Software Development Engineer II

About the candidate:

• We are looking for a sharp and experienced Backend Software Engineer with expertise in Ruby/Rails, Java and microservice architecture to join our dynamic Private Client Backend Team. This team powers the backend data systems that drive everything visible on our luxury App Editorialist, ensuring high-quality, accurate, and performant data delivery for a seamless user experience. 
• This role is ideal for someone who thrives in building scalable, high-performance web applications, has a strong grasp of backend architecture, and is comfortable leading projects end-to-end. As an SDE-2, we expect you to own systems, make informed architectural choices, and collaborate with peers to deliver high-impact features efficiently.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, build, and maintain scalable backend services in Ruby and Java.
• Develop RESTful APIs and integrations with internal teams and external third-party systems. 
• Work with PostgreSQL for database design, optimization, and complex query handling and contribute to backend workers and asynchronous processing pipelines (Sidekiq, background jobs).
• Implement caching, load balancing, and performance optimizations to ensure low latency and high reliability.
• Write unit tests to ensure robust and well-tested services, following best practices for test-driven development.
• Set up monitoring and alerting to identify and resolve production issues proactively.
• Participate in code reviews, architecture discussions, and production troubleshooting.
• Own deployments and infrastructure on AWS + Docker containers, ensuring scalability and cost efficiency.
• Contribute to system design decisions involving security (OAuth, auth layers, data protection) and high-availability services.

More About You

• Bachelors in Technology from a Tier 1 University.
• 3–5 years of hands-on experience with strong expertise in any backend programming languages (preferably Ruby/Java)
• Solid understanding of REST APIs, authentication (OAuth/JWT), and API security best practices.
• Hands-on experience with relational databases (like Postgres) – schema design, indexing, query optimization..
• Knowledge of caching layers (Redis/Memcached) and async job processing (Sidekiq, Celery, or equivalent).
• Familiarity with Docker, AWS services (EC2, ECS, S3, RDS, Load Balancers, SQS etc).
• Familiarity with modern AI-powered developer tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, AI code search, code review tools) and ability to use them effectively as productivity multipliers.
• Exposure to frontend collaboration (React-based dashboards/extensions) is a plus.
• Comfortable with version control (Git) and collaborating via pull requests.
• Write unit tests to ensure robust and well-tested services, following best practices for test-driven development.
• Set up monitoring and alerting to identify and resolve production issues proactively.
• Ability to break down and drive a module end-to-end by collaborating with peers (design, backend, DevOps).
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills in a remote-first environment.
• Get hands-on with new technologies and be open to learning and experimentation.

Bonus points:

• Best in class compensation and benefits.
• A fast-paced, tech-savvy startup environment where your code has real-world, measurable impact.
• End to end ownership of features and systems—your decisions will shape user experience and architecture.
• Opportunity to work with state of the art tech, modern, performance-focused JavaScript stack.
• Exposure to international teams across the US, Europe, and Asia.