Senior / Staff Backend Engineer

As a Senior / Staff Backend Engineer at Linear, your key responsibilities include building the backend for various user-facing features, optimizing real-time data delivery across clients, and improving database performance through advanced caching solutions. You will redesign our software development processes, enhance observability and monitoring for operational efficiency, and scale our services through architectural innovations.

To qualify for the Senior / Staff Backend Engineer position at Linear, applicants should have strong JavaScript fundamentals and experience in building scalable backend solutions. Familiarity with TypeScript, Node, Postgres, and technologies like Redis, TypeORM, and TypeGraphQL will be beneficial. While a background in all our tech stacks is not essential, experience in optimizing infrastructure and a passion for software craftsmanship are crucial.

Working remotely at Linear as a Senior / Staff Backend Engineer allows for a flexible work-life balance, empowering you to thrive in a self-directed manner. You’ll collaborate with a talented team spread across various time zones without the constraints of commuting, ensuring that you can focus on meaningful projects while also enjoying our employee-friendly policies.

As a Senior / Staff Backend Engineer at Linear, you'll engage with a variety of technologies including Node.js, Postgres, and Redis. Additionally, you’ll implement a public GraphQL API, enhance real-time synchronization capabilities using WebSockets, and utilize tools like TypeORM and TypeGraphQL within our infrastructure hosted on Google Cloud.

At Linear, a Senior / Staff Backend Engineer can expect an inclusive and collaborative work environment where creativity flourishes. With a commitment to innovation, you'll be surrounded by colleagues who are equally passionate about software craftsmanship and quality. Regular team events, off-sites, and a culture that emphasizes learning and growth ensure a vibrant community.

In response to this question, describe specific projects where you designed backend systems that promoted scalability. Focus on your thought process, the technologies you chose, and how you handled challenges associated with scale. Highlight measurable outcomes to demonstrate successful projects.

When addressing this question, explain different caching methods you've applied, such as in-memory caching or using distributed caches. Provide context by referring to specific problems solved or performance improvements gained through caching, illustrating your technical ability and decision-making acumen.

Share your approach to writing clean, maintainable code by mentioning practices such as test-driven development, code reviews, and implemented design patterns. Provide examples of how maintaining quality positively impacted team collaboration and project outcomes in your previous work.

Choose a significant technical challenge that showcases your problem-solving skills. Explain the context, the specific approaches you took to address it, and the eventual resolution. Highlight the lessons learned and how they guided your future work.

Discuss your familiarity with TypeScript, covering how its static typing benefits larger codebases, particularly in preventing bugs during development. Cite experiences where TypeScript improved your workflow compared to pure JavaScript, especially in terms of team collaboration and error handling.

When asked this, explain your strategies for incident response, such as processes for debugging and logging. Discuss specific tools you've used for monitoring services, how you've implemented better observability, and provide examples of actions taken based on monitoring data.

Outline your approach to designing RESTful or GraphQL APIs, focusing on best practices for performance and usability. Give examples of how you’ve optimized API endpoints for speed or efficiency, and discuss how you ensure proper documentation for developers.

Share a detailed scenario where you successfully scaled an application, emphasizing the strategies used, the challenges faced, and the results achieved. Discuss any infrastructure or architectural changes implemented to support the scaling initiative.

Highlight your experience working with other teams, such as product management or design, to ensure that development aligns with business goals. Provide examples of how effective collaboration has led to successful outcomes in past projects.

In your response, express your enthusiasm for backend development by discussing what aspects you find most rewarding, such as problem-solving, system optimization, or the impact of well-architected software. Share personal experiences that reflect this motivation.