Lead Software Engineer - job 28 of 44

As a Lead Software Engineer in our Foster City office, you'll take on a broad range of responsibilities including building expertise on our 24/7 systems that support merchants, managing support issues within defined SLAs, collaborating with product teams to improve workflows, and contributing to the development and testing of monitoring tools to enhance issue detection. Additionally, you'll automate production support tasks to boost efficiency, create performance plans for scalable payment systems, and actively participate in capacity planning.

To qualify for the Lead Software Engineer role at our company, candidates must have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Engineering, with a Master's preferred. Hands-on experience in Unix/Linux environments and a solid understanding of system internals are crucial. Proficiency in languages such as Java and Python, along with experience in using performance monitoring tools like AppDynamics or Dynatrace, is essential. Additionally, being familiar with containerized microservices architecture and Agile methodologies will give you a competitive edge.

In your role as Lead Software Engineer, you're expected to contribute significantly to disaster recovery planning. You'll help define performance strategies that are crucial during capacity planning and disaster recovery exercises. Your technical expertise will enable you to support triaging and troubleshooting of incidents that affect application performance, ensuring that recovery processes are efficient and effective.

The Lead Software Engineer position in our Foster City office emphasizes a diverse skill set that includes hands-on Unix/Linux experience, knowledge of virtual machines and containers, and coding capabilities in Java or Python. Familiarity with performance testing tools like LoadRunner or JMeter, as well as monitoring solutions such as Splunk and Grafana, is also highly regarded. Excellent communication skills and the ability to work effectively both independently and within a team are crucial for success in this role.

Yes, the Lead Software Engineer position will include on-call responsibilities. This means you'll be part of a rotating schedule where you will help address critical performance issues during off-hours to ensure the uptime and reliability of our payment processing systems. This aspect of the role is essential for maintaining the seamless operation of our services, so readiness and responsiveness are key.

When answering this question, emphasize specific projects or environments where you've utilized Unix/Linux systems. Describe your familiarity with operating system internals, how you've managed file systems or storage, and any scripting you've done to automate tasks. Highlight instances where your Linux expertise directly contributed to solving production issues, showcasing your problem-solving skills.

When discussing your approach to performance optimization, elaborate on your methodology for identifying bottlenecks and how you leverage tools like LoadRunner or JMeter to conduct load tests. Provide examples of how you've applied performance metrics to improve application speed or reduce latency, and explain your experience with performance baselines and monitoring tools.

In your response, focus on how you've implemented or utilized containerized environments in past projects. Detail the microservices architecture you’ve worked with, the challenges faced, and the solutions you devised to manage deployments and scalability. Highlight specific tools or platforms like Docker or Kubernetes that you’ve used.

For this question, narrate a real-life incident demonstrating your troubleshooting skills. Discuss the steps you took to identify the root cause of the performance issue, the tools you used (such as AppDynamics or Dynatrace) to diagnose the problem, and how your intervention led to a resolution. The goal is to showcase your analytical thinking and ability to work under pressure.

Discuss your strategies for managing production releases, emphasizing the importance of thorough testing, staging environments, and collaboration with dev teams to mitigate risks. Highlight your experience with continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) practices, and share how you ensure that release issues are addressed before reaching production.

When responding to this question, outline your approach to simplification and clarity in communication. Emphasize the importance of understanding your audience and using relatable examples or analogies to explain complex issues. Highlight your previous experiences where you successfully navigated such conversations and the outcomes.

Explain your understanding of Agile principles and how you've applied them in your work. Describe situations where you've participated in Agile ceremonies like sprints or retrospectives and how Agile has influenced your development process for better collaboration and adaptability. Providing a specific example can strengthen your answer.

In your response, focus on your proactive measures for incorporating security into the development lifecycle. Share practices like code reviews, employing static analysis tools, and conducting security assessments before releases. Discuss the importance of fostering a security-first mindset in your team and any relevant frameworks or guidelines that you adhere to.

Choose a challenging project you’ve worked on and outline the key obstacles faced, whether they be technical, time-related, or team dynamics. Detail your solution approaches, the skills you leveraged, and the collaboration you fostered with your team to overcome these challenges. Ending on a positive note about the project’s success shows resilience and problem-solving capabilities.

Describe your philosophy on team collaboration, emphasizing the importance of open communication and support. Highlight experiences where you’ve played a leadership role, whether through mentorship or guiding a project to success. Providing examples of initiatives you led that enhanced team dynamics can showcase your leadership style.