Staff Software Engineer (Backend)

at  VerticalScope Inc

ABOUT YOU

• 10+ years of software engineering experience demonstrating a deep understanding of diverse technologies and architectural patterns.
• Expertise in PHP and/or Golang.
• Interest in using multiple programming languages and a commitment to continuous learning.
• Proven ability to dissect and master complex systems, identifying opportunities for improvement.
• Passion for mentoring and coaching engineers, cultivating technical excellence within the team.
• Experience leading technical projects through all phases of the software development lifecycle.
• Strong track record of building and deploying high-performance, scalable applications in a cloud environment such as Google Cloud Platform.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to navigate ambiguity and drive impactful change.
• Ability to occasionally travel to the US or Canada.

THE ROLE

Are you excited by solving technical challenges that come with building a scalable, highly available platform used by millions of users? Come and join us at Fora! Fora is looking for an experienced engineer who will drive the modernization of our legacy systems and the creation of a brand-new forum platform.
This role is key to our business and one of our top initiatives around transformation and user experience. Our forum platform is at the forefront of the company’s strategic investment. The modernization will provide a seamless and intuitive experience within each community forum. This is a unique opportunity where you will balance the art of handling debt and delivering new features.
You will scope the entire application architecture, evaluate the short-term versus long-term solutions, measure the tech debt, and set realistic goals for documentation, refactoring, test coverage, and greenfield development. You will champion a collective code ownership culture and continue our practice of rapid experimentation.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Lead a small team of software engineers to begin the modernization of our forum platform and lay the groundwork for future innovation.
• Envision a robust system design, create detailed documentation, and decide on tradeoffs between technical approaches.
• Architect and build robust software that can handle high request volumes with low latency.
• Maintain legacy systems in PHP and Golang. Evaluate and select a language, framework, and technologies for new development.
• Identify technical issues and follow up with root-cause analysis and resolution.
• Define key application metrics and track and report progress. Collaborate cross-functionally, effectively communicating technical vision and strategy.
• Review code, support continuous improvement, and investigate alternatives.
• Inspire and mentor engineers to build a high-performing engineering culture.