Staff Software Engineer, Backend - Ads

As a Staff Software Engineer, Backend at MyFitnessPal, you'll be responsible for collaborating with cross-functional teams to tackle technical challenges, developing and maintaining APIs that enhance user experiences, and evaluating existing systems for improvements. Your role will also involve breaking down complex problems into feasible solutions while ensuring code quality and performance. With a focus on Kotlin and various other languages, your technical expertise will be crucial to the growth of the MyFitnessPal Ads framework.

To excel as a Staff Software Engineer, Backend at MyFitnessPal, candidates should possess at least 7 years of relevant experience, with a strong background in high-request APIs and familiarity with different data stores like MySQL or MongoDB. Expertise in various API design patterns, specifically REST and GraphQL, as well as knowledge of messaging queues like Kafka is essential. Additional experience in collaborative programming styles and various programming languages will be seen as a significant plus.

While familiarity with MyFitnessPal's specific tech stack, including languages like Kotlin, Scala, and Ruby, is a bonus, it's not explicitly required. We value strong engineering skills and problem-solving abilities above all. If you have experience building high-volume APIs and working in cloud environments, particularly AWS, you will find this position aligns well with your expertise.

At MyFitnessPal, the team culture revolves around collaboration, mentorship, and support. As a Staff Software Engineer, Backend, you will be part of a welcoming environment where all voices are valued. You'll have opportunities to mentor junior developers and engage in pair or mob programming sessions, emphasizing teamwork and shared learning. Our mission underlines the importance of kindness, inclusivity, and constant improvement, which resonates throughout the company.

MyFitnessPal offers a comprehensive benefits package for Staff Software Engineers, including competitive healthcare options, retirement savings with employer match, flexible time-off policies, wellness allowances, and annual performance bonuses. Additionally, employees can take advantage of volunteer days, maternity and paternity leave, and opportunities for mentoring and professional development. This holistic approach ensures that our team members maintain a strong work-life balance while pursuing their career goals.

When answering this question, highlight specific projects where you've built or maintained high-volume APIs. Discuss the challenges you faced, the technologies you used, and the outcomes achieved. Emphasize your ability to optimize performance and how your decisions enhanced user experience.

To effectively answer this, outline your strategic approach to problem-solving. This could include breaking down problems into smaller pieces, collaborating with colleagues to gather insights, and your method for testing potential solutions. Highlight an example from your past experience.

Discuss your familiarity with REST and GraphQL, explaining their pros and cons. Provide examples of how you have implemented these patterns in your projects and the specific use-cases where one was preferred over the other.

Share a specific experience that illustrates your collaborative skills. Describe how you communicated with team members from different departments, resolved conflicts, and what the results were in terms of project success and team dynamics.

Detail your coding practices, such as using Test Driven Development (TDD), code reviews, or continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) processes. Provide examples of how these practices led to improved code quality and fewer bugs in production.

Share your hands-on experience with AWS or other cloud platforms, specifying the services you have utilized (like EC2, S3, or Lambda). Discuss how you used these services to enhance application performance and scalability.

Provide a specific example of a production issue you encountered, the steps you took to identify and resolve it, and the lessons learned from the experience. Highlight your ability to stay calm under pressure.

Discuss your experience using Kafka or similar messaging systems, including scenarios where they were implemented successfully. Explain your understanding of message processing and the impact on system architecture.

This is your opportunity to showcase your commitment to continuous learning. Mention conferences, online courses, books, or blogs you follow, and any communities or forums where you actively participate to enhance your knowledge.

Explain your methods for prioritization, such as using agile methodologies or project management tools. Provide an example that illustrates how you balanced multiple deadlines while maintaining high-quality work.