Software Engineer I

Who we are

Join Embark on our mission to bring joy to dog lovers by offering the world’s best products and services to strengthen their bonds with the dogs in their lives. Our canine DNA test — named the best by The New York Times — enables us to make scientific advances in personalized pet care. 

Designed by world leaders in dog genetics (in partnership with Cornell University), the Embark Dog DNA Test provides information on genetic health risks and breed make-up, allowing dog owners, breeders, and veterinarians to drive personalized care plans based on a dog's unique genetic profile. 

Join our pack! At Embark, our People First culture is centered around building an amazing team and giving everyone an opportunity to have a voice and make an impact.  We are looking for highly motivated and mission-driven employees who will join us as Embark leads the cutting edge of creativity and innovation in the fast-growing pet care & pet genetics  space.

About the role:

On the  software engineering team, you will craft delightful digital experiences with Product Management and Product Design partners that span a full vertical slice, from UI to backend. Each Agile team consists of 4-5 engineers, a Product Manager, and a UX/UI designer. This year is a very exciting time to join Embark; this year the team will:

• Scale Embark as it becomes the premiere destination for pet parents.
• Develop engaging new features and systems that transform the way pet parents understand and care for their pets.
• Introduce cutting edge technology to our platforms.

Our Stack:

• React, MUI, HTML5, CSS3
• TypeScript, Python
• NodeJS, GraphQL, Express, PostgreSQL, Redis.
• We are an AWS shop. 
• Github, Github Actions and CDK are the primary CI/CD tools.

Our Tech Philosophy:

• We deploy code to production many times throughout the day.
• Observability is critical  to us. We look at our data constantly and leverage DataDog and Sentry and to detect and resolve errors as soon as possible.
• We are constantly experimenting with cutting edge tech to find new and innovative ways to improve how we do things.  We encourage collaboration when we make new technology choices. We empower individuals to move the needle forward.

You are an Individual Contributor who is capable of consistently, reliably, and independently delivering well-defined solutions. You’ll utilize your strong understanding of software development and collaboration skills to maximize the  impact of your team. Here’s a closer look at the day to day:

• Deliver clean, efficient, maintainable code, as well as thorough tests and documentation.
• Perform code reviews for others and respond to code reviews on your code.
• Collaborate with our Product and Design team and stakeholders to advise on the best solutions to problems and to deliver product features.
• Contribute to improve our technology and development practices.
• Embrace a continuous learning mindset – hone and develop your craft while learning cutting edge technologies in areas such as AI.

Experience we’re looking for:

• 2+ years of professional software engineering  experience.
• Strong experience in an area of web development (e.g. CSS, frontend frameworks, SQL databases, APIs, etc.)
• A foundational understanding of relational databases (e.g. PostgreSQL).
• A solid understanding of AWS or similar cloud providers.
• Experience utilizing CI/CD tools like GitHub Actions or similar.
• Comfortable working with frontend frameworks like React, Angular, or Vue.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Eagerness to learn new technologies and solve problems. 
• Ownership: You get shit done quickly and focus on finding the most efficient solution to a problem. You focus on delivering value to users first and foremost. You thrive in a cross-functional setting. You are effective at monitoring systems and detecting and resolving issues as quickly as possible. 
• Technical Stewardship: You write clean and maintainable code that fellow Engineers will be grateful for.  

Nice to have:

• Experience with customer-centric product development.
• Understanding of DevOps and Agile development philosophies.
• Diverse database technologies and tools (e.g. NoSQL databases).
• Building products powered by AI and/or ML models.
• AI Engineering concepts e.g. building evaluation systems and pipelines.
• System debugging and troubleshooting. 
• Performance testing and tuning.

Why join the pack!

At Embark, we might be dog lovers, but we’re passionate about people too. We’re committed to building an inclusive culture where all employees can belong and flourish. Here are some of our benefits and perks:

• A flexible vacation policy so you can take off the time you need when you need it
• Paid maternal and paternal leave (plus paw-ternity leave for new pets)
• Every other Friday off each summer
• Perks tailored for dog lovers including subsidized pet insurance
• Startup perks with big-company benefits (401k match, a generous bonus structure, commuter benefits, top-of-the-line healthcare, HSA/FSA)
• Competitive salaries and equity participation — every employee gets stock options
• New MacBook Pros or laptops
• Continuing education, including attending conferences and company-provided resources to help with individual growth and development

Salary: $116k-140k