Software Developer (Ruby on Rails)

Requirements:

• Full stack Ruby on Rails developer with several years of experience across the following areas
• Ruby and the Rails framework
• Postgres or similar relational database
• AWS (or equivalent cloud environment) for hosting and deploying web applications
• Javascript / JQuery
• Writing accessible HTML and CSS
• Git and Github for version control
• Standard ruby test frameworks, including Rspec and Capybara
• Experience of agile, iterative test-first development
• Experience of both building and maintaining web applications
• Lean approach, delivering work iteratively providing value as soon as possible
• Ability to work on own initiative, to prioritise work effectively, to be a creative innovator and problem-solver, and to work under pressure to meet deadlines
• Interest in sustainability and supporting children and young people to fight climate change.
• A clear commitment to personal and professional development
• Responsibilities:
• We are seeking a full-stack Ruby on Rails Software Developer for Energy Sparks, a charity helping young people to reduce their school’s carbon footprint.
• We’re looking to expand the capacity of our small in-house development team to accelerate delivery in key areas of our product roadmap and help bring new features and improvements to schools more quickly.
• We are looking for a highly motivated, dynamic individual with excellent problem-solving skills; a self-starter who enjoys working in an agile environment. Someone who is as excited about Energy Sparks’ potential as we are and who will work with us to develop a sustainable energy management and education platform for schools.
• Role description
• Design, build and maintain the frontend code that makes up the main Energy Sparks application, including integration of external APIs and data feeds, and provision of charting and data presentation functions
• Design, build and maintain the backend code that analyses school energy data
• Take responsibility for identifying and fixing bugs and operational issues that are highlighted by our users, other team members or our reporting systems
• Help maintain and improve code quality and test coverage to ensure we deliver a robust service to our users
• Help document the software to facilitate maintenance and use by other team members, and to ensure future sustainability
• Work with the CTO and other Energy Sparks team members to design and deliver new application features, according to project budgets and milestones
• Work with the CTO to help scale and tune the service to support scaling up Energy Sparks to more schools across the UK
• Support the operation of the Energy Sparks platform, by carrying out application releases and helping to monitor the live service
• Work with the rest of the Energy Sparks team to respond to user feedback to improve the Energy Sparks application to maximise user engagement and carbon emission reductions at participating schools
• Salary: up to £55,000, depending on experience.
• We are happy to discuss part-time or term-time working for the right candidate
• This is a fully remote, permanent position, but applicants must be based in the UK and have the unrestricted right to work in the UK, without requiring visa sponsorship now or in the future.
• We meet in person once a year as a full team in Bath.
• Technologies:
• AWS
• Lambda
• Backend
• Bootstrap
• Cloud
• CSS
• CTO
• Frontend
• Git
• GitHub
• Support
• JavaScript
• Kanban
• REST
• RSpec
• Rails
• Ruby
• Web
• jQuery
• HTTP

More

Energy Sparks (https://energysparks.uk/) is an online energy analysis tool and energy education programme specifically designed to help schools reduce their electricity and gas usage through the analysis of smart meter data.

Energy Sparks helps pupils and the wider school community to reduce their school’s carbon emissions, and make a real contribution to addressing the 'climate emergency'.

Energy Sparks started in 2017 and is now working with around 1250 schools across the UK. We are a small team of 13 people, primarily based in the Bath area. We are a fully remote team and are able to work flexible hours.

Energy Sparks is a Ruby on Rails web application that uses a Postgres database deployed within a managed infrastructure (Amazon AWS, using ElasticBeanstalk, RDS, Lambda and S3).

The front end uses JQuery and customised Bootstrap styles, while the backend integrates with a variety of third-party APIs to access smart meter, weather and other energy data sources.

Our software is fully open source. Further details can be found at:

https://github.com/Energy-Sparks/energy-sparks

We prioritise our work using Trello, using a simple Kanban based workflow. We ensure we allocate time both developing new features and maintenance to help us improve our code, infrastructure and processes.

last updated 43 week of 2026