Senior Full-Stack Developer

Hi! 👋 I'm Marten, Engineering Manager at FeedbackFruits.

I'm new here myself, and that's part of what makes this exciting. FeedbackFruits is changing how we work, moving away from traditional management toward autonomous teams, adopting modern engineering practices, and going from average to excellent. We're figuring it out as we go, and we're looking for senior engineers who want to figure it out with us.

What we do:

FeedbackFruits helps educators design and run better learning experiences inside the tools they already use. Teachers spend a lot of time reviewing student work, setting up activities, and managing admin that gets in the way of actual teaching. We try to remove that friction.

We build tools that fit into any LMS and support the full learning design workflow: creating activities, guiding students through peer feedback, tracking skills and competencies, and helping institutions run learner-centered education at scale. Educators stay in control of how they teach, and students get clearer guidance on how to improve.

At its core, our goal is simple: give teachers more time to teach and help students develop the skills they need to succeed.

What we're building:

The core product is not technically exotic. It's forms, workflows, and CRUD done well for a lot of users. We're a Rails monolith with an Ember.js frontend, PostgreSQL for the database, hosted on Microsoft Azure using Kubernetes. We're moving away from Ember.js and have started experimenting with Hotwire for new features. We're curious to see where it takes us.

The complexity is in the problem space. We integrate with every major LMS (Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, Brightspace) via LTI, and each platform has its own interpretation of the spec. We handle peer review workflows where hundreds of students submit work, review each other, and receive feedback, with deadlines, anonymity rules, and edge cases that matter because grades are on the line. Getting these details right is harder than it sounds.

We're experimenting with integrating LLMs into our product in a smart way. We start from user problems: a student unsure what constructive feedback looks like, a professor spending hours on repetitive grading. Then we explore where LLMs can genuinely help. Using Azure OpenAI, we've built tools that analyze student writing against learning objectives, and an AI coach that helps students write better peer reviews. If you have affinity with AI: there's more to explore here!

We're also investing in modern software engineering practices. For example CI/CD: we're working toward builds that run in under five minutes and fully automated, on-demand releases instead of scheduled manual deploys. If you've helped teams make that shift before, or practiced modern CI/CD yourself, we'd love to learn from you.

We're changing how we work:

How we work as a product team (that includes engineering, product, design, and QA) is something we're actively improving. Some people on the team are excited about the direction. Some are skeptical, and that's valuable. We talk through the tensions openly.

My goal is to create space for engineers to do their best work. Here's what I believe that means in practice:

• Working together. I believe the best software comes from thinking together, not from individuals working in isolation and reviewing each other's code after the fact. That means:

  • Mob programming with engineers, and occasionally having any of the Product Managers, QA Specialists and/or Designers join when the context helps
  • Whole team product discovery, where engineering is in the room when we're figuring out what problem we're actually solving
  • Working together with the Product Managers and QA Specialists to write an automated specification of the feature we’re about to build

Working this way requires different skills than heads-down solo coding; you have to communicate your thinking out loud, build on others' ideas, and stay engaged when you're not the one typing. I'm looking for people who are energized by the collaborative environment.

• Owning our work. We're navigating the messy dynamic shift from senior leaders managing teams top-down, to teams operating autonomously. Through trial and error we are figuring out what that actually looks like. What does it take for a team to truly own outcomes, not just execute tasks handed down? How do our product teams share accountability rather than wait for direction? What will my role be, once the teams are fully operating autonomously?

• Understanding why we build things. We're adopting ways of working inspired by the Product Operating Model. That means engineers aren't just asked "can you build this?". You're expected to understand why we're building it, who it's for, and what success looks like. You'll have direct access to customer research. You'll help decide what we build, not just how.

• Discovering what building software with LLMs looks like. We're trying to figure out how LLMs change the way we build software. From quick vibe-coded prototypes to validate an idea, to leveraging LLMs as assistants when writing production grade code, we're figuring out where these tools genuinely help and where they get in the way. This is new territory for us. If you've been experimenting too, bring what you've learned. If you're curious but haven't started yet, that's fine, we'll explore together.

The team:

We're 10 engineers across 3 teams. Two teams focus on the product that learning designers, teachers, and students use: the peer review workflows, feedback tools, and learning design features. The third team builds and maintains our integrations with Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, Brightspace, and other LMS platforms.

Each team has its own designer, QA, and product manager, so you work as a cross-functional unit. You'll also work closely with our support team and go-to-market teams. They're often the first to hear what's working and what isn't.

Teams follow a lightweight SCRUM-like rhythm to deliver work: two-week sprints, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives to keep improving how we collaborate.

We're hiring for each of these teams. Where you get placed depends on your skills and interests: are you someone who focuses on the user-facing product, or who loves digging into the quirks of LTI integrations across different platforms?

What we're looking for:

• You enjoy working across the full stack and can contribute meaningfully on both sides. You care about code quality, test coverage, and sustainable pace.
• Ruby/Rails experience. You've built and maintained production Rails applications. You understand the framework's conventions, when to follow them and when to diverge. You know the ecosystem: gems, tooling, and community patterns.
• JavaScript and front-end experience. You have strong JavaScript experience and have shipped features using a modern front-end framework (React, Vue, Ember.js, Angular, or similar). You're comfortable with CSS, Tailwind experience is a plus. You're familiar with accessibility best practices.
• Hotwire experience is a plus. If you've used Turbo and Stimulus you'll have a head start. If not, willingness to learn is what matters.
• Cloud platform experience is a plus. If you've worked with AWS, GCP, or Azure, that's helpful. We're hosted on Azure with Kubernetes, but deep infrastructure expertise isn't expected from day one.
• Product thinking. You ask "why are we building this?" before "how should I build this?" You want to understand the user and the business context, not just the technical requirements.
• Collaborative instincts. You're energized by mob programming, pairing, shared ownership. Working through a problem with others sounds better to you than solving it alone.
• Comfort with ambiguity. We're mid-transformation. If you need everything defined before you can be effective, this probably isn't the right moment. If you like shaping how a team works, it might be a good one.

What you get:

• 25 paid holidays per year.
• A day off for your birthday.
• Advantageous pension scheme.
• 3 days of volunteering leave per year.
• €550 Learning & Development budget per year, along with 3 days paid leave for learning purposes.
• Travel allowance and Swapfiets subscription.
• Free access to the office gym.
• Unlimited access to mental health support with OpenUp service.

A final note:

Our users are educators trying to help students learn. When we ship something that saves a teacher hours of grading or helps a student actually improve their writing, it matters. If that sounds like work you'd find meaningful, I'd like to talk to you!

— Marten