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Backend Engineer

Created on 04-11-2016
Location London

Description

As the largest social network for language learning in the world we’ve already had some great success, but there is so much more that we want to build and improve on. We’re looking for smart, agile, independent engineers who can help us take our APIs to the next level, enabling more amazing ways for our users to interact with each other and learn even more. We’re looking for someone who loves to think about the server side, but also remembers that they are building APIs for end users and helps to tailor the experience for them.


We use PHP/Symfony, MySQL, Redis, memcached, nginx, and vagrant to get things done, but we’re always open to change and the best tool for the job should be the one we’re using. 


Why is a Backend Software Engineer important at busuu?


We’ve got some big plans for our APIs, from micro services to real time communications, and a few things we can’t talk about publicly just yet :). As a Back End Engineer, you’ll be at the front line of all our changes, with the authority and responsibility to make decisions that will affect the platform and our users for the better. Our team is still small enough that every engineer makes a massive difference.


What does a Backend Engineer at busuu get to do?


You’ll have the opportunity to be at the centre of our biggest and most exciting phase yet, making big decisions that will help you grow and define your career as a Software Engineer. You’ll ship code often, support it all the way to production, and work with our web/mobile engineers and product teams to ensure a joined up experience for our users.


You’ll work on a platform that is serving 60 million users in over 30 countries, supporting a huge amount of different payment methods across all territories, integrations with some of the biggest mobile operators in the world, and an ever growing catalogue of languages and ways to learn.


You’ll get to be involved in every aspect of what we do, from features shipping to consumers, back office and customer support integration/tooling, payments, speed, resiliency, and scaling, to name just a few. If you want to fix something, you have the ability to do it.


What we’re looking for from a Backend Engineer at busuu


  • Excellent knowledge of PHP/OOP and the Symfony 2 framework.
  • MySQL, Redis, memcached databases and data modelling.
  • Solid knowledge of REST architecture.
  • Knowledge of AWS web services like DynamoDB, Redshift, SQS and SNS is a plus.
  • Exposure to the architecture of high traffic web platforms.
  • Experience with testing methodologies, performance debugging and benchmarking.
  • Ability to work outside your comfort zone, take a problem and solve it with as much or as little support as you need. 

Not ticking every box or think you’ve got that unique set of skills we haven’t realised we need? Get in touch anyway; we’re always looking to add great people! There are lots of indications that some people only apply to roles when they meet all the qualifications for a role, however we’d encourage you to apply even if you don’t believe you meet all the criteria! We don’t believe that ticking off a list of skills is the only thing that makes a great candidate. You can read more about how we're building a more diverse team on our tech blog.


Have a read through our tech blog to learn more about what we're up to! https://tech.busuu.com


We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at busuu. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.


What you get


  • Competitive salary.
  • Stock options in a Series B funded company through a tax efficient EMI scheme.
  • Bonus Scheme.
  • Private healthcare.
  • Gym membership.
  • Choose your own equipment.
  • Free breakfast and snacks.
  • Free dinner if you need to stay late.
  • Regular company trips (our last was to Madrid) and evenings out in London.
  • Friday socialising - we make sure we stop working and spend time together at the end of the week. 

About us:


busuu is the world´s largest social network for learning languages with over 60 million users around the world and acquiring up to 100k new users per day. We offer free and paid-for access to audio-visual language courses in several languages. At the same time, users can improve their language skills directly with other native speakers of our community via an integrated video chat application and peer-to-peer text corrections. The vision of busuu is to enable everyone in the world to learn a new language.


In 2014, busuu was selected by Google as one of the best Android Apps in the world and we have received other prestigious awards such as ‘Best Ed-tech Startup’ in Europe. In addition, we are regularly featured by both Apple and Google.


We recently closed a €6 million Series B fundraise and signed a strategic partnership with McGraw Hill Education in order to work with them on adaptive learning technologies, among other areas.


We are a friendly and fun, experienced international team who come from a variety of backgrounds but who share a passion for tech start-ups and education. Besides the opportunity to impact digital language education, we offer a generous equity scheme, free private healthcare and gym membership. We also provide free breakfast every morning and snacks throughout the day.

Benefit

Competitive Salaries

Competitive ...

Stock options

Stock option...

Gym Membership

Gym Membersh...

Free breakfast and snacks

Free breakfa...

Free dinner if you need to stay late

Free dinner ...

Regular company trips (our last was to Madrid) and evenings out in London

Regular comp...

Private Health Insurance

Private Heal...

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