Work at Couchsurfing
Principal Software Engineer
Couchsurfing is the world’s premier social travel platform, with over 12 million members in nearly every country in the world. Couchsurfing changes people’s lives. Hearing the stories of Couchsurfers whose lives have been transformed by travel is the greatest reward for doing what we do. Join us and every day thousands of people from every country in the world will meet in person and embark on new adventures as a direct result of your work.
We are a small, nimble and hyper-focused team who are building the next generation of this powerful service, with a strong focus on mobile. Our platforms include web, ios, and android, and our mobile audience is growing rapidly. If you’re interesting in making a big impact at a small company with a passionate and large user base and growing revenue streams, then you’ll like it here.
As Principal Engineer, you will work closely with the VP of Engineering to set technical and architectural direction for our products. You will be a leader by example helping everyone on the Engineering team learn and grow while building awesome products that we can all be proud of.
Things we are looking for
- 5-10 years of experience working on consumer web products that serve many millions of pages a month
- Deep understanding of and track record building systems that scale, are performant, and just work
- Experience with modern web frameworks, ideally including Ruby and Rails, including building an API to mobile and/or web clients
- A commitment to using the right tools for the job and not just the new shiny thing just because it’s new and shiny
- Exposure to and strategy toward the Javascript front-end framework shoot-out
- An understanding and passion for using proven testing practices to improve software quality and reduce risk
- Strong predisposition to using data to make and evaluate decisions
- Experienced in lean, agile development practices and the ability to apply the right level of structure to the problem at hand
- Experience working with AWS and making AWS work for you
- Proficiency with SQL, either on MySQL or Postgres
- Experience with SOLR or Elasticsearch
- DevOps chops a big plus
- Native mobile experience an even bigger plus
A bit about you
- A track record for learning new skills and being able to contribute with them quickly
- Strong communication and collaboration skills, and the ability to give and take constructive feedback well
- Thrive on being a hands-on contributor, but have the experience and ability to step back and see the bigger picture
- A talent for simplifying, and passion for great design
- Passion for travel a plus!
Culture and perks
- Awesome co-workers who care about building a great service and each other
- We work hard and play hard - you have freedom to get the job done, but must deliver results.
- Tasty AND healthy group lunch
- Competitive salary and benefits
- Ping-pong where walls, ceiling, and floor are in play
- Couches galore
- Staff in the Wild program - each month we send a CS employee Couchsurfing somewhere on planet earth!
This position is located at Couchsurfing HQ in San Francisco, California.