Backend Engineer
What to Expect
- Work on a payment gateway and related projects, helping to shape key product and technology decisions in a flat, inclusive, and largely self-organizing engineering culture.
- Engineers have significant ownership over their work and room to play to their strengths or develop new areas.
- Growth is driven by your interests and initiative, with support from managers and senior engineers.
International Team and Culture
- English is the primary language used in the team.
- Bilingualism and diversity are valued; optional English and Japanese lessons are offered to support collaboration and growth.
About the Position
As a Backend Engineer, you will build and maintain a platform to handle payments on a global scale. The primary technology is Ruby on Rails (about 90% of tasks). Occasionally, you may also contribute to front-end tasks (less than 5%, using Vue.js/TypeScript/React) and infrastructure/observability tooling (less than 5%, using Terraform and DataDog).
Typical tasks include:
- Adding new APIs for front-end interfaces.
- Investigating bugs to ensure smooth customer payments.
- Improving reliability and observability of systems with tools like Terraform.
You will work closely with product managers to evaluate and implement requirements. Collaboration within the engineering team is essential, including code reviews and opportunities for refactoring. Mentoring and support are provided for ongoing professional growth.
Ideal candidates have experience with large web applications, a focus on performance and reliability, and strong knowledge of testing practices and code quality.
Responsibilities
- Build backend systems using Ruby on Rails stack.
- Translate product goals and feature requests into working software.
- Drive large technical projects from design through implementation and delivery as part of a team.
- Ensure high-quality, reliable software, including thorough testing.
Requirements
- Familiarity with Ruby, including advanced topics such as the Object Hierarchy and meta-programming (e.g.,
method_missing). - Experience building performant and scalable Ruby applications.
- Ability to design data models and system architectures.
- Strong technical communication skills; clear documentation of decisions.
- Experience and understanding of common web vulnerabilities and mitigation strategies.
- Solid grasp of software architecture, design patterns, and best practices.
Nice to Haves
- Experience with TypeScript, Vue.js, or React.
- Experience in payments or payment systems.
- Experience integrating with third-party APIs securely and fault-tolerantly.
- Understanding of database performance and data access patterns.
- Familiarity with monitoring and observability techniques and tools such as DataDog.
Hiring Process
- Thoughtful and efficient, typically 3-4 stages:
- Initial screening
- Take-home exercise
- Technical/team interview
- Final interview with leadership
- Evaluation focuses on technical skills, alignment with team culture, and growth potential.
- Beyond the Code: How to shine in coding exercises
Benefits
- Remote work embraced; office space available for in-person collaboration.
- 10 days regular vacation, plus 5 days summer and 5 days winter vacation.
- Paid birthday holiday.
- Self-learning budget to keep skills current.
- Access to O’Reilly Learning Platform.
- Language training in Japanese/English.
- Twice-weekly office lunch.