Engineer, Backend (Runner)

Job Posted: 10/10/2024

Location: Americas (We are ONLY looking for candidates based in the Pacific Time Zone (PST) )

Hi there!

We're seeking a backend engineer to join Team Runner and help us build and maintain the core execution platform that drives Zaps. Our team empowers automation heroes to run mission-critical processes reliably and consistently by developing a robust and trusted workflow platform. With exciting projects lined up to supercharge the scalability and reliability of the Workflow Runner system, there's never been a better time to be a part of this innovative and crucial team. Come join us on this mission!

• Our Commitment to Applicants

• Culture and Values at Zapier

• Zapier Guide to Remote Work

• Zapier Code of Conduct

• Diversity and Inclusivity at Zapier

About You

You have 5+ years with software development in Python, with at least 3 years focused on building large distributed systems.

Required Technical Skills/Experience:

1. Experience in developing large-scale execution platforms and creating infrastructure as code.

2. Strong background in building and managing distributed systems, including expertise with queues and event-based architecture.

3. Strong experience with AWS services, cloud computing technologies, and distributed databases.

Nice-to-Have Skills/Experience:

1. Strong problem-solving and analytical thinking skills, combined with excellent collaboration and communication abilities.

2. A natural curiosity and eagerness to learn and explore new technologies and solutions.

3. Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines (e.g., using a tool like GitLab).

You value collaboration. You understand that building modern software is a team sport, and you enjoy working as part of a tight-knit team. You’re happy to pitch in and help the team, whether by reviewing code, pairing on a tricky problem, or just thinking about how to solve the challenges we’re facing.

You value exploration and versatility. You are comfortable working in other teams’ codebases to achieve the Runner team’s reliability and scalability goals. This will involve embedding yourself in the other team, becoming familiar with their developer workflow, and collaborating with stakeholders to implement your solutions.

You can balance lots of concerns. The Zap execution platform powers and runs Zap tasks using the Workflow Runner system, creating value for our customers and Zapier. Our team ensures a trusted experience with reliable Zap runs. You will manage incoming work, prioritize tasks effectively, and stay organized. Your role is crucial in meeting demands and delivering high-quality software design and implementation in a fast-paced environment.

You advocate for the user. You have a keen eye for great design, and you’re empathetic to the needs of the end-user. When you see users struggling to succeed you take it as a personal challenge to understand why and help the team build a better product.

You love learning new things. You love researching new technology, experimenting with new ideas, and driving forward with implementation details.

You embody our values. At Zapier, our values are at the heart of how we work together and how we think about our customers. In our remote setting, they help develop trust and ensure we work and collaborate to democratize automation.

Things You’ll Do

Zapier is a small, fast-growing, and remote-first company, so you'll likely get experience on many different projects across the organization. That said, here are some things you'll probably do:

• Directly impact how our customers can be more productive by building and supporting the foundational building blocks of Zapier.

• Participate in or lead architecture design reviews with team members and stakeholders to refactor or improve existing code as language versions, frameworks, or techniques evolve. Assist the team in selecting appropriate tools to address new challenges as they arise.

• Work closely with our product, data, and infrastructure teams to create amazing and intuitive experiences that make it effortless to connect different apps together.

• Provide feedback on tools, processes, and documentation in place to help us become a better, more effective organization.

• Work with your colleagues to develop new skills, through code review, discussions and mentoring. Help us all become better engineers and humans.

• Ship to hundreds of thousands of users every day while having lots of autonomy in terms of code and feature ownership.

You’ll also have the opportunity to specialize in a variety of areas of the Zapier codebase. Focusing on a specialization will not limit your growth at Zapier as we believe that each engineer brings a unique perspective and can contribute in all areas. We encourage collaboration and will frequently have engineers contribute across teams to assist with projects.

How to Apply

At Zapier, we believe that diverse perspectives and experiences make us better, which is why we have a non-standard application process designed to promote inclusion and equity. We're looking for the best fit for each of our roles, regardless of the type of companies in your background, so we encourage you to apply even if your skills and experiences don’t exactly match the job description. All we ask is that you answer a few in-depth questions in our application that would typically be asked at the start of an interview process. This helps speed things up by letting us get to know you and your skillset a bit better right out of the gate. Please be sure to answer each question; the resume and CV fields are optional.

Education is not a requirement for our roles; however, if you receive an offer, you will need to include your most recent educational experience as part of our background check process.

After you apply, you are going to hear back from us—even if we don’t see an immediate fit with our team. In fact, throughout the process, we strive to never go more than seven days without letting you know the status of your application. We know we’ll make mistakes from time to time, so if you ever have questions about where you stand or about the process, just ask your recruiter!

Zapier is an equal-opportunity employer and we're excited to work with talented and empathetic people of all identities. Zapier does not discriminate based on someone's identity in any aspect of hiring or employment as required by law and in line with our commitment to Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging and Equity. Our code of conduct provides a beacon for the kind of company we strive to be, and we celebrate our differences because those differences are what allow us to make a product that serves a global user base. Zapier will consider all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, consistent with applicable laws.

Zapier is committed to inclusion. As part of this commitment, Zapier welcomes applications from individuals with disabilities and will work to provide reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodations are needed to participate in the job application or interview process, please contact jobs@zapier.com. 

Application Deadline:

The anticipated application window is 30 days from the date job is posted, unless the number of applicants requires it to close sooner or later, or if the position is filled.

Even though we’re an all-remote company, we still need to be thoughtful about where we have Zapiens working. Check out this resource for a list of countries where we currently cannot have Zapiens permanently working.