Staff Backend Engineer

Job Description

Joining Busuu means being part of one of the top EdTech companies in the world, a multiple award-winner recognised for its innovation and impact in language learning.

Busuu’s vision is to empower people through languages. We are the world’s largest online community for language learning, with 120+ million registered users. We make learning a language easy by combining AI-powered courses with feedback from our global community of native speakers and lesson content designed for real life.

Busuu is part of the global Chegg family. Chegg is the leading student-first connected learning platform and a NYSE listed company.

What does a Staff backend engineer do at Busuu?

• As a staff backend engineer, they have a transversal position supporting the whole Engineering team

• Responsible for ensuring the technology needs of other teams are supported and building robust scalable technology products.

• Contributes to the technology vision for the Engineering team, both during the definition, and supporting the squads towards its execution.

• Liaise with senior leadership to ensure the technical vision is aligned with business needs.

• Liaise with non-technical stakeholders to ensure external needs are supported.

• Ensure the technical quality of our engineering team is world class and future proof.

• Support and promote a culture of continuous improvement in the Engineering organisation

• Assist squads to set foundations and accelerate new technical initiatives. 

• Be a reference in architecture in their area of expertise

• Stay up to date with the latest technological advancements and industry best practices.

What we’re looking for in a Staff backend engineer

• Pragmatic in their choice of technology and prioritisation of stakeholder needs

• A best in class domain expert and technology leader in their area of specialisation

• Someone that can talk to the business and technical audiences to justify how their work enables wider company success. 

• A mentor of junior and senior engineers

• A skilled problem solver who can apply their domain knowledge to other areas of the business quickly and provide feedback on solutions outside of their immediate expertise.

• Demonstrated leadership qualities and the ability to inspire and motivate a team.

• Has a broad engineering knowledge and is able to work across multiple platforms solving complex problems.

Our technology stack and challenges

• At Busuu, our engineering prowess is driven by a cutting-edge technology stack that includes NodeJS, TypeScript, Microservice Architecture, Kubernetes, GraphQL, Kafka, and Protobuf. This blend of technologies enables us to deliver a seamless and efficient language learning experience to our users worldwide.

• Experience in monitoring tools

• Experience with CI/CD tools (Github Actions or Gitlab Pipelines)

• Knowledge and experience in DDD

• SQL and no-SQL expertise (PostgreSQL and MongoDB are pluses)

• In this role, you will be challenged to leverage these technologies to their fullest potential. You’ll address scalability issues, optimise service performance, and contribute to an architecture that supports millions of users globally. Your expertise will be pivotal in evolving our platform, ensuring it remains cutting-edge, robust, and aligned with our vision of empowering people through languages.

• We are looking for someone who is not just proficient in these technologies, but who also thrives on solving complex problems and is enthusiastic about exploring new solutions and approaches. Your role will be key in driving innovation and excellence in our tech stack, ensuring Busuu continues to lead in the EdTech space.

At Busuu we want to ensure that you have access to some great benefits:

• Our centrally located offices are well-equipped with free breakfast, plenty of snacks, fresh fruit, and free dinner of your choice if you need to stay late

• Busuu offers a great Private Health Insurance scheme

• There is a personal training budget just for you, so you can learn more in your field to ensure our employees can continuously grow and progress in their careers

• We like to support our teams with their work-life balance so we offer flexible working hours and a hybrid model of working

• We offer enhanced maternity and paternity leave

• Staying connected as a team is very important to us, so we have lots of social activities for you to join such as team lunches, Friday socials, quarterly team, and company events

What happens next​

We aim to have a simple and speedy hiring process and we want to make sure that we are right for you as much as the other way around.

• CV application review - We will review it as quickly as possible

• Let’s chat - Quick chat with our recruiter about your experience and the role

• Culture fit interview - On-site or video call with the Engineering Manager

• Technical questions - Technical call with the team

• Technical test - We will send you a technical test to complete in your time

• Coding review - Technical interview and task review with the team

Our platform is for everyone, and so is our workplace. We pride ourselves on embracing our differences, whether they're cultural, racial, religious, or otherwise. This means each one of us comes to work knowing that we have a voice – and a safe, judgement-free zone to speak freely.

If you like the sound of that, join us. We'd love to hear what you have to say.