Hiring a Ruby On Rails Developer in 2024: A Complete Guide

The open-source programming language Ruby is used by Ruby on Rails developers to create server-side web application logic. Model view controller (MVC) framework Rails is used to write the logic. Back-end components, linking the application to online services, and helping front-end developers are all tasks that RoR developers are responsible for.

Some of the statistics of why Ruby on Rails is worth considering to use:

  • According to TIOBE Index, Ruby is in the top 20 most popular languages in 2023.
  • Ruby on Rails is among the tech stack, used to build such platforms as Shopify, GitLab, Airbnb, Crunchbase, Twitch, and Dribbble.
  • According to builtwith.com, there are approximately 589,000 currently live websites using Ruby on Rails.
  • According to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023, Ruby is the 4th most paid technology. In addition, Ruby on Rails is one of the most admired frameworks, with 53% of developers saying they have used the technology in the past year and plan to continue using it.

How to Hire a Ruby On Rails Expert

There are a few factors to consider when hiring a Ruby on Rails programmer, including experience, pricing, and the type of work arrangement. It also relies on the project you’re working on and the talents you’ll need to finish it. To make your search easier, we collected information about places you can find RoR developers, approximate prices on their work, and how to prepare your job description. Let’s start with it.

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Ruby On Rails Developer Job Description

It’s important to write a clear Ruby on Rails job description if you want to attract proficient developers or development teams. It’s also vital to establish the right expectations upfront to streamline the vetting process and save everyone time and money.

What to Write in Ruby On Rails Developer Job Description?

An average job description includes the following parts: company introduction, job description itself, responsibilities, skills, and experience you’re expecting from your candidates. If your JD precisely describes the job position, and the pricing is average or higher than that on the market, chances are you’ll get lots of applicants. 

Company Introduction

Write 2-3 sentences describing your business in this section. Provide details on the company’s culture and benefits. This is an excellent place to provide a link to your business’s website. The finest applicants will conduct extensive research before their interview. 

Job Description

Be specific about the job you expect your new developer to complete.

Here is the sample job description:

‘‘We’re searching for a competent Ruby on Rails Developer to help us manage data transfer between our users and the server. You’ll be in charge of building and maintaining the core database’s server-side logic, as well as testing performance, troubleshooting, and integrating front-end aspects into the rails application’’.

Responsibilities

Be clear and honest about the responsibilities. You can choose from the following tasks of the Ruby on Rails developer:

  • Design, develop, and maintain Ruby code that is efficient, reusable, and dependable.
  • Databases, key-value stores, blob stores, and other data storage methods may be integrated.
  • User-facing elements created by front-end developers are combined with server-side logic.
  • Identify bottlenecks and bugs, then come up with remedies.
  • Assist with code quality, structure, and automation’’.
Ruby On Rails Developer Skills

 The following skills are required for a Rails Developer:

  • Experience with Ruby on Rails and other standard libraries like RSpec and Resque is required.
  • Ruby syntax and its intricacies are well-understood.
  • Object-oriented programming knowledge is essential.
  • Understanding server-side templating languages is essential.
  • Understanding of CSS preprocessors on the server.
  • Understanding front-end technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS3 is a must.
  • MVC, Mocking, ORM, and RESTful ideas are all concepts that you should be familiar with.
  • The ability to write clean, readable Ruby code.
  • Integration of many data sources and databases into a single system.
  • A basic understanding of the design ideas that go into making a scalable application.
  • Possess the ability to design database schemas that represent and support business operations.
  • Capable of putting automated testing platforms and unit tests in place.
  • A thorough understanding of code versioning tools is required.
  • Include any other frameworks, libraries, or technology that is relevant to your project or profession.
  • Level of education or certification required.
ROR Developer Experience

Make sure to include the level of expertise that your company prefers and clarify the experience the coder should have for your position. You can select (or choose everything) from the following:

  • Ruby on Rails.
  • Libraries like Resque and RSpec.
  • Code versioning tools including Git, Github, SVN, and Mercurial.
  • Angular.js or Backbone.js.
  • MVC, Mocking, RESTful, and ORM.
  • Server-side templating languages including Slim and Liquid.

Ruby On Rails: Top Interview Questions

When you selected the candidates that could suit your project, it’s time for a hard-skills interview. Here are some questions you might use.

  • What is Ruby on Rails, and how does it work?
  • What are the functions of the app/controllers and app/helpers subdirectories?
  • What command can you use to make the subject’s controller?
  • Give five examples of what Rails Migration can do.
  • What exactly is a Rails Controller?
  • How do you prevent Cross-Site Request Forgery in Rails?
  • In Ruby on Rails, what does trash collection do?
  • Name three Ruby on Rails limitations.
  • What are the top Ruby on Rails benefits?
  • Name the four different sorts of variables in Ruby Class.

Hiring Ruby On Rails Developers: Models of Cooperation

In-house hiring

Tech companies choose to hire in-house to build their core team and culture. In-house programmers are committed to building and maintaining the product and growing the company, while the company is committed to integrating them into the team and creating a career development plan.

Companies can hire in-house engineers by attending hackathons and tech conferences. They can also request an in-house engineer from a recruitment agency or ask friends and colleagues for a reference.

Finally, employers can source candidates by utilizing their internal recruitment team. For example, browsing LinkedIn profiles and tech communities or posting a Ruby on Rails developer job on an online board is a good starting point.

In-house Hiring: Job-boards

Ruby on Rails Communities and Groups

  • Ruby on Rails Link – a Slack community with a channel to post job opportunities;
  • Ruby on Rails community on dev.to;
  • Ruby on Rails events and groups on Meetup.

Hiring a freelancer

Companies hire freelancers for short-term and limited-budget projects and small tasks. Freelancers usually need more attention and supervision because they may communicate less and share less knowledge with different teams within the company. Therefore, managers need to provide a detailed project description and make sure freelancers have all the documentation they need to complete the project successfully.

​​Companies can hire freelance Ruby on Rails developers on websites such as Upwork or Toptal.

Staff augmentation

Staff augmentation uses Ruby on Rails developers employed by outsourcing agencies. However, unlike handing over an entire project to an outsourcing agency, clients manage remote programmers and communicate with them directly.

In addition, clients don’t have to worry about retirement contributions, health insurance, paid time off, or home office reimbursement because these are already included in the developer rates. The hiring process in the staff augmentation model is faster since the developers are already employed, their skills and experience are vetted, and the company doesn’t need to negotiate the benefits package.

Companies can hire dedicated Ruby on Rails developers on YouTeam.

How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Ruby On Rails Developer

When deciding what level of experience a candidate should have, it’s also important to understand what budget you have and whether you plan to outsource developers from other countries. It is good to know as the more experience the engineer has, the more you will pay them. However, there are many outsourcing destinations, where you can get specialists with vast expertise but also at lower prices. So, let’s look at some common outsourcing destinations to choose from:

CountryAverage Junior Ruby on Rails developer salary, $Average Middle Ruby on Rails developer salary, $Average Senior Ruby on Rails developer salary, $
The US$85,000$159,000$187,000
Mexico$23,000$52,000$74,000
Brazil$38,000$54,000$77,000
Colombia$39,000$50,000$64,000
Hungary$17,000$33,000$57,000
Poland$28,000$48,000$67,000
Ukraine$26,000$42,000$56,000

Source: Glassdoor, Indeed.com

Here are the average hourly rates of YouTeam mid-level and senior developers who listed Ruby on Rails as their core technology:

CountryAverage hourly rate*
Ukraine$50
Poland$63
Mexico$57
Brazil$53
Colombia$54

*According to YouTeam

RoR development cost

Where To Find and Hire a Dedicated Ruby On Rails Developer?

Ultimately, a few things will influence your choice of Ruby on Rails developers. Consider the duration of the product development, the years of experience of the coders, the cost, and the amount of time you’re willing to invest in the hiring process.

Let’s share with you some places where you can find Ruby on Rails experts to complete your development projects.

YouTeam

YouTeam is in cooperation with development agencies, so if you are interested in software development expertise rather than cheap freelance pricing, this option is for you. YouTeam talent pool includes over 50,000 full-time developers from Eastern Europe and Latin America. All of them have passed the selection stages, so the chance to quickly find a full-stack expert with a more proficient level than a freelance developer is much higher. YouTeam works with different types of both seed and series A startups, as well as large companies with over a thousand employees, and specializes in recruiting the teams that provide Ruby on Rails development services.

Fiverr

As one of the largest freelancing job boards on the web, Fiverr is a proven platform for connecting with prospective freelancers. The site aims to streamline the process of connecting web developers with clients in a way that’s efficient for both sides.

You can contact an experienced Ruby developer by selecting their profile if you think you’ve found a good fit. Once the terms for a project have been finalized, a client hires an RoR developer and pays the upfront fee. You have about three days to read over the finished product and decide whether to accept a project submission or reject it to get a refund.

Clients look through the site’s list of freelance developers and development companies by using its robust filter tools to find the right fit. You can filter developers based on their price range, a body of work, and much more.

Fiverr is a website to look for developers who specialize in a specific area, as the site includes categories for almost any form of development work. If you click on the mobile application development link, for example, you can narrow down possibilities based on even more precise criteria like custom app development or web-to-app conversions.

TopTal

TopTal offers freelance Ruby on Rails programmers for mission-critical software projects. The platform’s vetting process includes a comprehensive language, personality, and communication interview, and a technical assessment where the tech skills and problem-solving abilities are checked. Before being presented to clients, each freelance developer undergoes live testing to evaluate their Ruby on Rails expertise and completes a test project that is a real-world case.

Browse 100+ Ruby on Rails Developers Available for Hire

RoR websites and communities

Here is the list of some other websites and online communities where you can find RoR developers:

Conclusion

Ruby on Rails has exploded in popularity in a relatively short amount of time as a framework. The framework’s purpose is to reduce the amount of time and effort required to create a web application. This, however, places a strain on the developer’s expertise in the framework. It is especially true given the framework’s preference for convention over configuration.

Hiring Ruby On Rales Developers: FAQs

How much does it cost to hire an RoR developer?

If you need to hire a Ruby on Rails developer, the cost can vary. It can be a charge per hour or a one-time payment per project. Depending on their location, a Ruby on Rails developer typically charges between $35.00 and $100.00 per hour.

What skills are important for an RoR developer?

Web development, design patterns, and application security are among the most important skills. In addition, an RoR developer must be able to analyze requirements and translate them into thorough specifications. It is also necessary to have strong mathematical and problem-solving abilities.

Where can I find an RoR developer?

You can find them on online platforms, such as YouTeam, Upwork, and Fiverr.

Are Ruby on Rails developers in demand?

According to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023, Ruby is the 4th most paid technology. Additionally, Ruby on Rails is one of the most admired frameworks, with 53% of developers saying they have used the technology in the past year and plan to continue using it.

Ruby is also one of the top 20 most popular languages in 2023, according to the TIOBE Index.

Overcome the developer shortage
Written by
Svetlana Shevchuk

Digital Marketing Specialist at YouTeam, a Y Combinator-backed marketplace for building remote dev teams.

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