Staff Software Engineer, Banking (Backend)

As a Staff Software Engineer at Varo, your primary responsibilities will include designing and building scalable distributed solutions, evolving our core banking platform, leading large projects, and mentoring other engineers. You will also influence technical strategies and collaborate with teams across engineering, product, and operations to ensure that our solutions are cutting-edge and effective.

To be successful in the Staff Software Engineer role at Varo, you should have at least 10 years of experience in software development, strong technical leadership skills, and a deep understanding of microservices and event-driven architectures. Experience with test-first approaches and software security practices will also be crucial, along with familiarity with technologies such as Kotlin, Java, and AWS.

At Varo, we work with a modern tech stack that includes Kotlin, Java, and Spring Boot for backend development, alongside AWS services like EKS and S3. We also utilize PostgreSQL, Kafka, and Kubernetes to ensure our solutions are robust and scalable, making sure our banking systems are state-of-the-art.

Varo is committed to fostering a culture of mentorship and continuous learning. As a Staff Software Engineer, you'll have opportunities to mentor junior engineers, influence technical strategy, and participate in cross-functional projects, allowing you to grow your technical skills and leadership abilities within a supportive and diverse environment.

The salary range for the Staff Software Engineer position at Varo is between $180,000 and $200,000 annually. This range is based on multiple factors, including candidate expertise and market benchmarks, ensuring that we offer competitive compensation for our roles.

In answering this question, highlight specific projects where you took a leadership role, detailing your contributions, the technologies you used, and how your leadership directly impacted the project's success.

Provide an example that illustrates your ability to design and implement scalable systems, detailing the challenges you faced and the outcomes of your work, as well as any positive feedback from stakeholders.

Explain your approach to code quality assurance, including your use of testing methodologies, code reviews, and any performance monitoring tools you employ to maintain high standards in fast-paced environments.

Demonstrate your expertise by defining both concepts clearly, discussing how you've applied them in your previous roles and how they contribute to building scalable and resilient banking applications.

Share your strategy for task prioritization, including any tools or methodologies like Agile or Scrum that you use to stay organized and focus on delivering customer value in a timely manner.

Discuss your hands-on experience with cloud platforms, especially AWS, mentioning specific services you have used and how these technologies have enabled your team's project success and scalability.

Highlight the importance of collaboration in your work, citing examples of cross-functional teamwork, how you communicate effectively with team members, and how collaboration leads to better outcomes.

Discuss your mentorship philosophy, outlining specific strategies used to nurture junior engineers, promote skill development, and encourage them to take on challenging projects that foster growth.

Elaborate on your methods for staying updated with rapidly changing technologies, including industry publications, webinars, networking events, and continuous learning platforms that ensure your skills are sharp and relevant.

Explain your familiarity with software security practices and how you incorporate security considerations into your development process, providing specific examples from your past work that highlight your proactivity in safeguarding applications.