t access it otherwise. We provide this help to the community through an online platform, which is powered by law students seeking practical legal experience through paid university programs. Currently our sole focus is supporting people to access safe, secure and affordable homes, by helping renters:

• Get their landlords to repair their homes
• Get their bonds back after moving home
• Negotiate a payment plan with their landlords and avoid eviction

Key Responsibilities

You will report to the Head of Operations (Jacqui Siebel), and work closely with our volunteer Head of Technology (Matt Segal), who will be handing his responsibilities over to the successful candidate.

By the end of the handover period, you will be responsible for Anika’s tech portfolio, including our codebases, websites, cloud infrastructure, data storage, security posture and strategy.

You will work closely with the team to improve our internal tools and build out new software. This collaboration will require that you, alongside other team members, do things that aren’t strictly writing code: including gathering requirements, designing mockups, managing projects and talking to users. You will be maintaining our current systems, including our:

• Client intake questionnaire (React SPA)
• Case management system (Django, React)
• Public website and blog (Django, Wagtail)
• CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Docker, bash)
• Analytics and reporting (Retool, Google Analytics)
• Database and cloud servers (AWS, Ubuntu, Postgres, NGINX, Docker, bash)

Who Are We Looking For?

We’re looking for a software developer with 2+ years of professional experience who is willing to pick up what is necessary to get the job done, and eventually lead our Technology function. Someone who will embrace a startup culture that is for-purpose, largely volunteer-run and asynchronous. We value someone who is:

• Motivated by creating social impact
• Eager for challenge and responsibility
• Ambitious and innovative
• Keen to work closely with the rest of the team
• Pragmatic, determined, and like getting things done.
• Interested in learning how to do new things

Experience in our current tools is beneficial, though not required if you've got equivalent experience using something analogous. Some skills can be transferred during the handover period. Base experience in web development is a prerequisite.

How To Apply

Send us your CV and cover letter

To apply for this role, fill out the form by clicking "Apply Now", which will ask you to upload your CV and answer a few questions about yourself. Do not submit your application by email - these will not be considered.

If you have further queries about the role, contact Jacqui Siebel (Head of Operations) at [email protected] using the subject line: Lead Software Developer enquiry via EthicalJobs. To receive notifications about new positions and updates on what's happening at Anika, you can sign up for our mailing list here.