Senior Backend Engineer (Encourage for Educators)

Role OverviewEncoura’s success is directly a function of talent.  We are serious about hiring the best talent possible in creating our crew that is incredibly passionate and dedicated to building the next-gen ecosystem of systems and products that will improve the student experience across the entire college and career planning lifecycle.   We are looking for an experienced hands-on Senior Backend Engineer to join our Encourage 4 Educators team. Our E4E Team is a small, distributed team of engineers focusing on modernizing and expanding our suite of products and features. You'll work closely with Engineering and Product Leadership as you build your craft alongside other senior developers in small scrum teams.  You will bring a continuous improvement mentality to the role, always on the lookout for ways to make things better across the company and within your own scope of responsibility.   

A Day in the Life

• Working with Engineering and Product Team leads, propel the team through agile development of web apps, mobile apps, libraries, and frameworks, connecting withGraphQL microservices.  
• As a Senior Engineer, you will be incredibly involved in the overall architecture of the system you are working on while learning our existing technical stack. 
• Collaborate within your team while attending grooming sessions and mentoring others as needed to move the team forward. 
• Promote a work environment that is highly collaborative and team centric.  
• Enhance, refactor, and continuously improve the codebase. 
• Keep management informed of project progress and problems, particularly as to needed changes in schedule, resources, or product scope. 
• Communicate effectively with technical and non-technical people. 

Role Progression

• In 1 month, you’ll: Be learning about our business, processes, and recommended tech stack. You will immediately be working hands-on with our technology and getting to know your team. 
• Within 3 months, you’ll: Be participating in planning & development activities and beginning to look at infrastructure designs, CI/CD pipelines and carrying out code reviews for the team. 
• Within 6 months you’ll: Be taking ownership of the application architecture, production troubleshooting, working on cross-portfolio projects and releasing software with the team. 
• Within 1 year, you'll: Be fully immersed in the SDLC, providing technical leadership to your team and building bulletproof products whilst actively engaging in process optimization. 

About You

• You hold a BS in Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, or equivalent work experience. A relevant Master’s degree is a plus. 
• You have 5+ years' experience building software applications understanding the full scope of the app including the front and back- end topology. 
• You have 3+ years' experience working with GraphQL (Apollo), NodeJS and preferably using a framework such as NestJS. GraphOS and Apollo Federation preferred.  
• 2+ years of experience working with databases: MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and MS SQL Server. 
• Experience building web applications with React, MUI, NextJS, and TypeScript preferred. 
• You have 2+ years' experience with Python and are familiar with maintaining and updating code written by others. 
• You are advanced with Docker and setting up local dev environments. 
• You have a presence on GitHub with your own portfolio of projects to share and demonstrate. 
• You have worked with a technology stack similar to ours: GraphOS, GraphQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL, Apollo Federation, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Redis, MongoDB, TypeScript, ReactJS, NodeJS, Python,GitHub, JIRA and Confluence. 
• Past Windows.NET and Microsoft stack experience is a plus. 
• You are used to working in an iterative-based development environment using Agile/Scrum/Sprints. 
• You are always thinking, “what happens if this fails?” 
• You are opinionated about software architecture. 
• You are an excellent, collaborative team player with the communication skills to match. 
• You are passionate about getting the job done well even under time pressure and thrive in a demanding environment. 
• Demonstrated proactivity in capitalizing on opportunities and resolving issues. 
• Intellectually curious – prepared to challenge and be challenged. 
• Constantly striving to learn new technologies and look for ways to stay up to date in this rapidly changing industry. 

What Sets Us Apart

• Mission driven culture 
• Comprehensive health and benefits package 
• 401k company match that vests immediately upon participation 
• Paid holidays and a generous PTO policy 
• Paid parental leave 

About Us
Encoura’s mission is to empower students and institutions to create meaningful connections so everyone can make the most informed decisions to achieve their goals. Since 1972, the company has evolved its products and services to better represent the link between students and higher education institutions and to create the highest probability of student success.  With the launch of the Encoura platform in 2017, the company provides custom technology solutions that combine Eduventures research, data science, strategic enrollment, and multichannel marketing services to over 2,000 higher ed institutions. The company also offers Encourage® —the nation’s largest free college and career planning program used by millions of high school students and educators nationwide.  It is the policy of the Company to provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information. All applicants must be eligible to work in the U.S.  Encoura endeavors to make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities and disabled veterans pursuant to applicable federal and state law. If you are an individual with a disability and require reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process or are limited in the ability and need an alternative method for applying, please contact the Talent Team. 
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