Jobs at Zotero

Zotero is an open-source project that develops software and web services to help people collect, organize, cite, and share their research. Our software is recommended by universities worldwide and used by students, scholars, researchers, scientists, and many others.

We’re committed to providing equal employment opportunity and a work environment free from any discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, or pregnancy status.

Full-Stack Developer

We’re looking for a full-stack developer to work on the Zotero desktop app and across the Zotero ecosystem. Your job will be, most simply, to make Zotero as good as it can be, working on any part of the project to help advance that goal. This position is for someone with a wide range of skills: you should be comfortable obsessing over a stray pixel in a user interface or designing a new web API from scratch. Your work might include improving the Zotero desktop software and browser extensions, building back-end services to power new features, or enhancing developer tools to make it easier for others to contribute to Zotero. As part of a small team, you’ll have responsibility over core components of the project and the freedom to experiment and find creative solutions to tough problems. Most importantly, you’ll participate in a vibrant global open-source community with amazing community developers and passionate users.

We’re an international team, and in happier times, we meet up occasionally around the world (falafel joint in Paris, fries spot in Luxembourg, cafe in New York City), but you’ll primarily be working remotely, communicating with Zotero developers and users via chat rooms, forums, GitHub, and mailing lists. We have a highly collaborative but asynchronous workflow, and you’ll be in control of your own schedule. Our hours are flexible and variable: we might be debating a new feature at 1 p.m. or deploying a major upgrade at 1 a.m.

Requirements

  • Extensive experience with JavaScript and at least one other server-side language (e.g., PHP, Python, Go)
  • Experience building user-facing software and/or web apps
  • Experience working with and/or developing web APIs
  • Strong opinions about how software should work, with the empathy to understand how it’s used in the real world
  • Willingness to engage directly with users in public forums to troubleshoot problems and discuss new features
  • Strong attention to privacy and security issues — Zotero is designed to put users in control of their own data, and we factor that into every decision we make
  • Strong English communication skills — we discuss and debate nearly everything we do, so it’s critical that you can (and want to!) take part in that

Bonus Points

  • Previous remote work experience (ideally prior to two months ago…)
  • Experience building browser extensions
  • A love of free and open-source software

This is a full-time, open-ended, contract position.

Interested? Email us at jobs@zotero.org with the subject line “Zotero Full-Stack Developer”, let us know why you’re interested in working with us and why you think you’d be a good fit for this role, and include your résumé.