Senior Back End Engineer at Literati

Senior Back End Engineer

Think of your favorite book from childhood. Got it? Great. Now, that warm, joyful feeling you have right now—that’s what we do. Literati is a modern children’s book company focused on helping kids fall in love with reading at every age and stage. We make it easy to find great books through our school book fairs, school store fundraising platform, and book clubs using a unique mix of expert curation and data science. We’re on a mission to help parents ignite a love of learning and a love of life.

Role Overview

As a Senior Back End Engineer, you will support our back end systems for the kids club and book fair products, as well as internal operations systems. In particular we are looking for someone who is a strong Python engineer who is comfortable supporting the team’s DevOps infrastructure. You will be part of a group of engineers with DevOps expertise that will work to support and improve our infrastructure. You'll be an essential part of the team working to improve children's literacy across the United States. As part of a small team, you'll have many opportunities for personal and career growth while collaborating with industry experts in machine learning and personalization. The salary band for this role is $140,000 - $150,000, depending on experience.

REQUIREMENTS

• 4+ years of experience defining and leading web application server architecture initiatives

• 3+ years of experience building applications using Python

• 3+ years of experience supporting a cloud hosting environment (GCP, AWS, or Azure)

• Expertise in API and Data Model design

• Proficiency with with Kubernetes, Docker, Linux, Bash, and related technologies

• Strong communication skills to convey architectural perspectives and monitor implementations

• Experience developing tests that ensure performance, quality, and scalability

• Proven success delivering in an agile environment

• Proficiency with tools such as Git, Shortcut/Jira, etc.

• Demonstrated leadership in engineering environments through operational excellence, best practices, and mentoring junior developers

WE’D LOVE TO SEE

• Experience with Literati’s full tech stack (Python/Django, React, Kubernetes, Helm, etc.)

• Ability to work with the product team and customers to define requirements to build out new features.

• Experience implementing and documenting engineering processes and standards;

• Any experience with PHP or Wordpress is nice as we have some pages on that platform, but it is not an expected part of this role.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the full software development lifecycle from concept to deployment, collaborating with cross-functional teams to plan, design, and deliver robust and scalable solutions.

• Mentor and elevate the team's technical skills by conducting thorough and constructive code reviews, ensuring code quality, maintainability, and adherence to established best practices.

• Champion code quality and reliability by implementing comprehensive testing strategies, including automated unit, integration, and end-to-end tests, and ensuring proper QA coverage.

• Drive technical excellence by leading initiatives to enhance software development processes. This includes improving system monitoring, logging, and proactively managing technical debt to ensure long-term health and stability of our codebases.

ABOUT LITERATI

We offer competitive salaries, company equity, medical/dental/vision insurance, 401k, short-term disability insurance, parental leave, employee assistance programs, flexible work schedules, and flexible time off.

We are dedicated to cultivating and preserving a culture of inclusion and connectedness that sees, reflects, welcomes, and celebrates the innovation and talent of a diverse array of people. We seek people with drive and a touch of alchemy. We also recognize that some people—particularly underrepresented groups, women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+—may not be comfortable applying to a position unless they meet 100% of the qualifications. Even if your experience isn’t a precise match for the role, we highly encourage you to apply. And if your career has taken you to some spectacular (or spectacularly strange) places, we love a good story.