As a Product Engineer at Opal, your main responsibilities include creating full-stack features using technologies like Golang, Typescript, React, and GraphQL. You will collaborate closely with Product Managers, design teams, and customers to define product specifications and create new features from scratch. Additionally, you'll work with cross-functional teams to align engineering initiatives with business objectives and aim to design user experiences that are both delightful and scalable.

To qualify for the Product Engineer role at Opal, candidates should have at least 5 years of full-time software development experience. Strong programming skills across full-stack development are essential, and familiarity with technologies like TypeScript, React, Golang, GraphQL, and Postgres is a plus. Ideal candidates should also possess excellent attention to detail, have an independent drive, and a passion for creating great products.

Opal is committed to supporting the professional growth of all its employees, including Product Engineers. With a culture that encourages taking ownership of projects and autonomy in decision-making, you will have ample opportunities to learn and grow. The company also promotes collaboration among experienced team members who come from a background of scaling tech teams, providing an environment rich in mentorship and skill enhancement.

As a Product Engineer at Opal, you will engage with a stack that includes Golang, Typescript, React, GraphQL, and Postgres. This diverse tech stack allows for the development of robust features that cater to both admin and end-user experiences, enabling you to implement solutions that serve enterprise-scale use cases without compromising on simplicity or usability.

The company culture at Opal is focused on inclusion, collaboration, and innovation. As a Product Engineer, you’ll be part of a team that values diverse experiences and backgrounds, promoting an environment where everyone feels empowered to contribute ideas. With regular team bonding activities and an emphasis on work-life balance, Opal seeks to create a supportive and engaging workplace.

In an interview for the Product Engineer position at Opal, articulate your approach by emphasizing the importance of understanding customer needs, collaborating with cross-functional teams to gather requirements, and defining clear product specifications. Describe how you would utilize user feedback to ensure that the feature meets its intended goals, balancing both user experience and technical feasibility.

Provide an example that outlines a specific technical or project-related challenge you faced in a past role. Emphasize how you identified the problem, the steps you took to address it, and the successful outcome. Highlighting your problem-solving skills and resilience will underscore your ability to thrive in ambiguous environments, an important quality for a Product Engineer at Opal.

Discuss specific coding practices you implement to promote scalability, such as modular design, code reviews, and anticipating future needs. Emphasize the importance of writing clean, maintainable code and how using technologies like those employed at Opal enables you to create products that scale effectively. This aligns nicely with the expectations of a Product Engineer at Opal.

Share your preferred methods for keeping abreast of technology advancements, such as following tech blogs, participating in online forums, attending conferences, or engaging in community discussions. Highlighting your proactive approach to continuous learning and adaptability will demonstrate your commitment to growth in the Product Engineer role at Opal.

Explain your understanding of agile methodologies and outline your experience working with them in teams. Discuss how you’ve contributed to sprint planning, stand-ups, and retrospectives. Emphasizing agile principles aligns with the collaborative culture at Opal and showcases your ability to update quickly based on feedback.

Illustrate your ability to prioritize by describing your process for evaluating tasks based on urgency, impact, and team goals. Provide an example of a previous work situation where you effectively managed competing deadlines, ensuring that you delivered results while maintaining high-quality standards. This will resonate with the expectations for a Product Engineer at Opal.

Detail a specific instance where user feedback led you to pivot or improve a feature. Discuss how you gathered user insights, evaluated them, and implemented changes based on what your users wanted. This will demonstrate your commitment to creating delightful user experiences, a core aspect of being a Product Engineer at Opal.

Talk about the importance of collaboration in achieving goals as a developer. Share practical examples where teamwork led to successful outcomes in past projects. Highlight how at Opal, working alongside PMs and designers is essential for translating innovative ideas into reality.

Share a relevant experience where you were faced with a tight deadline to deliver a project that required a new technology. Explain how you approached this learning curve, what resources you used and the successful outcomes of your effort. Potentially aligning with Opal’s innovative tech stack demonstrates your adaptability and eagerness to learn, crucial traits for a Product Engineer.

Define a successful product launch in terms of user adoption, feedback, and the overall impact it has on the business. Discuss what metrics you would evaluate post-launch to determine success. This kind of strategic thinking is valuable for the Product Engineer position at Opal as it aligns with the company's goals of creating impactful solutions.