Senior Software Engineer

As a Senior Software Engineer at Valimail, you will be responsible for building and maintaining applications using Ruby on Rails and Golang, creating scalable and efficient code, and implementing new features and fixes in collaboration with cross-functional teams. Moreover, you'll play a crucial role in improving our development processes and contributing your technical expertise throughout the entire product lifecycle.

Valimail is looking for candidates with a minimum of 5 years of experience in building production web applications, proficiency in Ruby on Rails or a comparable Python web framework, and strong skills in optimizing PostgreSQL. Experience with RESTful APIs and a desire to learn different programming languages is also highly valued. We're open to those who have a growth mindset, as we believe in learning and adapting as roles evolve.

In the Senior Software Engineer role at Valimail, you will work with Ruby on Rails, Golang, PostgreSQL, and develop RESTful APIs. Familiarity with technologies such as Hotwire, React, Redis, RSpec, Sidekiq, AWS, and Kubernetes is considered a bonus, enhancing your contributions to our projects and enabling you to help shape our innovative products.

At Valimail, we foster a culture of learning and growth. As a Senior Software Engineer, you will have opportunities to collaborate with high-performance teams, receive feedback, and participate in discussions that cultivate technical excellence. We also encourage self-improvement and support various avenues for continuous learning, which empowers our engineers to refine and expand their skills.

Valimail prides itself on being a remote-first company, allowing Senior Software Engineers to work from anywhere in the U.S. Our collaborative environment emphasizes effective communication and teamwork, making it easy for you to connect with colleagues regardless of location. We understand the importance of work-life balance and provide flexible PTO to ensure our employees can thrive both personally and professionally.

In your response, highlight specific projects where you've utilized Ruby on Rails, focusing on your contributions, the challenges you faced, and how you overcame them. Discuss how these experiences prepare you for the role at Valimail and your understanding of best practices in the framework.

Demonstrate an understanding of scalability principles by discussing your experience designing and optimizing applications. Detail processes you use to ensure performance under load and how you've identified bottlenecks in previous projects, ensuring the interviewer knows you're proactive about performance.

Share examples of your collaboration with product managers or designers in past roles. Stress the importance of clear communication, setting shared goals, and regular updates, as well as any tools you've effectively used to facilitate collaboration.

Explain your approach to writing clean, modular code and your experience with testing frameworks. Discuss how you document your code and share best practices with your team to maintain high-quality standards.

Talk about specific examples of APIs you've developed, the technologies you used, and how you handled versioning, documentation, and security. Emphasize your understanding of REST principles and user feedback incorporation.

Discuss how you've worked in Agile teams, including your role in sprints, backlog management, and how you’ve contributed to retrospectives. Highlight any tools you’ve used, like JIRA or Trello, to manage workflow and tasks effectively.

Mention specific resources like blogs, webinars, and conferences you follow. Discuss how you bring new knowledge to your team and implement innovative solutions in your work, demonstrating your commitment to continuous improvement.

Share a specific project that posed significant obstacles. Discuss the steps you took to overcome those challenges, stressing your problem-solving skills and the importance of teamwork, particularly in a remote work environment.

Express your belief in the value of code reviews as a learning and quality assurance tool. Provide insights into how you conduct reviews, balancing constructive feedback with encouragement to promote a positive team culture.

Share your strategies for prioritizing tasks, communicating with stakeholders, and leveraging team strengths. Highlight any experiences where you maintained high standards under pressure, showing that you can uphold quality while meeting project deadlines.