Senior Backend Engineer Java or Kotlin (All Genders)

Company Description

With over 25 years’ experience, plus the same enormous passion and ambition we had on day-one, we’re trailblazers in the pet e-commerce industry. Our solutions make over 12 million customers genuinely happier – and that’s something we really care about. We work together to continually adapt; embracing change and the challenges it brings so that we can keep doing better. Join us and discover a place where your potential meets your passion for pets. That’s the power of plus.

Job Description

We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer with a comprehensive understanding of the full software development lifecycle: from design and implementation to testing and deployment, to join our Central Promotions Management (CPM) team. In this team, we develop and manage an internal tool designed to provide a centralized solution for all product promotions, whether financed by suppliers or internally by us. Our mission is to identify the most profitable and attractive promotions for our customers, while offering intelligent planning to prevent cannibalization, optimize cross-selling, and reduce overstock or out-of-stock situations in our fulfillment centers, ultimately minimizing backlogs and ensuring the efficiency of our promotional campaigns.

As a Senior Engineer on our team, you will work on a sophisticated solution built using a microservices architecture, primarily developed in Kotlin. Our data infrastructure leverages Aurora PostgreSQL and incorporates asynchronous services implemented using AWS products like SQS and SNS. You will be involved in the end-to-end product lifecycle, which includes product conception, design, development, testing in multiple environments, deployment, and ongoing monitoring and maintenance. Our CI/CD pipeline is managed using Jenkins, with automated testing to ensure code quality, and our infrastructure is defined and managed as code using Terraform for AWS. You will also handle database management and the administration of our pipelines, ensuring a robust and scalable solution that meets our business objectives.

If you are passionate about building high-quality, scalable software solutions in a dynamic and collaborative environment, we would love to have you join our team.

As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will:

• Collaborate with your team and Product Owner to craft technical solutions that address business needs: Work closely with our Product Owner and fellow engineers to refine and shape tasks, actively participating throughout the entire development process, from initial idea to production deployment and subsequent monitoring. You will also engage in technical refinement sessions to brainstorm solutions, ensuring our systems are current and aligned with company policies.
• Work in an Agile setup, partnering closely with other teams: We adhere to the Scrum methodology, emphasizing collaboration and active participation in all ceremonies, such as daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and retrospectives. While we have specialized front-end and QA engineers, we embrace a team-first mentality, encouraging support across roles. It's common for back-end engineers to assist with front-end tasks and testing efforts, fostering a collaborative environment.
• Build and deliver applications for our e-commerce ecosystem: You will design and deploy robust back-end solutions, leveraging our tech stack, which includes Kotlin (with Arrow for functional programming), Kubernetes, Aurora PostgreSQL, Oracle databases, and AWS managed with Terraform. Our services are built as microservices and utilize asynchronous messaging with AWS tools like SQS and SNS, all deployed and managed using Jenkins pipelines.
• Maintain high-quality standards through automated testing: Play an active role in supporting and maintaining our automated testing suites. We use Cypress for UI testing, Karate for API testing, and JUnit for back-end unit tests. Quality assurance is a shared responsibility, and we expect our engineers to contribute to ensuring software stability and reliability before release.
• Manage and support production applications: Take ownership of deploying and monitoring our software in production, addressing issues proactively, and maintaining system performance. We leverage Prometheus for alerts and use Grafana and Kibana to oversee and analyze system health and performance.
• Assist our users and address issues efficiently: Be ready to help our internal users and provide them with guidance, while also identifying and suggesting improvements where possible. Strong communication skills are crucial to interact effectively with other teams and support requests
• Leverage modern technologies and best practices: We stay on the cutting edge by continually assessing and improving our tools and methodologies to ensure sustainable, high-quality software delivery. You will have the opportunity to influence and shape these practices.

What makes our team and work environment exceptional:

• We are self-organizing and independent: We appreciate team members who are proactive in sharing their thoughts and concerns about both technical and business requirements. Our team thrives on self-motivation and mutual support, valuing autonomy alongside collaboration.
• We take full ownership of our applications: We're seeking a well-rounded engineer who can excel in back-end development while effectively managing our CI/CD pipelines. This involves handling infrastructure setup, automating deployment processes, and ensuring the reliability and stability of our systems through consistent monitoring.
• We care about writing clean and efficient code: Code quality is a top priority for us, and we strive for simplicity and maintainability. We appreciate engineers who focus on delivering efficient solutions while upholding best practices.
• Open and clear communication is essential: Our team environment is built on trust and transparency. We value active participation and communication, and we're looking for someone who will contribute to our positive and inclusive culture.
• We are always seeking to improve: We regularly review and refine our processes and solutions, aiming to optimize our systems continuously. We value engineers who are pragmatic and always looking for ways to enhance our work.

Main technologies and frameworks we use:

• Backend Technologies: Kotlin, utilizing Arrow for functional programming.
• Databases: Aurora PostgreSQL and Oracle.
• Testing Frameworks: JUnit, Mockito, Karate, Cypress for UI testing, and Jest for Vue.js components.
• Infrastructure Tools: AWS managed with Terraform, Kubernetes, and Jenkins.
• Monitoring and Alerts: ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana), Prometheus, and Grafana.

Key Responsibilities:

• Engage proactively in designing and planning solutions, aligning with both your team and cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality features.
• Support and guide users to maximize the value of our tools while identifying potential enhancements.
• Implement and deploy features and be receptive to constructive feedback to drive continuous improvement.
• Thoroughly test your work and review your peers' code to minimize issues before releasing to production.
• Contribute to maintaining our infrastructure as code and deployment pipelines, ensuring efficient operations.

Qualifications

• Extensive and in-depth experience with Kotlin and Java, demonstrating senior-level development expertise.
• Proven ability to develop robust, production-ready applications.
• Strong knowledge and experience with relational SQL databases.
• Familiarity with maintaining automated test suites.
• Excellent communication skills to assist and collaborate with users and other teams.
• A self-driven and organized approach to work, with the ability to operate independently.
• A desire to engage in all aspects of software development, not just writing code.
• Good English communication skills, both spoken and written.

Additional Information

Headquartered in Munich, with offices across Madrid, Krakow, Wroclaw, London and Vienna, we collaborate because we genuinely love working together - so you’ll be at the heart of an incredible, multinational team. We trust each other to get the job done, which means you’ll benefit from hybrid working, spending 60% of your time in the office and 40% at home. There’s an option to work for 20 days abroad in approved countries too.

Add to that development opportunities that help you to shape your own career path, excellent training and support, wellbeing offers, subsidised transport or bike leasing, plus 20% discount across all our products, and you’ll begin to get a sense of what sets us apart. Find out more about the specific benefits at your local office in our blog posts.

At zooplus, we believe in equal opportunity and support everyone to fulfil their potential. We recognise the power of listening and learning from each other and embrace diversity and inclusion of all.

#LI-Hybrid