Introductory paragraph

We are looking for a Senior Backend Engineer. You’ll be a key member of our core small, diverse, engineering team, building foundational services and infrastructure that power insights and workflows for state & local governments. You’ll work with modern technologies like Elixir, TypeScript, DuckDB and Postgres to create scalable, reliable services that support everything from data integrations to end user interactions. You’ll be a crucial member in architecting new technical solutions and scaling our existing infrastructure.

About us

My name: Bolek Kurowski
My position: Lead Software Architect
Company name: Tolemi
Company website: https://www.tolemi.com/
Company headquarters (country): USA, Boston
Company info and history (how you’re using Elixir etc):

At Tolemi, we’re committed to helping the public sector harness the power of data to build stronger neighborhoods and ensure residents have access to safe & stable housing. Tolemi is a fast-growing gov-tech company with strong partnerships in 100+ state & local governments across USA. We are backed by Y Combinator and top VC’s, but we also value sustainability and operate profitably. Our end-to-end software solutions focus on data integration, analytical insights, workflow automation, and citizen/business engagement, with the goal of transforming government into a more efficient, effective, and equitable service delivery organization.

We have been using Elixir for over 6 years. We built a spatial ETL tool, Swarm, that powers our data integration platform, syncing thousands of datasets, processing tens of billions of public records that fuel our insight and workflow tools. Frontend is using React + Typescript. Backend: Elixir, Phoenix, Absinthe GraphQL, Postgres. We have some POC frontend pieces using Phoenix LiveView. We started introducing components using DuckDB.

All our customer facing apps are using React, Typescript, and NodeJS on the backend.

About the job

Job title: Senior Backend Engineer
Job description:

Salary range: $130 - $180k

• Comprehensive benefits including health, dental, and vision insurance, with significant contributions for spouses & dependents.
• 401K match, commuter benefits, and gym expenses covered
• A company is only as good as its employees, so we value a healthy work-life balance and offer unlimited time paid time off, with flexible work-from-home/remote policy.

Qualifications or experience required:

• A minimum of 5 years of backend development experience, with expertise in building data-intensive systems
• Specific familiarity in one or more systems languages like Elixir
• Experience with other backend frameworks written in TypeScript/NodeJS
• General familiarity with SQL, relational databases, data pipelines/warehouses, and database internals
• Strong understanding of RESTful and/or GraphQL APIs.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS) and containerization (Docker)
• Eagerness to work in an early-stage, fast-growth startup
• Track record of mentoring other engineers and driving technical best practices
• Strong written communication skills and documentation practices

Bonus Points

• Experience working with React and/or other frontend frameworks
• Familiarity with modern DevOps best practices and observability tools
• Interest in public policy and/or housing

What the successful job applicant will be working on:
In short help us scale our product and data integration backends - APIs, data tooling, data processing pipelines, data infrastructure.

• Work closely with the data and product teams to deliver robust solutions that directly enhance our end users’ experience
• Write clean, maintainable, well-tested code in Elixir and/or TypeScript
• Propose pragmatic architectural improvements and design patterns that take into account business needs
• Optimize for scale, performance, reliability, observability, and cost
• Take ownership of projects and see them through the development lifecycle
• Build internal tools that increase engineers efficiency

Position on remote work

Remote job: yes
Remote restrictions: USA
Remote leeway: (home base in USA, our team members do however travel abroad for extended periods of time)
Any other notes about your position on remote work:

• Position can be done fully remote, but you will have the option to work out of our office in Boston’s financial district anytime.

About the interview process

• phone screen (most likely myself)
• potentially a take home short exercise
• technical interview + meet the team
• final interview with one of the co-founders

Further info
Our home website is getting a bit dated. We are a small team and have been focused on developing products rather than our homepage. We gain the majority of our customers through direct conversations.

If Tolemi sounds like a good fit for you, send your resume to careers@tolemi.com. Let me know what excites you about the role!