Senior Software Engineer
Summary
Senior engineer leading feature delivery for an edtech learning portal, designing clean APIs, auth flows, and data models while mentoring peers and keeping systems reliable.
Job Description
\n Aboutrole:\n
Thisroleisthesecond-in-commandwithintheengineeringteam.Thetechleadsplitstheirtimeacrosscoding,managing,planning,andstakeholderwork-meaningforlargepartsofanygivenday,thispersonisthemostseniorengineeractivelyworkinginthecodebase.Theymakeimplementationdecisionsindependentlyandkeeptheteamunblockedduringworkinghourswhenthetechleadisunavailable.
Keyresponsibilities:\n- \n
- Leadend-to-enddeliveryoffeaturesacrosstheLearningPortalandsupportingservices-scoping,building,andshippingrequiringjustminimaldirectiononimplementation \n
- Proposetechnicalapproachesandwritedesigndocsfornon-trivialwork,bringingforwardrecommendationsbyaligningwiththeteamandteamlead \n
- Givethorough,constructivecodereviewsonpeers'PRs \n
- Participateinplanningwithrealisticestimatesandsurfacedrisks \n
- Flagtechdebt,performancerisks,andarchitecturalconcernsearly.Notexpectedtodecidethefixforeverything,butexpectedtospotproblemsbeforetheyescalate \n
- Ensuretestcoveragewhereitmatters(notjustforcoveragemetrics) \n
- Keepdocumentationcurrentforallsystemstheyownsotheteamneverdependsontheiravailabilitytounderstandtheirwork \n
- Considersthestudentexperienceaspartoftechnicaldecision-making-notaboveengineeringstandards,butalongsidethem \n
- FollowandreinforceInnerSourceprinciples:cleardocs,async-firstcollaboration,modulardesign \n
- Keeptheteamunblockedduringworkinghours.Whenthetechleadisinmeetingsorunavailable,they'rethepersonothersturnto \n
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- Designingcleanboundariesbetweenserver&client,gooduseofbothframeworkcapabilities(Next)andconventionalwebdesignprinciples \n
- DatamodelingdecisionsSupabase/Postgresschemadesign,etc.) \n
- Consistentabstractions(hooks,APIpatterns,etc.)thattheteamcanfollow \n
- Knowingwhennottoabstract-avoidingprematureDRY \n
- Observability-logging,errortracking,understandingwhattomonitor \n
- Authflows(SupabaseAuth,RBAC,middleware-basedprotection) \n
- Inputvalidationatsystemboundaries \n
- WritingPRsthatreviewerscanactuallyfollow \n
- Breakinglargechangesintoreviewable,deployable+meaningfulincrements \n
- Knowingwhentospike/prototypevs.planthoroughly \n
- Shippingoverperfection-butknowingwheretodrawtheline \n
- Goodsenseofprioritisationwhenitcomestoplanningoutissues \n
- Makingbuild-vs-buydecisions(e.g.,usingSupabaseinsteadofrollingcustomauth) \n
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- Knowswhentotradeoffscope,quality,andspeedappropriatelyforthesituation.Doesn'tover-engineerwhentheteamneedstomovefast,anddoesn'tcutcornerswhenreliabilitymatters.Makespragmaticcallswithoutneedingtoescalateeverydecision \n
- Takesfeaturesfromstarttofinishwithoutneedingtobechased.Ifsomething'satrisk,raisesitearly \n
- Structuredissues,thoughtfulreviews,cleardocumentation,andLinearworkflow.Communicatesclearlyenoughthatasyncworkdoesn'tcreatebottlenecks \n
- Consistentlydeliversoncommitments.Theteamcancountonyourworkbeingdone,reviewed,andshippedwithoutsurprises.Focusedonoutputsandoutcomes,notinputsandhours \n
- Figuresthingsoutwithincompleteinformation.Doesn'twaitforperfectspecsordetailedinstructionstomakeprogress \n