Software Development Engineer - job 3 of 4

As a Software Development Engineer at Oak Street Health, your core responsibilities will include participating in all aspects of the software development lifecycle, including design, coding, testing, deployment, and maintenance. You'll collaborate with cross-functional teams, participate in code reviews, enhance code quality, address bugs and technical debt, and implement SecDevOps best practices. Your contributions will be essential in delivering innovative platforms that improve healthcare delivery.

Candidates for the Software Development Engineer role at Oak Street Health should possess a Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience and have at least 3 years of experience building high-performance, low-latency distributed systems in cloud environments. Familiarity with technologies such as Java/Kotlin, Spring Boot, Kubernetes, and MongoDB is also required. Additionally, candidates should demonstrate a strong understanding of microservices architecture, automated testing, and Agile methodologies.

At Oak Street Health, a Software Development Engineer plays a critical role in enhancing patient care by developing and maintaining innovative healthcare platforms. Your work will help streamline the clinical team's processes and improve the overall patient experience. By leveraging modern software development methodologies and tools, you'll contribute to critical projects that directly impact how our providers care for patients, ultimately leading to better health outcomes.

In the role of Software Development Engineer at Oak Street Health, you'll work with a diverse tech stack that includes Java/Kotlin, Spring Boot, Kubernetes, Kafka, and MongoDB. Understanding event-driven architecture and familiarity with cloud services like AWS or Azure will also be valuable. Your role will involve leveraging these technologies to build scalable, resilient applications that enhance our healthcare delivery systems.

As a Software Development Engineer at Oak Street Health, you can expect a collaborative, fast-paced, and agile work environment. You will have the opportunity to work closely with cross-functional teams, bringing ideas to life and making a real difference in patient healthcare. Our team values creativity, empowerment, and a commitment to driving positive change, making it a motivating place to innovate.

When responding to this question, highlight specific projects where you've designed, built, or maintained cloud-based systems. Focus on the protocols and frameworks you utilized, your approach to scalability, and any challenges you faced in cloud deployments, especially in environments like AWS or Azure.

Emphasize your communication skills and collaborative mindset. Provide an example from your past experience where you successfully worked alongside engineers, designers, and product managers to deliver a project. Discuss how you ensure alignment and efficiency through clear documentation and continuous feedback.

Discuss practices such as code reviews, unit testing, continuous integration, and automated testing. Mention any specific tools you utilize to enforce coding standards and optimize code quality throughout the development lifecycle, and the importance of addressing technical debt promptly.

Share instances where you incorporated security practices into the development process, integrating security checks within the CI/CD pipeline. Explain how collaboration with operations and security teams has enhanced the overall security of applications during the build and deployment phases.

Explain your familiarity with microservices, including design patterns, benefits, and challenges. Consider sharing a specific project that utilized microservices, detailing how it increased modularity, improved deployment cycles, and facilitated ongoing scalability and resilience.

Detail a specific scenario where you identified performance bottlenecks in an application and the steps you took to solve them. Highlight your thought process, the tools you used for performance monitoring, and the measurable impact of your optimizations.

Describing your approach to test-driven development (TDD) is a great opportunity to emphasize your commitment to writing robust code. Explain how you write tests before coding, how this practice influences your coding approach, and how it leads to fewer bugs and higher quality products.

Discuss the resources you use to keep your knowledge current, such as online courses, webinars, industry publications, or tech meetups. Sharing any communities you're part of—especially those relevant to healthcare technology—can also show your dedication to continuous learning.

Be prepared to talk about specific challenges—like adjusting to fast-paced changes or dealing with shifting priorities—and how you proactively responded. Highlight your adaptability and any frameworks or strategies you've employed to maintain productivity and team cohesion.

Use this question to illustrate your initiative and leadership skills. Detail a specific project where you took charge, any obstacles you faced, the strategies you employed to resolve issues, and the final results, including any positive feedback from teammates or stakeholders.