Hangar - Front End Developer in Njiro, Arusha, Tanzania

Hangar - Front End Developer

The Hangar is a Radio & ICT Innovation Lab (www.facebook.com/FRIhangar) managed and operated by Farm Radio International (FRI) in Arusha, Tanzania. The Hangar is the home of Farm Radio's Research and Innovation team and is responsible for a number of projects that help to make traditional FM broadcast radio more interactive/engaging through the use of mobile and online technologies.

The Front End Developer will work on a three person team with a Lead Developer and the Radio & ICT Manager. It is a chance to get involved from the start/strategic phase of an exciting product that intends to change the way radio stations and their listeners interact with one another: combining SMS, voice messages/IVR, mobile apps and missed calls to map, poll and communicate listeners and their needs in Africa on an innovative business model.

Your work will cut across two areas: design and development. You will be the front end developer on software projects and also bring a sensitivity and talent for crafting a User Interface (UI) that is going to make products be better to use for all stakeholders.

Six month contract, with on location commitment. We would like you to join us in beautiful East Africa, (Arusha Tanzania) for the initial six month contract. There is a chance the contract can be extended as needed. We will cover all your costs in coming out here. Check it out. . .

Roles and Responsibilities:

Think about usability and design- help define how the product will be used. Especially interested in "Human centred design" principles. Understand the audience!
Write front end code - develop beautiful usable front end web interfaces using MVC frameworks (think Angular.js and other javascript frameworks)
Design - be creative and contribute to the graphic design elements of projects create HTML and CSS
Sketch and prototype code - work with team members to quickly put user experience/interface ideas into action
Play continuous role in stakeholder communications - play a continuous role in stakeholder communications to understand the user insight that drives our products and decisions.
Host a radio show on Hangar FM - our internal streaming radio station :)

Character:

Interested in radio, mobile phones, Africa and their intersection!
Loves the challenge of building tools for users with limited technical ability but who are really good at their jobs (african radio broadcasters)
Loves the idea of building a tool to connect with radio listeners who have a ten year old nokia phone (sms+voice) but also an urban youngster with an android phone (WhatsApp)
Appreciates the need to design for limited bandwidth environments (african radio stations)
Is always impressed by low tech innovations that solve problems
Conceptual. Understands the big picture
UX Developer understands the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; more feature oriented, less function oriented
Critical thinker, can look at a UX problem or design and conceptually grasp the technical requirements
Detail-oriented. Eye for design, but not necessarily a designer
Clean, organized, sensible coding practices. Sensible naming conventions.
Finesse. Polished work.
Experience with data visualizations very helpful (or mapping), or at least experience with front end systems that deal with large amounts of data

Technical requirements:

Front end MVC Frameworks (angularJS or other javascript frameworks) (highly skilled)
HTML/CSS (highly skilled)
d3js and/or highcharts (skilled)
Ruby on Rails / Node.js (some knowledge)
Photoshop (bonus)
Mapping - google/openstreetmap (bonus)
Version control (Git)
Responsive Design
Web Services (REST)
Minimum 3 - 5 years experience

Location:

From the period of September 1st 2014 to at Feb 28th 2015, the position will primarily be based at Farm Radio's regional office in Njiro, Arusha, Tanzania and specifically at the Hangar: Radio & ICT Innovation Lab. Should the contract continue from this point, we will consider having the position work remotely.

How to apply:

Kazibongo

Hangar - Front End Developer in Njiro, Arusha, Tanzania