Backend Developer

Branch Overview

Imagine a world where every person has improved access to financial services. People could start new businesses, pay for their children’s education, cover their emergency medical bills – the possibilities to improve life are endless. 

Branch is a global technology company revolutionizing financial access for millions of underserved banking customers today across Africa and India. By leveraging the rapid adoption of smartphones, machine learning and other technology, Branch is pioneering new ways to improve access and value for those overlooked by banks. From instant loans to market-leading investment yields, Branch offers a variety of products that help our customers be financially empowered.

Branch’s mission-driven team is led by the co-founders of Kiva.org and one of the earliest product leaders of PayPal. Branch has raised over $100 million from leading Silicon Valley investors, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Visa. 

 With over 32 million downloads, Branch is one of the most popular finance apps in the world.

Job Overview

Branch launched in India in early 2019 and has seen rapid adoption and growth. In 2020 we are building out a full Engineering team in India to accelerate our success here. This team will work closely with our engineering team (based in the United States, Nigeria, and Kenya) to strengthen the capabilities of our existing product and build out new product lines for the company.

You will work closely with our Product and Data Science teams to design and maintain multiple technologies, including our API backend, credit scoring and underwriting systems, payments integrations, and operations tools. We face numerous interesting technical challenges ranging from maintaining complex financial systems to accessing and processing creative data sources for our algorithmic credit model. 

As a company, we are passionate about our customers, fearless in the face of barriers, and driven by data. As an engineering team, we value bottom-up innovation and decentralized decision-making: We believe the best ideas can come from anyone in the company, and we are working hard to create an environment where everyone feels empowered to propose solutions to the challenges we face. We are looking for individuals who thrive in a fast-moving, innovative, and customer-focused setting.

Here are some things you’ll do

• Build customer facing and internal products and APIs with industry best practices around security and performance in mind.
• Influence and shape the company’s technical and product roadmap by providing timely and accurate inputs and owning various outcomes.
• Collaborate with peers in other functional areas (Android, Machine Learning, Data, Devops, etc.) to identify potential growth areas and systems needed.
• Guide and mentor other younger engineers around you.
• Scaling our backend services to ever-growing levels of traffic and complexity.

Minimum Requirements

• You have strong experience (8+ years) of designing, coding, and shipping backend software for web-based or mobile products.
• Experience coordinating and collaborating with various business stakeholders and company leadership on critical functional decisions and technical roadmap.
• You have strong knowledge of software development fundamentals, including relevant background in computer science fundamentals, distributed systems, data storage, and agile development methodologies.
• You are able to utlize your knowledge and expertise to code and ship quality products in a timely manner.
• You have functional knowledge of other technical areas such as Android, Machine Learning, DevOps, etc and can contribute to related discussions and decisions.
• You are pragmatic and combine a strong understanding of technology and product needs to arrive at the best solution for a given problem.
• You are highly entrepreneurial and thrive in taking ownership of your own impact. You take the initiative to solve problems before they arise.
• You are an excellent collaborator & communicator. You know that startups are a team sport. You listen to others, aren’t afraid to speak your mind and always try to ask the right questions. 
• You are excited by the prospect of working in a distributed team and company, working with teammates from all over the world.

Benefits of Joining

• Mission-driven, fast-paced and entrepreneurial environment
• Competitive salary and equity package
• A collaborative and flat company culture
• Remote first, with the option to work in-person occasionally
• Fully-paid Group Medical Insurance and Personal Accidental Insurance
• Unlimited paid time off including personal leave, bereavement leave, sick leave
• Fully paid parental leave - 6 months maternity leave and 3 months paternity leave
• Monthly WFH stipend alongside a one time home office set-up budget
• $500 Annual professional development budget 
• Discretionary trips to our offices across the globe, with global travel medical insurance 
• Team meals and social events- Virtual and In-person

Kunato.AI is a NY-based IT firm helping to create the first marketplace that monetizes digital content on the internet (i-commerce). We have patented our technology - a quantitative deep tech system that predicts, assigns, and updates the value of any digital content in real time without the need for human intervention. Our system has the potential to create a new digital goods marketplace that will revolutionize the way we consume, create and search for content on the Internet.

We are looking for a Rust Developer (with 2-6years of experience) to join our cutting-edge development team as it grows. The candidate must be comfortable working in an agile environment and has the ability to take the lead when necessary.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Responsible for developing the product as per the product specification defined by the product managers
• Responsible for preforming research on the best methods of implementing the requirements
• Author and curate technical documentation to support delivery, maintenance, and adoption
• Work with programmers, engineers, and management heads to identify process improvement opportunities, propose system modifications, and devise governance strategies to optimize the overall performance
• Design and develop automated deployment and maintenance mechanisms
• Solving development challenges and making architectural decisions by understanding the larger picture of the projects goals
• Expanding your existing skill-set, and picking up on various rust dependent frameworks
• Confidently communicating and collaborating with your fellow developers in a remote team environment

Essential skills:

• Must have experience in Rust programming language
• Have excellent knowledge of different data structures and algorithms
• Working knowledge of any other programming language Python, Java, or JavaScript is good to have
• Experience with, or understanding of, Kafka or Redis, Cloud infrastructure services, Docker is an added advantage
• Experience with SQL or NoSQL databases, MySQL, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, etc.
• Experience in Backend and APIs development
• Experience in analysing and optimizing the platform’s performance
• Excellent verbal communication skills

• Participate in the development of application software
• Own the detailed design of the system.
• Comfortable in design, implementation, testing, and documentation
• Ensure quality by writing developer level tests (unit, component, etc.)
• Works with the team for the quality and timely deliveries.
• Creates products according to the specifications and software development process
• Helps the team meet their daily and iteration objectives
• Works to remove internal and external impediments in the Scrum team
• Facilitates continuous improvement with regular inspect , Adapt and team retrospection, Interface and Participate in Scrum of Scrum

Skills and experience

• Bachelor’s or master's degree in Computer Science or related field 
• 6-7 years’ experience hands-on in Node JS experience, Good Java script fundamentals. Python experience will be a plus.
• Should be experienced in web-based applications and micro-services architecture.
• Experience in relational databases ( PostgreSQL or Redshift)
• Exposure to MOCHA, CHAI test framework
• Knowledge in Test Driven Development.
• Experience of working in Cloud environments like AWS etc
• Knowledge of deploying application on Cloud Foundry
• Excellent coding and debugging skills. Knowledge of design patterns and practical application of the same
• Knowledge of Privacy & Security Rules, aspects for Software is a plus

Personal Characteristics

• Good communication and documentation skills.
• Self-starter, quick learner, ability to work with teams.
• Software Craftsmanship mindset.
• Proactive and self-driven possesses a due sense of urgency.
• Ability to stay focused on the target to deliver in an agile manner.
• Openness to collaborate in interest of project/organization.
• Shall be very good technically; good problem-solving abilities.
• Working with multisite teams, Quality conscious and Process & customer Oriented.

Ideal candidate must have :

- 2+ years of experience in writing code

- Ability to meet tight deadlines

- Can work independently and be a team contributor

- Must have good knowledge of Node, Python and Scripting languages

- Experience in one or more of RDBMS - PostgreSQL, MySQL or Oracle

- Experience with NoSQL and real-time DB - Firebase/Firestore or MongoDB

- Must be able to write concise and high-quality API

- Must be a quick learner, curious and ambitious