Software Engineers

Building software for nature recovery with Elixir, Phoenix LiveView, and AI.

Summary

• UK-based, remote team with regular in-person meet-ups (candidates must be based in the UK)
• £55–80k (mid-level) or £75–95k (senior), plus share options
• Work directly tackling the nature and climate crises
• Elixir tech stack

About Verna

We're building the global insight and management platform for nature programmes, enabling our users to radically accelerate nature recovery worldwide.

Corporates, public bodies, and NGOs are allocating hundreds of billions for nature recovery. But their work is held back by the unique challenges of nature programmes. They require many people and organisations to work together over multiple decades. Users have to make difficult decisions, on the basis of cognitively challenging analysis, applied to data that is complex, fragmented, disputed, and incomplete.

Software can make a revolutionary impact on this problem. Verna builds products that help users to plan, deliver, and assure nature recovery. Our first product, Mycelia, has become the leading software solution for the Biodiversity Net Gain methodology, and is used by over 100 organisations across more than 10,000 nature projects. We're now developing our second product, with a global focus, working closely with multi-nationals who can achieve a step-change in nature action.

We're VC-backed and revenue-generating, giving us a strong foundation from which to pursue our mission.

Roles

We're looking for software engineers to join our product development team. This is a full-stack role, working primarily in Elixir and Phoenix LiveView, with an emphasis on delivering user-facing features that make a real difference to the people using our products.

You'll be producing code most of the time: building rich, accessible, interactive experiences, shaping the data model beneath them, and keeping applications fast, resilient, and secure.

We're a small, well-funded team building something ambitious. This means you'll get the autonomy and impact of a start-up, with the stability of a company that has strong revenue and years of runway.

Your day-to-day

This is a hands-on role, so you should expect your primary activity to be delivering good, clean, well-tested code. You'll be working closely with a small software team, so there will be plenty of opportunity to give and receive feedback on the work the team is doing. We believe that well-informed teams deliver better products, so you'll be invited to take part in meetings with customers and other stakeholders, to hear their concerns and ideas first-hand. Our product engineers work across all levels of the stack, from front-end to the Elixir back-end to AWS infrastructure.

We operate as a remote team, with London office bases available. The whole team meets in person every quarter, somewhere in central or southern England, with travel and accommodation provided by Verna.

Our approach to AI

AI is reshaping software, and it opens up opportunities for nature that were previously unachievable. To unpack some of our thinking on AI and the environment, we have an article on Why an environmental company uses AI, and why we'd be wrong not to on our blog.

We aim to make the most of AI both in our products, and in how we build them. We expect engineers to be thoughtful and fluent users of AI in their daily work: knowing when it accelerates you, when it misleads you, and how to stay in command of the code you ship. This doesn't mean we value AI skills over engineering fundamentals. It means the opposite: strong engineers get more from AI tools.

About you

An open mind and ability to learn matter more than checking every box below. An open mind and ability to learn matter more than checking every box below.

Technical skills

• You value clean, well-structured code, including tests.
• Prior experience with Elixir or Erlang is ideal, but we will consider candidates with significant experience in other functional languages.
• You use AI tools effectively and critically. You keep up with what they're good at and where they fall short, continuously evolving your workflow as the tools' capabilities grow.
• You can think, design, and problem-solve at the system level.
• You enjoy thinking through how product features will be usable, effective, and accessible for a range of target users.
• You understand and value web accessibility and full compliance with WCAG.
• You understand the need to make software conform to principles of security, privacy, observability, and maintainability.
• You understand the value of good docs, and can produce clearly written documentation to help ensure shared team success.

Ways of working

• You're motivated by Verna's mission: you want your engineering work to have positive environmental impact.
• You give and receive feedback well.
• You communicate clearly in English, both written and spoken.
• You understand that building great software is a team effort, and you can show how you've helped teams to grow and become more effective over time.
• You believe diverse teams build better products.

Like ecosystems, teams are more vibrant, innovative, and resilient when they are more diverse. We welcome applications from everyone.

Application process

Our application process has four stages:

1. Submit an application using Apply Now Button.

2. An introductory video call with the hiring manager.

3. A technical interview, which will include a coding exercise.

4. An in-person or video call with the founders and members of the leadership team.