Lead Software Engineer (Backend)

Posted Jun 4

Knock is a caring group of people who came together from across the industry with the belief there had to be a better way to serve people in the journey between homes. We offer a first-of-its-kind Knock Bridge Loan™ that gives everyone in the process more convenience, certainty, and competitiveness.

Founded in 2015, we have earned the industry’s trust: an A+ Better Business Bureau rating and relationships with more than 120,000 real estate agents in our 75 markets across the US. Launched by founding team members of Trulia, we are funded by industry leading investors, including Foundry Group, Greycroft, RRI, Parker89, and The National Association of Realtors who serves 1.6 million members. We’re most proud of the stories from people we’ve helped get their new home, and the five star Zillow rating from over 750 reviews. To learn more, Knock.

Title: Lead Software Engineer (Backend)

We are seeking a passionate Lead Software Engineer to play a key role in designing, architecting, and constructing our core backend services. In this role as an individual contributor, you will actively shape the architectural direction of our platform, while creating scalable and observable systems. Additionally, you'll play a vital role in the deployment, operation, and maintenance of our infrastructure.

Role Description:

Design, architect, build and maintain our core backend services that power Knock’s customer-facing applications and communicate your designs to fellow engineers. Build new services from scratch, as well as maintain existing systems
Commit to good engineering practices of security, testing, logging, alerting and deployment processes
Continually learn, grow, and expand your knowledge, while also supporting others learning experiences; act as a mentor and be a resource for others inside and outside of your team
Demonstrate a high level of ownership for the Knock platform and our customer experience
Participate in the on-call rotation (required)
Express a breadth and depth of knowledge: the Lead Software Engineer has deep knowledge of software engineering in multiple domains
Designs systems with scalability in mind, making choices appropriate for the expected volume of traffic and data both now and in the future
Apply advanced computer science concepts to solve real-world problems
Design solutions with simplicity and consistency, enabling elegant, composable architecture to scale complex software systems

Technical Qualifications - You’ll Bring:

Programming proficiency in designing and implementing services in Node.js and TypeScript (bonus) with experience in common frameworks such as Fastify
Understanding of software design principles and experience with the full lifecycle software development including requirements gathering, development, testing, troubleshooting, deployment, instrumentation and monitoring
RDBMS and SQL experience (MySQL or PostgreSQL), general DB design, writing and optimizing queries
Experience designing RESTful and/or RPC style APIs to drive web experiences, and service to service functionality for business entities and data manipulation
Experience in Infrastructure with at least one major cloud provider, ideally AWS (we use ECS, RDS, Lambda, S3, SNS, SQS, CloudWatch, etc.) as well as Terraform
Experience in building and updating CI/CD pipelines (bonus)
Experience with DynamoDB, S3, SQS, and Kinesis (bonus)
Familiarity with logging, debugging and application performance monitoring tools

You Should:

Have 10+ years of software development experience in a professional work environment creating production-level applications
Have at least 3 recent years of professional experience specifically designing and implementing backend services using Node.js
Have at least 3 years experience designing RESTful or RPC APIs
Have experience architecting and leading projects from the requirements phase to completion as a tech or team lead
Be able to author, present and communicate technical designs and processes to both technical and non-technical audiences
Have proven success working 100% remote in prior positions & are experienced working with a distributed, national team
Be able to adapt to a rapidly changing startup environment and willing to learn new technologies and tools while working with existing data and services
Believe in creating diverse, equitable, and inclusive practices and programs that will further Knock’s commitment to making an impact, learning, putting people first, being open, and courageous

Physical Requirements:

Set up and constantly operate a computer
Communicate and exchange accurate information to others via telephone or internet video applications
Must be available on scheduled weekends and overnights for on-call escalations

Compensation and Benefits:

The candidate must be able to perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation.

Our Compensation Philosophy: As a remote first fully remote (U.S.-based) workforce, our goal is to ensure that all Knockstars are fairly compensated. Please note that the salary range information that follows is a good faith estimate for this position: $162,000 - $212,000 USD. This job posting expires on July 31, 2024.

The actual offer, reflecting the total compensation package & benefits, will be at the company’s sole discretion, and determined by factors including but not limited to years of experience, job level, geographic location, and other relevant business considerations. The company also reserves the right to amend or modify this job description, employee perks, and benefits at any time. Employees eligible for bonus and/or commission will be provided details in the offer letter.

Enjoying Life & Making an Impact:

Since our founding in 2015, Knock has and continues to offer a 100% remote work culture
Top tier medical, dental, & vision premiums for full time employees starting on the first day of employment
Flexible Paid Time Off for full time employees
Paid parental leave for all full time employees: 12 weeks paid parental leave for the birthing parent, 6 weeks paid parental leave for the non-birthing parent
$1,000 annually for professional development
Life, AD&D and Disability insurance for full time employees
401K (noncontributory by Knock) for all employees
$75 monthly allowance for health & wellness
Up to $400 monthly for a co-working space for eligible employees
$100 monthly allowance for home internet, mobile phone or other communication devices
$2,500 referral bonus for eligible employees

Knock provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or medical disability, medical condition, marital status, sexual orientation, genetic information, military and/or veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by applicable US federal, state, or local laws.

Internal Employees: If you are a current employee, do not apply here - please navigate to our Internal Job Board in Greenhouse to apply to our open roles.

External Applicants: If you are interested in applying to this position - click the "apply now" button.

We are proud to be a remote, distributed company with employees across 17 states and counting. This is an amazing opportunity to be an integral part of building a multi-billion dollar consumer brand in an industry that is long overdue for a new way of doing things. You will be working with a passionate team that is disrupting the status quo.

Knock, and its subsidiaries, are committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or medical disability, medical condition, marital status, sexual orientation, genetic information, military and/or veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by applicable US federal, state, or local laws.

Please no recruitment firm or agency inquiries, you will not receive a reply from us.

PDF is our preferred format for resumes and any other attachments. Thank you!

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