Senior Software Engineer - Platform

Job Description

At Sprout Social we are building software that is made to last. Our 20,000+ users rely on us daily to reliably connect them with their customers, so scalability and performance are top of mind. Sprout Social is used by companies like Evernote, Grubhub, Subaru and Edelman who rely on Sprout to create stronger relationships with their customers through social media.

Code quality is an essential ingredient to keeping our platform flexible and rapidly reacting to changes in the market and social media networks. Our systems execute at scale while staying nimble enough to keep up with new capabilities being offered by social network APIs. Our team uses a variety of technologies, including Java, Python, MySQL, Cassandra, Hadoop, Elasticsearch, NSQ, Docker, and Kubernetes.

We do not operate as lone wolves or “10x devs.” Instead, we’re building diverse, collaborative teams that get the best results sustainably. Embedded as a member of one of our cross-functional engineering squads, you will be part of the day-to-day Agile development environment. Platform developers work in tandem with Web developers, QA, Design, and management to drive our product initiatives to successful outcomes.

We’re looking for a creative, collaborative, highly motivated, and inquisitive learner to build great software with us. If you confidently write web applications using Java and Python and are passionate about learning, we’d love to talk with you!

Our engineering team is continuing to grow in 2020. As opportunities emerge, we are looking to find the best possible team members who want to grow their career as Sprout continues to grow. If you want to be on our radar as we have new openings, please share your resume for review. Applicants to this posting will only be contacted by a recruiter if we identify a position where there is a potential fit.

Within 1 month, you will:

• Complete Sprout’s New Hire training program alongside other new Sprout team members.
• Develop and deploy changes to our production systems.
• Interact with MySQL data stores and NSQ messaging queues.
• Collaborate regularly with your product manager, QA engineers, and fellow developers to deliver value to our users.
• Log into our remote Linux servers and monitor the status of our services.
• Get regular team feedback on your code through code reviews.

Within 3 months, you will:

• Focus on code quality with meaningful test coverage and legibility.
• Decompose work into small, similarly sized units so that estimation is unnecessary.
• Work with your product manager and fellow developers to create and prioritize quarterly team goals.
• Contribute to our Agile culture of continuous improvement through retrospective meetings and experimentation-oriented thinking.
• Build connections with members from other teams through guild meetings and chapter outings.
• Participate in technical design meetings with your teammates to walk through new feature ideas.
• Work with Product Managers, UX developers, and Front End Designers to come up with the MVPs of new features.
• Be the first line of defense against product outages and bugs while on support duty.
• Maintain and build upon systems that handle hundreds of thousands of messages a day.

Within 6 months, you will:

• Write design documents, coordinate dependencies, and act as the domain owner for new projects.
• Integrate and use monitoring and alerting tools to know about problems before our users.
• Be “point person” on a project, including writing design documents, coordinating dependencies, and acting as domain owner.
• Create and manage concurrent, distributed systems.
• Build your engineering skills by attending in-house presentations, workshops, and training sessions.
• Form a career growth plan with your manager and work towards it.
• Partner with the Infrastructure team to improve your team’s ability to deliver reliable, highly available services.

Within 12 months, you will:

• Actively mitigate risk of failed delivery and missed deadlines through courageous, transparent communication with colleagues and stakeholders throughout a project life cycle.
• Lead technical architecture meetings.
• Identify technical debt and performance bottlenecks within our systems, come up with a plan to improve the code, and get it pushed to production.
• Mentor junior developers, helping them level up technically.
• Build connections with members from other teams through active networking and community building.
• Have opportunities to contribute to in-house technical presentations and workshops that share your expertise with large groups of Sprout developers.
• Surprise us! Use your unique ideas and abilities to change your team in beneficial ways that we haven’t even considered yet.

Of course, what is outlined above is the ideal timeline, but things may shift based on business needs and other projects and tasks could be added at the discretion of your manager.

About Sprout Social
Sprout Social powers open communication between individuals, brands and communities through elegant, sophisticated software. We are relentless about solving hard problems for our customers and committed to both customer and team success.

Team Sprout is a group of very talented, smart and passionate people with broad interests and backgrounds. We believe that true employee engagement cannot happen if you can’t bring your whole self to work, so we’re committed to building a diverse team, embracing an inclusive culture and investing in equity across our organization. That dedication is core to Sprout. We want all candidates, particularly those coming from traditionally underrepresented groups in the technology industry, to know they are welcome at Sprout.

We’re proud to regularly be recognized for software, product and company culture achievements. Our team’s shared belief in Sprout’s mission promotes a culture of openness, empowerment and fun. We have built a benefits program to match the strength of our team. This program includes:

• Insurance and benefit options that are built for both individuals and families, including generous company contributions
• Progressive benefit programs, like our parental leave program and free Divvy bike memberships
• High-quality and well-maintained equipment - your computer will never prevent you from doing your best
• Beautiful, convenient and state-of-the-art offices in Chicago’s Loop
• Solid programs in some of the staples: transportation, disability and life insurance
• Wellness initiatives to ensure both health and financial well-being of our team
• Breakfast and lunch options onsite, and more healthy snack options and beverages than you can imagine
• Growing corporate social responsibility program that is driven by the involvement and passion of our team members

Sprout Social is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and an Affirmative Action Employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, marital status, order of protection status, citizenship status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please contact us by email at [email protected] and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Requests for accommodation will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Please note that only inquiries concerning a request for reasonable accommodation will be responded to from this email address.

For more information about our commitment to equal employment opportunity, please click here (1) Equal Opportunity Employment Poster (2) Sprout Social's Affirmative Action Statement (3) Pay Transparency Statement.

When you apply for employment with Sprout Social, we will process your job applicant data, including your employment and education history, transcript, writing samples, and references as necessary to consider your job application for open positions. For more information about our privacy practices please visit our Privacy Policy. California residents have additional rights and should review the Additional Disclosures for California Residents section in our Privacy Policy.

Additionally, Sprout Social participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations, as required by law. We value the things that make us different and want to see how you can make our team better!