Senior Backend Software Engineer - Portugal - job 1 of 2

As a Senior Backend Software Engineer at Dragonboat, your primary responsibilities include collaborating with product and engineering teams to deliver continuous value, designing and maintaining scalable backend systems using Node.js and Express, and optimizing PostgreSQL schemas for efficient data operations. Additionally, you will manage ETL pipelines, ensuring real-time processing and caching for optimal performance, as well as implementing data aggregation and transformation for better analytics.

To qualify for the Senior Backend Software Engineer position at Dragonboat, you'll need at least five years of backend development experience. Familiarity with our tech stack—which includes Node.js, PostgreSQL, Redis, AWS or Azure—is essential. Moreover, experience in designing modular systems, optimizing data pipelines, and a strong ownership mindset are crucial for success in this role.

In your role as a Senior Backend Software Engineer at Dragonboat, you will work extensively with technologies like Node.js and Express for backend development, alongside PostgreSQL for database management. You’ll also utilize AWS or Azure for cloud services, and tools like Docker and GitHub to facilitate your development workflows. Additionally, experience with Redis and Azure OpenAI is highly valued to enhance system performance.

At Dragonboat, the work culture is vibrant, innovative, and highly collaborative. As a remote-native company, we foster an environment where engineers are encouraged to contribute actively to product development and to drive meaningful impact. You will have opportunities to mentor peers, engage in technical discussions, and enhance your skills in an atmosphere that celebrates continuous learning and improvement.

Joining Dragonboat as a Senior Backend Software Engineer comes with a host of benefits. You'll enjoy the flexibility of remote working hours, competitive compensation, stock options, and health insurance. Additionally, we offer a learning budget to help you further your skills and keep pace with industry trends, ensuring you are well-equipped for ongoing success in your career.

When discussing your experience with Node.js in an interview, emphasize specific projects where you utilized this technology. Explain how you built scalable applications, handled real-time data, and the asynchronous architecture of Node.js that you leveraged for performance improvements. Providing concrete examples can demonstrate your practical understanding and problem-solving skills.

In answering this question, highlight your experience with indexing, query planning, and profiling to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks. Mention specific techniques such as using EXPLAIN ANALYZE to understand query execution plans, and how you restructure queries or normalize databases to enhance performance, showcasing your expertise in database management.

When addressing scalability and reliability, describe your architecture choices such as microservices or serverless design. Share your experience with load testing and monitoring tools like AWS CloudWatch or Azure Monitor. Emphasize proactive measures you take for fault tolerance and redundancy, ensuring that the systems can handle high loads without compromising performance.

For this question, outline your role in creating and maintaining ETL processes within your projects. Discuss how you extract, transform, and load data efficiently to support analytics and reporting. Highlight any tools you have used, such as Apache NiFi or custom scripts, and share insights into how your work improved data integrity and accessibility.

In your response, explain your systematic approach to troubleshooting, starting with identifying the symptoms of the issue, analyzing logs, and replicating the problem. Describe tools and techniques you use, like debugging tools or performance monitoring, demonstrating your commitment to a customer-first approach and the importance of ensuring minimal service disruption.

In your answer, highlight your proactive habits like following industry blogs, participating in online forums, and attending webinars or conferences related to backend development. Mention specific communities, resources, or thought leaders you follow, illustrating your passion for continuous learning and professional growth.

Share a specific situation where you faced a major challenge, detailing the scenario and the technology stack involved. Explain your thought process in breaking down the problem, the solution you implemented, and the impact it had on the project or team. This demonstrates your critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.

When discussing automated testing, express its importance in maintaining code quality and ensuring reliability. Talk about the testing frameworks you use, such as Jest or Mocha, and how you integrate testing into your CI/CD pipeline. Share examples of how automated testing has saved time and reduced bugs in your previous projects.

In answering this question, discuss your process for designing RESTful APIs, including how you consider resource representation, HTTP methods, and statelessness. Share examples of projects where you implemented REST APIs, focusing on the design principles you followed and how they facilitated seamless integration and communication.

When addressing conflicts, emphasize the importance of open communication and active listening. Share a strategy for navigating disagreements, such as discussing concerns directly with the involved parties and seeking to understand different perspectives. This showcases your teamwork and collaboration skills, which are essential for the role of Senior Backend Software Engineer.