Software Developer - Part-Time

The Role:

We’re hiring a part-time, mid-level software developer to join a small, hands-on engineering team in Henrico, VA. You’ll spend most of your time on either our customer-facing web platform or our embedded clock firmware — but you should be comfortable reading, debugging, and contributing in both. Architecture in any given area may be led by another team member; what we need from you is the engineering judgment and breadth to be useful across the stack.

This is a hybrid role: some occasional hours at our Henrico assembly facility, with the remainder remote on a flexible schedule. We expect 5 - 20 hours per week based on our backlog of project, vacation schedules, etc.

What You''ll Do:

•      Build and maintain features across our web platform (admin portal, customer-facing tools, internal tooling) and our embedded clock firmware.

•      Read code, debug issues, and ship fixes in whichever codebase the problem lives in — even if it isn’t your primary area.

•      Collaborate with the rest of the engineering team on architecture decisions, code review, and release planning.

•      Help maintain our build, test, and deployment pipelines for both web (Heroku, AWS) and firmware (cross-compiled Linux targets).

•      Troubleshoot production issues, including networked behavior across the clock fleet.

•      Write clear documentation so the next person on the codebase — including future-you — isn’t lost.

What We''re Looking For:

We don’t expect every candidate to have all of the skills below. We do expect strong fundamentals, depth in at least one of the two realms (web or firmware), and working familiarity with the other.

Software Fundamentals (expected of everyone):

•      3–7 years of professional software development experience.

•      Solid grasp of software architecture, design, programming, debugging, testing, and configuration management.

•      Networking concepts and protocols (TCP/IP, UDP, DNS, HTTPS, SSH, DHCP, NTP).

•      Comfortable with Git-based workflows and code review.

Full-Stack Web (depth here, or experience with, if your depth is firmware)

•      Languages & front-end: Python, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, jQuery, Node.js.

•      Frameworks: Django, Mezzanine (Django CMS / admin layer), Flask.

•      Data: PostgreSQL — schema design, query tuning, migrations, SQL Server.

•      Infrastructure: Heroku and AWS services (e.g., EC2, S3, RDS, IAM).

Embedded Firmware (depth here, or experience with, if your depth is web)

•      Languages: C++ for embedded targets.

•      Platforms: Embedded Linux and real-time operating systems (RTOS).

•      Hardware-adjacent: Familiarity with microcontroller architectures, cross-compiling toolchains.

•      Comfort reading datasheets, schematics, and working alongside hardware engineers.

Nice to Have:

•      Experience with networked device fleets (provisioning, OTA updates, remote diagnostics).

•      Exposure to time-sync protocols (NTP) or other deterministic networking.

•      Experience supporting customers in regulated environments (healthcare, utilities, government).

How You Work:

•      You can context-switch between a web bug and a firmware quirk in the same week without losing your footing.

•      You ask questions when something is unclear and write things down so the rest of the team benefits.

•      You’re honest about what you do and don’t know — and you’re willing to learn the part you don’t.

•      You take ownership of what you ship, including the testing and the cleanup.