Frontend Engineer Fellow Job Description

Owned by Erica Kigotho
Last updated: Apr 09, 2024 by Ayush Mishra
3 min read

We sustain our open-source software project through technical collaboration with many organizations and volunteers. The Global Product Support Team helps coordinate this effort. Currently we are creating the next generation of the OpenMRS product: “OpenMRS 3.0” or “O3”, leveraging technical contributors in our community's multi-organizational Frontend Squad. More on the history of O3 here; and development docs here. 

In this case, the Frontend Engineer Fellow will be a key member supporting an OpenMRS Community Organization to set up and configure a distribution OpenMRS 3; and, will help enhance community documentation to make this experience even easier for future similar projects. 

The OpenMRS Fellowship Program aims to expand our community’s capacity by providing practical opportunities to develop advanced skill sets with the support and guidance of mentors and other technical experts. Development Fellows are skilled coders who are on their way to becoming expert OpenMRS developers. They have experience with the OpenMRS tech stack and can handle moderate to complex issues. 

  • Seeking: Frontend Engineer Fellow

  • Length: 6 months, full time.

  • Location: Remote (Global)

  • About our Frontend Technology: React, TypeScript, Webpack, SWC, REST, Husky, ESLint, Jest, Service Workers, Carbon Design, and Single-SPA.

Role Overview

  • Lead the continuous improvement of OpenMRS product through leadership of the various O3 core team and O3 feature squads; including identifying and executing best practice engineering techniques, developing strategic approaches to solve problems and address needs, and supporting other O3 community members to contribute effectively with high quality code to the O3 codebase.

  • Improve & maintain documentation for frontend development (e.g. the READMEs of major repos, our frontend developer guide, the esm-core API docs). Identify gaps in the documentation that is needed to guide feature developers, and work with the O3 teams and squads to address those gaps.

  • Build close connections with developers from the NGOs, vendors, and other orgs active in community software development, to understand their needs and task-share or coach them on tasks with community benefit (e.g. from the Frontend Framework or O3 features boards). 

  • Technical guidance to organizations implementing OMRS. Be a person who implementation developers can turn to when they have technical or system design issues. 

Requirements

  • 2+ years of experience as a front end or full stack developer.

  • 2+ years of experience working with web/internet standards, and leveraging or querying database technologies (MYSQL, Postgres, MSSQL or equivalent).  

  • Demonstrable experience writing well-structured JavaScript applications. React development experience with knowledge about how React works (e.g. hooks, render/resolution/commit, etc). 

  • Some experience with CI/CD. 

  • Proficient with peer code review. 

  • Software development experience as part of a team, with some experience in a leading role for a team, project, or release cycle.

  • Excellent communication skills. We’re a distributed team, so frequent and clear written communication is a must. (e.g. forum posts, clear draft GitHub PRs).

  • Flexibility to accommodate working with collaborators in various international time zones.

  • Access to high-speed internet for team and community real-time calls (e.g. via Zoom, Slack Huddle, etc).

  • Proficiency in the English language, both written and verbal. 

  • Self-driven work ethic & problem-solver. Self-starter who loves taking initiative and seeing things through to completion. Love for coding and solving problems.

Desired Skills and Attributes

  • Can demonstrate understanding of O3 set-up, development, and test-writing - such as by demonstrating successful completion of the O3 for Devs and O3 Quality Assurance academy courses. 

  • Typescript and Webpack experience preferred, or equivalent technology.

  • Experience with development collaboration and tracking tools; such as GitHub, issue tracking (Jira), wiki (Confluence), communications (forum and Slack). 

  • Experience working with electronic medical records or other health information systems used at the clinic or point of service level.

  • Experience contributing to open source projects.

  • Completed or In-Progress Bachelor’s or higher degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Informatics, Information Science, or a related field or equivalent market experience.

Travel Expectations

This role is not expected to travel internationally, but may have opportunities to travel up to 5% of the time with expenses funded/reimbursed by OpenMRS Inc., and supported by the OpenMRS Inc. Operations team.

Compensation

Stipends offered to Fellows are based on the OpenMRS fellowship stipend scale. OpenMRS Stipend amounts are based on the GSOC Stipend Scale for comparison; in the spirit of in-country purchasing-power, we reserve the right to make exceptions based on Fellow location.

For more information, please see: About OpenMRS Fellows

How to Apply

Submit a cover letter and resume that addresses the responsibilities and skills outlined in the job descriptions to community@openmrs.org and cc Program Officer Erica Kigotho at erica@openmrs.org no later than March 15, 2024. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Ideal starting date: April 1, 2024 or sooner if available.

For more information on OpenMRS, please see our website: openmrs.org