Software Engineer – Backend

Padlet is building software for a good education. A good education is one that inspires curiosity, creativity, and community. Our software enables that through visual content creation and collaboration in millions of classrooms worldwide.

We are looking for Backend Engineers to deliver on our promise. Cloud makes it possible for any human to have access to supercomputers. We need you to program these supercomputers to improve the lives of a billion people.

Responsibilities

• Building new features. E.g. building our public API so our users can extend Padlet.

• Improving backend performance. E.g. making network calls faster and more reliable.

• Making the backend more cost efficient. E.g. reducing the CPU and memory requirements of services.

• Improving how we work. E.g. improving our internationalization tooling we use to translate our app into 40+ languages.

Qualifications

• At some point in your life, someone has told you: “you write good code.”

• You know how to copy-paste code from Stack Overflow.

• Bonus: you have a good sense of humor.

About Padlet

• Vision: Every child in the world will grow up with Mickey Mouse and Padlet.

• Product: We are making the default way of collecting and sharing thoughts on the Internet. People love the product.

• Impact: We have over 50 million active users making Padlet one of the most used apps on the planet. Our goal is to be THE the most used app on the planet.

• Money: We are venture backed AND profitable. We are built to last one hundred years.

• Badassery: We are 36 people (plus a baby crane that we've adopted but it doesn't really do much). That's over a million active users per employee. Some badass people work here.

Tech stack

• Backend: Ruby (Rails), Typescript, Elixir (Phoenix), and Python.

• Storage: Postgres, Redis, Elasticsearch, Firestore, and Snowflake.

• Web: VueJS, Tailwind.

• Mobile apps: React Native (with Swift and Java where necessary.)

Joys of engineering at Padlet

• We have very few meetings. We value keeping you in flow.

• A lot of people use Padlet. We have to solve interesting concurrency problems.

• Our users are in over 200 countries, using all kinds of devices and connections, and speaking over 40 languages. We have to solve interesting internationalization problems.

• We process a lot of data real fast. We have to solve interesting scale problems.

• We try to solve problems creatively instead of just throwing money at them. We are engineers! We thrive in constraints, not in the absence of them.

• We ship often.

• We value beautiful code.

Sorrows of engineering at Padlet

• We grew pretty fast last year and our processes are still catching up. E.g. we don't have 100% code coverage yet. Our deployment process isn't as painless as it could be. This sometimes leads to spending time on things that aren't the most fun. We’re working on it!

• Our project management process could be better. This sometimes leads to re-speccing in the middle of development, getting in the way of programming flow. We’re working on it!

Some people you‘d be working with

• Josh Hewitt: insists that wallabies and kangaroos are different animals, artificially inflating the biodiversity of his homeland. Is excellent at surgically improving an existing, complicated system.

• Colin Teahan: lives for one-liners. E.g: Colleague: “Wouldn’t it be funny if Iron Man were anemic?” Teahan: “It would be IRONIC.” Single-handedly wrote early versions of our iOS and Android apps.

The office

• Our office is in the middle of Presidio, a beautiful national park. We’re 5 minutes from the beach, a walk we take often. The WiFi works outdoors. You can work sitting in a lawn overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.

• The office itself is designed to be a space for all your interests and hobbies. We have a meditation room, game room, library, podcasting studio, art studio, kids room, and full makerspace with 3d printers, presses, laser cutters, sewing machines, and more.

Benefits

• Top tier medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family.

• One Medical and Cue memberships for you and your family.

• 401(k) with matching.

• Commuter benefits.

• FSA.

• Good stock options.

• Catered lunches and dinners.

• 20 vacation days. Plus sickness and bereavement days for when life happens.

• All the gadgetry you need, including a new phone every year.

Special time to join

Because we're small, there's a lot of energy. And because we have tremendous traction, your first commit touches millions. This combination is rare and quite satisfying.