Senior Backend Engineer

About Sherpa

Sherpa° is a pioneering force in the travel industry, dedicated to simplifying the complex world of travel documentation for travelers and industry partners alike. As an independent resource, Sherpa° is not affiliated with any government agency, ensuring unbiased and comprehensive support.

Our innovative products improve the travel experience for our customers. From eVisas and travel requirements to health declarations and more, Sherpa° provides personalized information based on travelers' nationality and destination, reducing planning anxiety and improving travel documentation experience.

Founded in 2015 in Canada 🇨🇦 and trusted by many of the world’s leading travel companies, including American Airlines, Air Canada, Korean Air, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, and Air France-KLM, Sherpa° is committed to connecting the world and ensuring travelers can move freely and confidently. With Sherpa° as your guide, you can navigate the complexities of travel documentation with ease and focus on what truly matters - the joy of travel.

Our Product

For our travel-industry partners including airlines, agencies, tour operators, corporate travel managers, and more, Sherpa° opens up new ancillary revenue streams by offering seamless integration of eVisas and travel authorizations such as eTAs directly into the booking flow. This not only improves the customer journey, but also helps partners manage risks and reduce operational costs.

At the heart of Sherpa's offerings is its robust API, which encompasses an extensive database of passport and visa requirements, border procedures, and other travel-related information. Additionally, Sherpa° provides Embeddable Elements and a White-Label WebApp for a customizable and user-friendly experience.

About The Role

Sherpa° is looking for a skilled and motivated Senior Backend Engineer to join our growing team. This role is ideal for engineers who have experience in backend development and infrastructure management and are eager to take on new challenges in a fast-paced environment.

As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will play a crucial role in designing, building, and maintaining our backend systems, which power authentication flows, payment processing, AI logic, feature management, and data processing. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to develop scalable solutions, optimize performance, and ensure a seamless user experience. In a startup setting, you’ll have the opportunity to work across different areas, from setting up internal APIs to configuring infrastructure on Google Cloud using Terraform.

In this role, you will:

• Contribute to our backend infrastructure. You will take co-ownership of our backend infrastructure, which hosts our authentication flow, payment systems, AI logic, feature management and data processing.
• Design and build. You will have a key voice in how we architect and integrate our solutions.
• Improve performance and care about quality. We dog food our own solutions. You focus on shipping software that matters to your users and that matter to Sherpa.
• Wear many hats. In a small startup, we’re all generalists. You might work with our finance team on partner commission dashboards and create custom reports from BigQuery or set up an internal API endpoint and dive into setting up a load balancer in GCP using Terraform.

Our Techstack

• TypeScript
• NodeJS
• Express
• NestJS
• NoSQL (Firestore)
• SQL (PostgreSQL)
• Nx (monorepo)
• Angular (17+)
• TailwindCSS
• Terraform
• GitHub
• Datadog
• Google Cloud Platform (Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, PubSub, BigQuery, Scheduler, Cloud Endpoints, Firestore)

The Interview Process

Interviewing is hard, hiring is hard. We try to make it transparent and simulate what a day looks like at Sherpa. Take a look at our process and candidate experience. Come prepared, and you’ll stand out!

1. Applying | Send an engaging message! 
   
   Besides sending across your resume, we would like to learn about yourself as much as possible. Make your first impression count and provide us with thoughtful responses to our questions. You can shine with the amazing work you’ve done so far and standout from the crowd.
   
   
2. Hiring Manager Intro | 20 Minutes
   
   You will chat with the hiring manager, usually a member of Engineering Leadership. It’s a way for both sides to get to know each other. Great candidates prepare questions about how we work and articulate what they look for in their next role.
   
   
3. Panel interview (90 Minutes) | Consists of 10 Minute Introduction, Resume Deep Dive & 15 - 20 Minutes In Questions (In Rounds)
   
   You will meet a few members of the team you may be working with later. They will assess your technical knowledge and how you collaborate with others. Expect lots of questions around our tech stack, building and maintaining solutions in a production environment used by millions of travellers each month.
   
   
4. Coding Challenge | 60 Minutes
   
   We want to see how you code. Take on one of our tasks or bring a project you’ve recently worked on. We want to see how you think, what decisions you made, and how proficient you navigate your own code base. We’ll ask you to modify some of the code to change requirements and see you problem solve, live.
   
   
5. Meet the Founders | 20 Minutes
   
   You get to meet more members across the organization including the founders, Max and Ivan, to learn more about them and where we’re heading as an organization. This is the final culture fit test and you should prepare as it is also your opportunity to understand if Sherpa is the right fit for you!

What sets you apart

• You’ve designed, built, scaled and maintained production services and know how to compose a service-oriented architecture
• Proven track record of leading by example in mentoring code quality, standards, best practices, software design and architecture patterns
• You’re product-minded, enjoy collaboration and take initiative to turn ideas into launched solutions

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in full-time software development roles
• Experience in building complex features on the frontend that delight users
• Experience building and maintaining design systems
• Strong understanding of how the web works
• Thrive in a free-floating collaborative environment with other teams to identify high-impact ways of solving problems quickly
• Excellent oral and written communication

Location

All positions are fully remote in EST ± 3 hours. Our team is primarily located in and around Toronto and New York City and enjoys meeting regularly (once a month) in shared co-working spaces (i.e. WeWork) or while traveling abroad.

You’ll be part of a close-knit global team committed to helping you do your best work and develop your full potential.

People first

We care about the people that work with us. That’s why we offer a generous compensation and benefits package so you can care for yourself and your family.

• Competitive salary 💸
• Annual employee options program 📈
• Unlimited vacation with a minimum of four weeks 🏖️
• Unlimited health and wellness days 👩‍⚕️
• Parental leave 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦
• Health and dental benefits from day one 🦷
• Learning and development opportunities 🏫

Work from anywhere

We believe we’re happier and more productive when work can flex with our lifestyle and ambitions. Through our substantial investment in collaborative tools and processes, you can work from home, a co-working space or even a camper van. You choose.

• Home office allowance, so you have the best tools to be productive
• Monthly co-working allowance for in-person connections
• Mobile phone allowance

Stay connected

Strong relationships are critical to our team’s success. We strive to create moments where our team can connect and build memories.

• Annual team offsite
• Cool swag to flaunt the brand

In accordance with pay transparency regulations, the expected salary range for this role is $120,000 CAD to $170,000 CAD. The starting base pay will depend on various factors including the candidate’s location, skills, experience, market demands, and internal pay parity. Depending on the position offered, equity and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package.