Hardcover Open Roles

Hi all! Here are all of the current open roles on the Hardcover Team. All of these roles have responsibilities, with you as the point person on specific needs for the team – both internal and external.

Joining the Hardcover team isn’t volunteer work, it’s actual work. We’re building up Hardcover to be a social network for readers that’ll stand the test of time, and for that we’re looking for people who are in it for the long term.

Before listing out the roles, here’s a little bit more about how we work, and what each team member is responsible for.

• We are a completely remote team that keeps in contact primarily through Discord.
• Everyone on the team tracks their hours spent working using Toggl.
• All team members are earn equity based on what they contribute to the company, calculated using the Slicing Pie method (You can watch some great videos on it here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7).
• Equity is calculated based on hours worked, money contributed and other Slicing Pie metrics.
• All core team members are expected to work at least 5 hours a week (most weeks, we all have lives).
• Everyone on the team knows how much everyone else makes (which is easy since we all make the same amount 😂), how much equity everyone has, and our future plans.
• We’re not currently profitable, so all contributions for the moment earn equity, not cash.
• We have a high level of trust for each other.
• Contribute when you want to, how you want to.
• We all want to build Hardcover into something that lasts.
• Join a monthly Team video call to touch base and plan out the next month together.
• When/if Hardcover becomes profitable, we’ll switch from earning equity to a salary model (TBD).

These are the open roles as of June 17th, 2025.

Senior Developer in Ruby on Rails Developer

The main application you’re viewing in a Ruby on Rails application with a React.js front-end, using Inertia.js. We’re looking for more people to work on this application, specifically on the Ruby on Rails side.

Currently, we’re aiming to open source the application, which is where the immediate work would be contributing to. In time we have a bunch of fun things down the line – Discussions, book clubs, author pages, and more.

Since we’re open sourcing the application, we also want people who have a history of being great communicators. You’ll be interacting with the community on Discord, in Pull Requests on GitHub, and potentially on other channels too.

This is a senior role, that should have at least 3+ years experience in Ruby. If you’re just getting started with Ruby or React, or you’ve only done a few small apps for fun with it, I’d suggest contributing to our Open Source initiative first (once we launch that).

We’re looking for someone who feels comfortable executing on a product design – planning out the database tables, routes, models and how it will all come together with React.

Most of the new work on Hardcover starts with Rails. If you’d like to be a part of new features from the start, you should apply!

Apply for the Senior Ruby on Rails Developer Role