Senior Software Engineer - Boston

Perk Inc.; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity ownership

20 vacation days + public holidays

Health plans (medical, dental, vision)

401(k) with company match

Relocation support

Work from Anywhere days

Sabbatical after 5 years

Job summary

Perk Inc. is expanding its North American engineering footprint and seeks a Senior Software Engineer to help shape a new product from the ground up. You will join a cross-functional squad with ownership of a domain, influencing what gets built and how it is built.

You will mentor teammates, drive architectural decisions, and push for high standards in CI/CD, testing, and data models to deliver impact at scale.

Qualifications

• Translates complex business goals into technical roadmaps and de-risks ambiguous projects.
• Architects scalable, evolvable systems and data models for performance and long-term maintenance.
• Defines and upholds engineering excellence including CI/CD, testing strategies, and coding standards.
• Establishes frontend architecture patterns including state management and performance budgets.
• Engineers sophisticated backend solutions involving API versioning and data migrations.
• Leads observability and SRE practices; defines SLOs and incident responses.
• Oversees operational security, including secrets hygiene and dependency risk management.
• Levels up the engineering organization through mentorship and design reviews.
• Coordinates multi-team deliverables and aligns stakeholders across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Shape the bigger picture by translating business goals into actionable roadmaps and quarterly goals.
• Architect today and tomorrow, writing design docs and managing technical debt.
• Lead across boundaries, coordinating with multiple teams and guilds to align on solutions.
• Raise the bar through mentorship, reviews, and examples of engineering excellence.

Skills

Product Leadership

System Architecture

Technical Standards

Frontend Strategy

Backend Excellence

Operational Maturity

Security & Risk

Mentorship & Influence

Cross-Functional Impact

Tools

Cypress

Job description

About Us
Perk (formerly TravelPerk) is the intelligent platform for travel and spend management. Built to tackle the time-consuming, manual work that gets in the way of real work, our tools automate everything from travel bookings to expenses, invoice processing, and more. By eliminating this shadow work that wastes hours, erodes morale, and saps innovation, we're on a mission to power real work, with real impact.
We're trusted by more than 12,000 companies worldwide, including Bolt, GoCardless, and Fabletics, and we're tackling the 7 hours of lost productivity per employee each week, a $1.7 trillion problem .
Founded in 2015, Perk has grown into a global company of more than 1,800 people across 12 offices globally, with headquarters in London and Boston. We combine innovation, control, and simplicity to transform how businesses work and how people feel at work.
At Perk, we're driven by our values, like being an owner, delivering a 7-star experience, and working as one team. We value curiosity, purpose, and mindset, not just knowledge, to unlock the power in your potential. Our talent team brings together leading minds from the travel, fintech, and SaaS industries, representing over 70 countries. If you're excited about having a real impact and shaping how millions of people experience work, we'd love you on the team.
Visit www.perk.com to learn more.

Perk is growing its engineering footprint in North America, and we're looking for a Senior Software Engineer to help us do it right. You'll play a central role in a new product launch as Perk continues its expansion - a rare chance to shape something from the ground up.

How we work:

At Perk, we believe the best work happens when great people come together in small teams, with a shared sense of purpose. You'll join a cross-functional squad where you have real ownership of a piece of Perk’s domains, a genuine say in what gets built, and the autonomy to make it happen. Each team to decide how to contribute to Perk’s company goals. We care about impact, and we trust our people to deliver it.

What it means to be a Senior Engineer at Perk:

Shape the bigger picture. You won't just build features, you'll refine the what to build and why. At Perk, senior engineers are expected to go beyond the technical solution and focus on the problem itself. You'll contribute to your squad's quarterly goals and long-term vision alongside your Product Manager and Engineering Manager.

Architect for today and tomorrow. When a big change is needed in how our platform works, you'll be the one writing the design documents that lay the foundation. You'll become a guardian of your team's technical quality; spotting areas of investment, proactively managing technical debt, and making sure we don't let "busy work" crowd out the work that truly matters. At Perk, we believe in impact over effort: our customers see results, not the hours behind them. Your job is to make sure we're always investing our energy where it counts most.

Lead across boundaries. Your influence won't stop at your own squad. You'll communicate complex ideas across multiple teams, proactively identify who needs to be involved, and drive alignment across the broader organisation. Whether it's coordinating a cross-squad initiative, contributing to one of our engineering guilds (where engineers from different teams align on shared technical topics), or pairing with architects on solution discovery, you'll operate comfortably beyond your immediate team.

Raise the bar for everyone around you. Senior engineers at Perk are mentors, coaches, and bar raisers. You'll support less experienced colleagues through direct mentorship, thoughtful feedback during reviews, and by modelling what great engineering looks like in practice. You'll help Engineering Managers understand where the team needs to grow technically, and you'll use spaces like guild meetings, design doc reviews, and pairing sessions to lift the overall standard. At Perk, we are a team, the team's success is your success.

Desired skills and experience:

• Product Leadership: Translates complex business goals into technical roadmaps; de-risks ambiguous projects through spikes and prototyping.
• System Architecture: Architects scalable, evolvable systems and data models that account for performance, failure isolation, and long-term maintenance.
• Technical Standards: Defines and upholds engineering excellence, including CI/CD optimizations, testing strategies, and coding standards across the stack.
• Frontend Strategy: Establishes frontend architecture patterns, including state management, performance budgets, and comprehensive testing (e.g., E2E/Cypress).
• Backend Excellence: Engineers sophisticated backend solutions involving API versioning, caching strategies, and complex data migration plans.
• Operational Maturity: Leads observability and SRE practices; defines SLOs, manages incident responses, and conducts blameless post-mortems.
• Security & Risk: Oversees operational security, including secrets hygiene and dependency risk management, to ensure a hardened production environment.
• Mentorship & Influence: Levels up the engineering organization through active mentorship, leading design reviews, and influencing the product roadmap with technical data.
• Cross-Functional Impact: Coordinates multi-team deliverables and aligns stakeholders to resolve technical blockers across the organization.

What we offer:

Receive competitive compensation and equity ownership in Perk

Rest and recharge with our generous allocation of 20 vacation days and 12 public holidays

Enjoy the flexibility of three medical plans to choose from, with company contributions and an HSA when enrolling in an HDHP medical plan

Take control of your physical health with additional comprehensive benefit plans, covering dental, vision and Wellhub’s gym subscription from your start date

Rest assured that you’re covered by life and disability policies from your start date, with options to add extra protection through voluntary buy-up plans

Plan for your future with our 401(k) plan with company matching contributions

Care for your furry friends through partner discounts on pet insurance

Join our unforgettable Perk events, including our spectacular annual summer party

Always feel supported with Spring Health, our market-leading wellbeing partner, providing fast, comprehensive access to 12x therapy and 12x coaching sessions for you and your loved ones

Focus on your family with 12-16 weeks’ paid parental leave

Contribute to your community with 16 paid hours per year to spend volunteering for your dearest charitable causes

Broaden your horizons with up to 20 "Work from Anywhere" days per year

Follow your passions and take a four-week, fully paid sabbatical once you reach 5 years

Let us help you move to one of our hubs with relocation support

Compensation:
Compensation for this role is a combination of salary and stock options. The anticipated base salary range is $140,000 - $180,000 per year. Actual compensation may vary based on specific qualifications, experience, and other job-related factors.

AI at Perk
AI is embedded in how we work across every function. The tools you'll use day-to-day are AI-enabled so you can move faster and spend more time on the work that matters. In practice, that means using AI to research and prioritise accounts, draft and refine outreach, handle customer interactions more effectively, synthesise information, and cut through shadow work - the invisible tasks that pull people away from the work only they can do - so you can focus on relationships and outcomes.

How We Work

At Perk, we take an IRL-first approach to work, where our team works together in-person 3 days a week. As such, this role requires you to be based within commuting distance of our hubs. We fundamentally believe in the value of meeting in real life to improve connectivity, productivity, creativity and ultimately making us a great place to work.

For certain roles, we can help with relocation from anywhere in the world, English is the official language at the office. Please submit your resume in English if you choose to apply. Do not forget to submit an updated portfolio and/or resume.

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