Senior Backend Engineer

ZipRecruiter; England; Remote; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A dynamic startup is seeking a backend engineer to enhance their team. The role involves writing Pythonic code, collaborating with product teams, and contributing to features and bug fixes. Ideal candidates will have a strong background in engineering or science, and a passion for learning and sharing knowledge. This remote position requires occasional travel to London for team meet-ups.

Qualifications

• 5 years' experience in a relevant field.
• Experience working with relational databases and SQL.
• Deep knowledge of Python.

Responsibilities

• Write elegant, performant and well-tested code.
• Contribute to features, bug fixes, tests and infrastructure code.
• Support the work of peers through pairing, reviewing, and mentoring.

Skills

Curiosity

Communication

Education

Engineering background

Mathematics background

Scientific background

Tools

PostgreSQL

AWS

Job description

Job Description

NO recruiters, agencies or consultancies, thank you!

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Boost is searching for an exceptional candidate to level up our backend engineering team. We’re looking for individuals who are as equally motivated by crafting Pythonic code as they are creating delightful user experiences. You’ll join a small high-performing team building commerce and fintech products for the FMCG sector, working directly with experienced co-founders across Africa and beyond. This is a unique opportunity to join an incredible team in a purpose-driven startup!

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About Boost

Boost is a global platform that powers FMCG manufacturers and last mile distribution networks with radically easy technology and growth services. Boost’s Platform-as-a-Service offering includes:

• WhatsApp ordering to grow sales and serve more retailers with less effort;
• An offline-enabled sales app for sales reps to manage their customers;
• A fully-featured fulfilment platform with end-to-end visibility; and
• Digital payment and credit solutions in partnership with Mastercard.

We are currently scaling across markets and channels through strategic partnerships with Unilever and Mastercard, with more in the pipeline.

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Your role

Your job—in collaboration with others in the product and engineering teams—will be to write elegant, performant and well-tested code that improves our products in meaningful ways. You will be expected to contribute to features, bug fixes, tests and infrastructure code alike, through both software and systems engineering. Internally, you will also be a crucial link between Boost country teams and the thousands of informal sector retailers served by our customers in order to upskill internal teams’ technical knowledge of the product.

This role reports to Will Croft, Boost’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

Your day-to-day key responsibilities will be to:

Write elegant, performant and well-tested code

You will work side-by-side with the product and engineering teams to ship new—and improve existing—code:

• Work to understand the wider purpose of each feature you work on.
• Define, communicate and execute on a clear plan for your work, while ensuring any unclear expectations are clarified.
• Scope larger features down into smaller, actionable, items of work.
• Strive to reduce technical debt and communicate larger refactors.
• Support the work of your peers through pairing, reviewing, and mentoring.
• Prepare clean and well-written pull requests, and help to ship your work.
• Actively participate in broader engineering efforts.
• Raise the bar for customer experience!

Enable the engineering team to make better decisions

We work in a collaborative way—and as a member of the Platform team you will be in one of the best positions to promote collaboration, learning and prioritisation across teams.

• Contribute to the Platform roadmap and prioritisation.
• Work closely with in-country product teams to better understand product requests and ensure requirements are well written and understood.

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Your experience and skills

You are:

• Keen, bright and your superpower is curiosity.
• Someone with an engineering, mathematical or scientific background.
• Someone who supports the work of their peers through pair programming, reviewing, and mentoring.
• Someone who adjusts well to shifting priorities when necessary.
• Someone who loves to share what you’re learning and working remotely.
• Someone who is a great communicator and loves to build bridges between people with different backgrounds and cultures—and in different locations.
• Motivated by our mission, resonate with our virtues and principles, and ambitious to grow into a larger future role.

Skills for success in this role:

• A deep knowledge of Python and able to write clear and Pythonic code.
• Experience working with relational databases and SQL (any dialect is fine, but we work with PostgreSQL).
• Experience working with cloud infrastructure (we use AWS).
• Relevant experience in a similar role, preferably within a fast-growing startup.
• Openness to others’ ideas with a shared desire to understand and communicate the purpose of the work.

Practically, we expect to find someone with 5 years’ experience in a relevant field, who is comfortable in a fast-paced environment and has a passion for learning from and delighting customers. If this sounds like you, we’d love to talk!

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Location

This role is remote, but based in London, UK. You will be expected to travel into London a few times a month for face-to-face meet-ups with the team.

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Compensation

We provide competitive compensation, pursuant to experience. As a startup, our goal is to attract and retain individuals who are as excited to build a meaningful business from the ground up as we are, and we look for individuals who will fit and grow with us in the long run.

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Interview and assessment

During the interview process you will meet people working across the business in the product and (customer-facing) operations teams. This gives you the chance to meet both the people you’ll be working with, as well as gaining insight into how our teams operate in-country.

Our interview process is structured into three straightforward stages. In total we ask for three calls (or in-person meetings, depending on location and preference) and one take-home exercise. You'll receive a PDF information pack with full details if selected for the initial call.

To apply, send your CV with a covering note to [e-mail], or through LinkedIn.

We look forward to hearing from you!