Senior Full Stack Engineer

Overview:
ARE You a comprehensive, seasoned engineer who has built production systems in more than one language and loves the craft of creating software? Are you the type of engineer who's looking for bigger problems, less red tape, and knows you're ready to join higher-level architecture discussions? If you are the type of engineer who's craving that next step, this could be the opportunity for you.

About Sound Decisions:
This position is posted by Sound Decisions Recruiting on behalf of a client. Sound Decisions is a technical recruiting firm led by a software engineer, focused on matching engineering talent with strong teams.

Written From the Perspective of Our Client:
We focus on building highly scalable, reliable merchant payment technologies using the latest, most reliable technologies and engineering practices. We use modern AI tools to accelerate implementation, improve documentation, and increase test coverage. AI is an engineering aid, not a substitute for judgment, communication, review or accountability. Our philosophy is explicit: AI exists to make the engineers already here more capable as they grow, and it is judged on whether it does. The core belief is that we grow through great minds, discussions and collaborations, and success is driven through a series of great judgments and decisions by people who love the craft of creating software.


What experience we're looking for:

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, or equivalent demonstrated experience/proficiency.

• Strong knowledge of Scala or another functional programming language and the ability to apply functional programming concepts in production systems.

• Full-stack development experience across frontend, backend, APIs, data, and integrations.

• Experience developing with TypeScript and familiarity with modern web application development.

• A firm foundation in computer science principles and a decent level of maturity in AI coding tools.

• The ability to operate multiple sessions, handling/ preventing collisions, the patience to work out a plan before jumping in, and the wisdom to prevent AI side quests. (Note: This experience does not have to come from a professional setting, but the expectation is that it can be delivered at a professional level. )

  The ability to manage up and a desire to later on develop your management skills

We expect:
Managing Up (Working with Superiors):

• Understand priorities

• Provide solutions, not just problems

• Anticipate needs

• Build credibility

You will develop and learn:
Managing Down (Working with future direct reports as you grow with us)

• Set clear expectations

• Remove obstacles

• Coach and develop

• Foster psychological safety

What Behaviors define success in this role:

• Experienced at managing your time and accountable for your actions

• Great at communicating

  • Polished writing and speaking IN all communication channels

  • active listener

  • Wisdom to understand and know the forum in which ideas and concepts should be challenged

  • The ability to talk through and explain conceptually difficult problems and theories with junior team members and business team counterparts.

• The ability to work with minimal supervision, balance multiple activities, and meet deadlines.

• Operating with Integrity

• Considerate of who's in the room and who needs to be in the room

• Taking notes in meetings for yourself in meetings and being personally organized

• Being able to quantify knowns and unknowns with different problems and ideas

• Strong sense of risk awareness

• Always learning new things

• Dedication to professionalism in all settings

• Great at code reviews, delivering criticism in a constructive and helpful way

You value preparation in all things, and you show that by researching potential solutions to discovered problems before escalating them to the wider team.

What Behaviors we see as counterproductive:

• Poor time management

• Not asking questions when the situation calls for it.

• Inconsiderate of other people's time

  • Example: If the meeting can be solved with Let me google ( / search the code base) that for you

• Delegation without verification (AI is probabilistic, and trusting a probability is always 100% is the same as gambling)

• Attacking people's character, and not a piece of work

• Suggesting massive refactors on a shiny object idea (Everyone knows that engineer)

• Avoiding challenging conversations

What outside non-requirements we will give preference to:

• Experience with Java, Scala, Node.js, TypeScript, or related languages and ecosystems.

• Experience with Kubernetes and/or Docker concepts.

• Prior experience in a startup or similarly fast-moving environment.

• Experience building payment, financial, data, API, or workflow-oriented software.

• Experience using AI-assisted development tools with disciplined review, testing, and security practices.

Shared values:

• The team understands that a bug can take hours, and a new feature can take minutes with AI, and has the ability to weigh those efforts correctly. Lines of code does not make the engineer, nor do shiny new buttons.

• Committed to developing implementations of repeatable success through coding standards, knowledge repositories for AI, and implementing reliable consistent solutions

• Retrospective learning on what can be done better in the future

• A dedication to quality assurance utilizing the latest tooling, and a commitment to create higher reliability and coverage through research-driven best-practice implementations

• A commitment to delivering value to our customers through great engineering

Role Responsibilities:

• Develop software across multiple projects and languages.

• Maintain existing systems and deliver new features in a full-stack capacity.

• Translate customer, product, and business workflow needs into practical technical solutions.

• Prototype new products and integrations, including reference implementations and UML-based integration mappings.

• Design and implement maintainable APIs, user-facing functionality, and supporting services.

• Create and maintain clear User Guides, API documentation, reference implementation documentation, and technical decisions.

• Write unit, functional, and automated tests and use them to maintain confidence in releases.

• Use AI tools to accelerate research, design exploration, coding, debugging, documentation, and test creation while validating all generated output.

• Participate in code reviews and provide constructive feedback that improves quality and team learning.

• Follow the concepts of an agile process, including iterative delivery, prioritization, and continuous improvement.

• Communicate clearly with engineering, product, solutions, sales, and other stakeholders.

Day-to-day:

This role carries a full-stack title but will be weighted towards the backend. Software is an iceberg, and you add value by building reliable, scalable solutions while being able to push front-end changes when the feature calls for it.

Benefits that matter to you

Our Interview Process:

• 1. SD Screening

• 2. SD Ran Technical Discussion (not a coding test)

• 3. SD Ran Behavioral

• 4. First Client Interview

• 5. Technical Discussion + Working Session

• 6. CEO Meeting

• 7. In-Person Fly Out Meeting (where a member of the engineering team will come and spend time in person)

Medical/Dental/Vision:

• Our client covers 85% of the employee premium for medical, dental, and vision and 30% of the dependents' premium. Medical benefits are provided by Anthem Blue Cross PPO.

• Basic Life Insurance

• Long-term disability

• FSA

• Participation is available on the 1st of the month after the start date

Team Travel & Events:

• Twice a year travel for in person events with the team.

Remote Work Benefits:

• Monthly shared workspace reimbursement

• Monthly work from home expense reimbursement

Retirement:

• A 401k and Roth IRA provided by Betterment.

• All full-time employees are eligible to participate in the plan after 1 month of employment.

• Our client has a 100% match of the first 2% of deferred compensation to eligible employees.

Vacation Policy:

• Unlimited planned vacation days

Company-wide day off:

• Each quarter everyone in the company takes 1 day off

Growth & Mentorship:

• Dedicated focus on career growth, technical leadership advancement, and ongoing mentorship from senior leaders.