Staff Backend Software Engineer

Your Company:

As the Nonprofit Marketing Platform trusted by over 1,300 nonprofits, Feathr is purpose-built to help our customers unlock more results, time, and confidence.

Feathr's software marketing platform equips nonprofits with the tools they need to build purposeful connections with their community and grow impact with confidence.

We're working on building an amazing culture at Feathr, where amazing people (like you) can do their best work. If you're ready to grow and "help the helpers" you've come to the right place.

Compensation Range: $165,000 - $180,000 base, and a bonus potential of up to 12%
Benefits: Fully remote, Health/dental/vision insurance, Company Holidays + Winter Break, Paid vacation + sick time off

Description

Feathr's SaaS platform is a critical component of the value we deliver to our clients. As a Staff Engineer, you shape the technical direction of the systems that meet the advertising, marketing, and analytics needs of our diverse customer base.

In practice, you own one or more product areas. You identify the technical problems and opportunities in your areas, shape the solutions the team commits to, and build the most challenging parts yourself. The team decides what to build, and you supply the technical judgment behind those decisions. You work across the full stack, from Python services on the backend to React and TypeScript interfaces on the frontend. Engineers come to you when a problem has no established answer. This is an individual contributor role: you deliver primarily through the work you scope and build yourself.

KPIs

We use these measures as signals of team health, not as individual scorecards. They show leadership which teams make good progress and which teams need help. We do not use these numbers to decide promotions. We assess your performance against the ownership and deliverables in this document.

• Cycle time: work ships within the team's time target.

• Throughput: the systems you own show steady incremental work, week over week.

• Rework: solutions you scope hold up. Work shipped rarely comes back with defects.

• Quality: your code and your reviews stop critical bugs before production. Your review turnaround is fast.

• Growth: engineers you mentor are able to tackle larger and more complex projects over time.

• Visibility: your process and decisions are written down where the team can find them.

Accountability / Ownership

You own:

• The technical solutions for the bets in your product areas, including the technical scope and the tradeoffs behind it.

• The hardest technical work on the board, which you build yourself.

• The quality standards for your areas, including code review and testing strategy.

• Work you ship, until the bet closes at outcome confirmed. The team monitors the outcome metric for about 30 days after launch, and you handle monitoring, debugging, and fixes during that period.

You advise on:

• Bets: feasibility, cost, and risk during discovery, and how the team breaks them into work items that match the technical scope.

• Architecture: long-term technology choices, major changes to shared systems, and standards shared across pods.

• Engineering hiring.

Deliverables

• Technical scopes for the bets in your areas, with the options, the chosen approach, and the tradeoffs. These documents extend the Scope artifact from discovery.

• Prototypes that retire feasibility risk before the team writes production code.

• Working software, including the most challenging pieces in your product areas.

• Standards, templates, and examples that other engineers reuse.

• Upgrade and migration plans for the systems you own.

Experience

• 8+ years building software that runs in production.

• Expert skill in backend development.

• Experience with our stack or a similar stack: Python and Flask-style APIs, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, and Redis on the backend.

• You have scoped and shipped distributed systems that use queues, caches, and search.

• You have run software on AWS and Kubernetes at production scale.

• You have scoped solutions that other engineers built successfully.

• You have mentored engineers and helped them advance to larger roles.

• You write clearly: your technical scopes and decisions are easy to follow.

• You have built and improved CI/CD pipelines, and you consider security in the solutions you scope.

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Compensation:

Starting salary for this position is $165,000- $180,000 annually depending on experience and credentials, with the potential to earn an additional 12% of base salary.

Location:

This position is Remote to candidates located in the U.S. or with the option to work from our headquarters in Gainesville, FL. 

Interview Process:

As a part of our commitment to creating a fair, equitable, and positive interview experience for all candidates, we offer full transparency of our interview stages to give applicants an idea of the time and effort involved. Additionally, each interview stage consists of standardized questions and rubrics with a scoring system to ensure a consistent and fair assessment practice of all candidates. 

• HR Information Screen - The Talent Acquisition Team will invite candidates that move forward to a 20-30 minute virtual interview. This conversation will be focused on relevant work experience, compensation, role overview, and answering any questions the candidate has.

• Hiring Manager Interview- 45 minute virtual meeting with to answer role-specific questions and dive deeper into your background and experience.

• Work Assignment - Candidates will be given a work assignment prompt to complete a project that is relevant to the work they can expect in the role. You are given ample amount of time to complete this project before turning in.

• Panel Interview - 1 hour interview with two to three key members of the team. This interview will dive deeper into the role, technical knowledge, and requirements of the position. You will also utilize this time to review any questions related to your work assignment.

• Offer - The Talent Acquisition Team will reach out with the details of the offer to discuss.

Interviewing at Feathr

We've prepared a comprehensive candidate resource that provides valuable insights and tips for interviewing at Feathr. It covers everything from common interview questions to helpful advice on how to make the most of your interview experience with us. Access the resource here.

We encourage all applicants to take advantage of this resource to help prepare for their interviews and gain a deeper understanding of what to expect when applying to join our Flock.

Benefits & Perks for full-time employees

We love our Flock and the work they do! But let’s be honest, life isn’t just about work. So we created a perks and benefits package that aims to help our team grow by including their wellness, families, passions, and personal time. 

• Fully remote

• Full vision, dental, and ~99% health insurance for employees

• Sick time off

• Vacation time off

• Extended Wintr Break

• Parental Leave

• Wellness Reimbursement Credit

• Home Office Stipend

• Professional Development Budget

• Team hangouts and events 

Culture:

Feathr defines culture as the secret sauce that makes our flock members want to come to work everyday and do their best work. Like every company, we have an acronym that conveys the most important aspects of the culture we strive to have. 

• Practicality: Progress Over Perfection

• Ambition: When Feathr wins, We all win

• Candor: Better communication, Better results

• Trust: Assume the best, Share openly

• Service: We exist to fix

This acronym is only as useful as the integrity of the people who reference it and believe in it. Every person at Feathr will face challenges, the most important quality is a commitment to work through those challenges with self-awareness and honesty. 

Feathr is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive and equitable environment for all employees. So, however you identify and whatever background you bring with you, if you think you’d drive value in this position, please apply.