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Software Engineer (Ruby on Rails + React)
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This is a remote job.
We're looking for a junior engineer to join the team behind Postcard - the platform that runs Smaller Earth Group's cultural exchange programmes. It's the software that takes a young person from "I think I want to work a summer abroad" all the way to standing in front of a cabin of kids in Maine, or a chalet in the Alps, having the time of their life.
You'd be joining a small, internal product team. "Small" means your work carries real weight - what you ship genuinely moves the business, and there's nowhere for good (or bad) decisions to hide. "Internal product team" means you're close to the people who actually use Postcard every day, and close to the participants and employers on the other end of it. No ticket factories, no three sprints of refinement before anyone writes a line of code. Just real problems - applications, payments, matching the right person to the right placement - and the satisfaction of solving them properly.
Postcard runs the core of a global business. So there's the usual tension we find genuinely fun: keep a mature platform stable and trustworthy, while moving fast enough to build the things that'll carry it forward.
The stack - Ruby on Rails 8 and MySQL doing the heavy lifting, with a mix of legacy JavaScript and Hotwire (Turbo + Stimulus) on the front end. Background work on Sidekiq, payments on Stripe, deployments via Capistrano and tests in RSpec. We also have two user-facing portals written in React which interface with Postcard over an API.
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This Role Is Ideal If You
- have any experience building products - either professionally or to scratch your own itch
- have an eye for good UI/UX - you sweat the details users feel but never mention: empty states, sensible defaults, error messages that actually help
- like the idea, and have experience, of working AI-first, but staying fully accountable for everything you ship
- are a fast learner and enjoy applying new technologies to solve problems (and importantly, enjoy learning how they work!)
- want to help foster a culture of psychological safety, inclusivity, and continuous improvement
You don't need to know anything about summer camps or cultural exchange. (Fair warning, though: you'll absorb a worrying amount of knowledge about placement matching and visa processes either way.)
This role is open to newcomers to Rails and React - if our stack isn't the one you've worked in, but you can point to solid, proven experience building things in other frameworks, we'd love to hear from you.
Our benefits
- 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays
- 5% employee and 3% employer pension contributions (5% from October 2026)
- We offer mental health support with free same-day therapist support for all employees via Spill
- Remote working; most of the product team work remotely. We're headquartered in Liverpool and meet there in person occasionally - good coffee, decent views, mild peer pressure to talk product over lunch
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Why Smaller Earth Group?
- As of 2024, we're an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) - the company is owned by the people who work in it, including (if you join) you
- Modern office space on the iconic Docks in Liverpool city centre, with scenic views and dangerous proximity to good lunch spots
- Work-life balance: flexible arrangements, whether that's remote or our relaxed workspace at Avenue HQ
- International travel opportunities: it's what we do, after all…
About Smaller Earth Group
Established in 1999 in Liverpool, England, Smaller Earth Group is a leading global provider of cultural exchange programs and technology. We operate brands across 14 countries, with a strong presence in the UK, Europe, North America, South America and Asia Pacific. The short version: we help young people work, travel, and grow - and we build the technology that makes it happen.
Smaller Earth Group is an equal opportunities employer - we welcome applications from everyone regardless of background.
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