Full Stack Software Engineer

The Why:

Our vibrant engineering team of 12 is looking to hire driven, curious developers with 0 - 3 years of experience to help cultivate our stack at a proven (8 years in) tech company in downtown Minneapolis.

As consumers, we have plenty of ways to talk online about the service we have received but we don’t have the same friction-free ways to engage in-the-moment with real people at the businesses we visit. Kipsu provides a new way for businesses and guests to engage through real-time digital channels, transforming what it feels like to give and receive great service.

The How:

We love the work we do and how we do it. We have deliberately built an engineering team that is tight-knit, non-dogmatically agile and embraces talented individuals who want to make a difference. We are on the lookout for a Software Engineer who shares our passion and is ready to take on the exciting and complex challenges of a rapidly growing software company. Read on if this sounds like the type of culture you would excel in!

The What:

As an engineer on our small, congenial team, you’ll have the chance to:

• Have input, make an impact, and release code nearly every day
• Design and build innovative new product features, enhancements, subsystems, and microservices with zero-downtime deployments, adding to our rapidly evolving codebase
• Find new frameworks, tools, technologies, and practices, and put them to work to solve interesting problems (we embrace pragmatic microservices design patterns that allow us to pick the right tools/languages for the job)
• Take responsibility, make architectural choices, and generally be empowered to drive meaningful changes
• Join our blameless retros as we learn from our mistakes (as individuals and as a team) with a focus on experimentation and continuous improvement
• Collaborate with a motivated team of peers on software design and code review to ensure that the team is always putting out the best product (and code) possible
• Work with individuals outside of engineering to develop new products and features that help our clients effortlessly communicate with their guests

The Who:

We’re hiring engineers who:

• Are proficient in full stack development and have experience writing scalable object-oriented code; we will consider candidates with 0 - 3 years of experience (those with less than a year of professional experience will submit a code sample - see bottom of posting for instructions).
• Understand how to break down complex problems into manageable pieces that can be continuously deployed to production
• Want to work together as part of a high energy, high achieving team
• Have an entrepreneurial streak or a history of working on side projects
• Want to contribute to and lead projects in areas like real-time communication, data analysis, microservices, user experience, API and SDK development, cloud infrastructure and beyond

Bonus points for experience:

• Working in a solid, scalable backend codebase by applying object-oriented principles using PHP, Node.js, Java, Go, or other languages and frameworks
• Building web applications with Javascript, and bringing in knowledge from working with modern frameworks like Angular, Vue, Backbone, Knockout, or React
• Utilizing Amazon Web Services (AWS) or other cloud computing platforms
• Building native mobile applications for iOS or Android
• Working in the customer service domain and on customer service software​

We know we’re not one of the large tech companies (not yet, anyway), but we like it that way. Our engineering team can fit around a table at lunch and stay in easy, regular communication. We score a 10 on the Joel Test and are working towards getting that to a 12.

In addition to the opportunity to be a key part of a small, focused team at a successful and rapidly growing startup, we offer competitive salary and benefits, stock options, and the trust and freedom to move the proverbial needle. If you’re looking to hone your skills and learn a whole host of new ones as a valued member of our high-performing team, then we’d like to meet you.

Connect:

To apply please submit your resume and in your cover letter, please answer the following questions.

• Tell us about a time when you were bold in how you solved a technical problem.
• How has your past work set you up to excel as a Full Stack Engineer at Kipsu? We want to hear all about the amazing things you've built, your successes and your failures. 
• If you are in the first year of your career as a software engineer, please also share a sample of your code from one recent solo project that you are proud of in particular.

We'd like to see:

• A personal project, if possible - if that isn't possible, we'll gladly accept a school or boot camp solo project (and the project can be complete or partially done)
• Clean code that makes use of sound software engineering principles 

Please provide context such as:

• Anything in this project that particularly grabbed your interest or excited you
• Any personal touch you added, where you maybe went above and beyond (if for school), or an example of how you solved a particularly complex problem
• Your plans for proceeding if the project is partially done
• How to run the project

One last thing– At Kipsu, we believe that our values, success, and future as a leader in our industry require a vibrant and diverse workforce. This is one of the many challenges we seek to solve, and we are intentional and active in recruiting talent that comes from all walks of life and building an environment that is inclusive to all backgrounds. We need your contribution to our team. Please, consider rolling up your sleeves and joining us on our journey.

We look forward to hearing from you!