Trainee Software Engineer Java Python Jobs in Heber Springs, AR

About James and James

James+James builds handcrafted, solid wood furniture in Heber Springs, Arkansas, and ships it across the country. Every order that comes through our online store is milled, built, sanded, and finished by real people in our shop — and over the past few years we’ve built a growing stack of custom software that runs that shop: cut planning, production dashboards, barcode scanning, fulfillment dispatch, machine maintenance, and more. These tools have become part of how the plant operates every day, and we’re hiring the person who will own them.

About this Role

This is a hands-on, high-ownership role at the intersection of software development, application support, and light DevOps. You’ll be the go-to engineer for a suite of internal web applications used on the shop floor and in the office — keeping them healthy, fixing what breaks, improving what works, and building what’s next. You’ll work directly with the leadership team driving these systems and with the woodworkers, CNC operators, and fulfillment crew who use them every day.

You won’t be a ticket-taker three layers removed from users. When a scanning station acts up or a dashboard shows the wrong numbers, you’ll walk out to the floor, see it firsthand, and ship the fix.

AI-First Development - This Is How We Work:

Every application in our stack was developed with AI coding agents, and we expect it to stay that way. This is not a nice-to-have or a buzzword for us — it is the core of how one small team ships and maintains a dozen production systems. You will use AI tools (Claude Code, Copilot, or similar agentic development tools) as your primary development workflow: planning features, writing and refactoring code, debugging production issues, writing documentation, and analyzing data. Candidates who don’t already work this way daily — or aren’t eager to — will not be a fit for this role. What matters equally is the judgment that goes with it: you own everything you ship, so you review, test, and harden AI-generated code before it touches the shop floor.

The Systems You’ll Support:

Our internal stack is a set of focused, purpose-built web apps, including:

• Mill & cut planning — Real-time cut planning and lumber bin management used at the mill, with barcode scanning at each station.

• Production visibility — Live wallboard dashboards showing production pace, order status, and a real-time map of work moving through the plant.

• Fulfillment & dispatch — Truck dispatch, pickup manifests, and scan-to-load verification for outbound orders.

• Machine maintenance — Preventive maintenance scheduling for CNC routers, moulders, and other shop equipment.

• CNC file automation — Automation that keeps CNC toolpath files and setup sheets organized and current across shared drives and machine controllers.

• ERP & e-commerce integration — Integrations with our ERP (Acumatica) for production orders and our Shopify storefront for demand and order data.

What You’ll Do:

• Develop AI-first: use agentic coding tools as your default workflow for building, debugging, documenting, and extending every system in the stack.

• Support and maintain live production applications — triage issues, fix bugs, and keep uptime high for systems the shop depends on hourly.

• Own deployments and infrastructure: Docker containers on on-prem servers, backups, service health, and recovery procedures.

• Add monitoring, logging, and alerting so we find problems before the shop floor does.

• Build new features and new applications end-to-end — from a conversation with an operator to a working tool in production.

• Develop and maintain integrations with Acumatica (Generic Inquiries / REST) and the Shopify Admin API.

• Support the hardware edges of the stack: barcode scanners, label printers, wallboard displays, and CNC controller file shares.

• Write things down — runbooks, admin docs, and enough documentation that systems outlive any one person’s memory.

• Partner with leadership on what to build next and push back with better ideas when you have them.

What We’re Looking For:

• Required: daily, hands-on use of AI development tools (Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor, or similar) as a primary way of building software — be ready to demonstrate your workflow in the interview.

• Required: the judgment to direct AI effectively — clear specifications, critical review of generated code, and testing discipline before anything reaches production.

• 2–5+ years building and supporting production web applications (title and comp will flex with experience).

• Strong Python skills — our stack leans on FastAPI and Flask — or deep experience in a comparable backend ecosystem with willingness to work in Python daily.

• Solid SQL and comfort designing and maintaining relational schemas (we use SQLite and PostgreSQL-style patterns).

• Frontend competence with JavaScript and lightweight frameworks (we favor Alpine.js and server-rendered pages over heavy SPAs).

• Working DevOps fundamentals: Docker, Linux, networking basics, deployments, backups, and log-driven debugging.

• Experience consuming and building REST APIs and integrating third-party systems.

• A support mindset: patience with non-technical users, clear communication, and pride in fast, durable fixes.

• Ability to work on-site in Heber Springs, AR most of the week — this stack lives on the shop floor, and so does its context.

Nice to Have Skills:

• ERP experience, especially Acumatica; or Shopify API experience.

• Cloud experience (AWS or similar) and observability tooling (Sentry, structured logging, tracing).

• TypeScript/React or .NET experience for the occasional tool that calls for it.

• Exposure to manufacturing, warehousing, or logistics environments — barcode workflows, label printing, wallboards, or machine data.

• CNC/CAM familiarity, or curiosity about how furniture gets made.

Who Thrives Here

Generalists who like owning things end-to-end. People who would rather ship a simple tool this week than a perfect one next quarter, and who find it satisfying when a woodworker says, “that thing you fixed saved me an hour today.” You’ll have real autonomy, a short path from idea to production, and users twenty feet from your desk.

Why You’ll Love Working Here:

• Location: Heber Springs, Arkansas — hybrid, with regular on-site presence expected.

• Type: Full-time.

• Competitive pay and Benefits