Junior Software Developer (Backend)

Zensurance is a scale-up InsurTech company that is re-imagining the commercial insurance market. At Zensurance, we want to empower small businesses across Canada to thrive by offering an honest, simplified, and modern approach to insurance. Our main recipe is a combination of modern technology and insurance industry expertise powered by our talented team members. 

Being a technology-forward company, we utilize various tools and platforms to create fun, engaging and meaningful work experiences for our employees, as a remote-first company.

We are boldly going where no insurance broker has gone before!

Zensurance is growing rapidly, and so is our Engineering team! We're excited to announce that we’re hiring a Junior Software Developer for our team.

This position is backend-heavy, with approximately 90% of the work focused on backend development and 10% on frontend tasks.

As a Junior Software Developer, you will work with the Core Team in the Engineering Department to build the software that powers the Zensurance data collection, rating, and pricing engines. Using NodeJS and TypeScript, this individual contributor role reports to the Team Lead of Engineering and is responsible for supporting the team in implementing and delivering software features in accordance with the Company’s best practices in software development.

As an individual contributor and junior professional, you’ll be expected to be a self-starter and fast learner who takes ownership of your personal learning and development, and calls for help when needed.

This is a remote-first role within the GTA. #LI-Remote

DEADLINE TO APPLY: August 30, 2024.

• Collaborate with project stakeholders and the development team to design and build scalable, user-friendly systems for our customers, and in-house tooling.
• Adhere to established software architecture and development paradigms.
• Write clean, maintainable, and scalable code.
• Suggest, design, implement, test and monitor features and functionalities.
• Participate in strategy discussions and understand stated tradeoffs of potential software solutions.
• Develop, test, and maintain codebase within the team’s domain.
• Develop and maintain documentation for new and existing features and integrations.
• Develop an understanding of company goals and initiatives and assist the team deliver on them.
• Attend Engineering power-up meetings and leverage other learning opportunities to build software development skills.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

• University degree or college diploma in a recognized technical, vocational or academic program (preferably in
• Engineering or Computer Science) or equivalent work experience.
• 1-2 years of experience in building web applications.
• Fullstack experience with NodeJS/AWS and the TypeScript ecosystem.
• Front-end experience with React.  
• Experience with testing frameworks like Jest/Mocha.
• Knowledge of common design patterns, and the basics of refactoring.
• Ability to debug simple issues.
• A passion for clean, reusable, and structured code.

• Knowledge of the TypeScript ecosystem is a plus.
• Prior insurance domain knowledge is an asset, but not required.
• Experience with NestJS is a plus.

• As a Core team member, you will be responsible for the engine driving the company’s key goals such as adding more relevant insurance products with great prices on our website and delivering relevant insurance documents to our customers with ease.

About our Engineering Team:

Our fully remote engineering team fosters a learning culture that encourages professional development. Some of the highlights of the team environment include: 

• Approachable, a supportive leadership team with extensive technical experience and ability.

• Training and professional development budgets.

• Knowledge sharing through power-ups.

• Learning events and book clubs that help the team develop their skills and create a safe, supportive environment.

• Twice-annual hackathons that provide opportunities to explore interests and practice new technical skills.

• Opportunities to share your knowledge and experience and mentor others.

In addition, we provide amazing opportunities for career advancement. We provide well-defined and documented career progression paths to our engineering team members that provide clear expectations and requirements for advancement in our fast-growing environment. 

As we scale our team, you'll have the opportunity to work on challenging projects using a modern tech stack and cutting-edge systems, including microservices and micro-frontends, with industry-leading tools such as NodeJS, React, TypeScript, Kafka, and more.

Perks we offer at Zensurance:

• Opportunity to work for Canada’s fastest-growing #insurtech scale-up 

• Primarily remote work environment available to everyone

• Laptop, extra monitor and main accessories are provided 

• Extra home office and supplies allowance to help with work-from-home set up

• Comprehensive and flexible health and dental plans to suit all lifestyles, including mental health 

• Health/Personal Spending Accounts to subsidize your healthy habits and purchases

• Parental Leave Top Up

• Weekly Friday companywide huddles for casual catch-ups with other departments

• Build next-level relationships with your peers through scheduled companywide virtual and in-person team-building events

• Be a part of something special. We are confident you won’t find any other insurance company like us :)

Who we are. What we're building.

Business is hard work, insurance doesn’t have to be!

At Zensurance we believe that teamwork makes the dream work.

We are passionate about providing business owners with the best insurance solutions at great rates through an online and easy-to-use platform.

Our secret sauce is all about our culture. Here at Zensurance our culture is built on four core values that we live and breathe daily. They are:

INTEGRITY: We do what's right.

INCLUDE: We are an open and safe space for all.

INVENT: We take an innovative approach to creating straightforward solutions for our customers.

DELIVER: We set ambitious goals and hold ourselves accountable for achieving them.

Zensurance celebrates diversity in its workforce structure and encourages applications from all backgrounds.

Zensurance is an inclusive employer that celebrates diversity in its workforce structure. We encourage applications from all qualified candidates and will accommodate applicants’ needs under the respective provincial human rights codes throughout all stages of the recruitment and selection process. Please advise the recruiter if you require accommodation; to ensure your accessibility needs are accommodated throughout this process. Information received relating to accommodation will be addressed confidentially.

We understand that looking for a new exciting opportunity can be time-consuming. We truly appreciate your time in going through the job posting and applying for a position with us.