Principal Engineer, Backend

Permanent role, full-time | Berlin | Hybrid            https://www.kittl.com/career

What is Kittl?

Kittl isn't just another design platform; we're here to transform the way creators work. Since day one, our mission has been clear: make designing easy and intuitive and present a real competitor to cumbersome professional-grade tools. Kittl has already attracted over 1 million users and facilitated the creation of more than 10 million designs.

Our growth relies on two things: our talented team and our relentless focus on execution. Our diverse crew of 30+ from 12+ countries drives our global impact. As we expand, we're searching for smart minds who love crafting great products, rethinking norms, and simplifying complexity. Join one of the hottest start-ups in graphic design and enjoy a very open, transparent, and performance-driven company culture with a fast and agile development cycle.

Your role at Kittl

You’ll join a very flat engineering team of 13 in total, currently split up into cross-functional squads. The backend team is only two strong, so you’ll be a crucial addition to the company! We’re looking for Principal Engineers who can act as very senior individual contributors and as the technical experts who provide architectural guidance of engineering projects.

You’ll be handling design and implementation of new high-impact product features, as well as helping the engineering team solve problems and overcome challenges. You'll also be actively involved in establishing and spreading good engineering practices, driving technological excellence and shaping the technical vision across the whole company. You’ll also be partnering closely with our Talent Acquisition team to hire great engineering talent that matches our culture, and our People team to ensure we’re building a positive and inclusive working environment for everyone.

What you'll do

• You'll produce high-quality results by leading or contributing heavily to large cross-functional projects that have a significant impact on the business

• Lead the design and implementation of highly scalable and performant backend systems using Node.js and AWS services

• Write high-quality and maintainable code. Test, review, and ship it

• Identify and proactively address backend challenges, driving technical decisions within the company

• You'll actively own features or systems and define their long-term health, while also improving the health of surrounding systems

• You'll assist our skilled support team and operations team in triaging and resolving production issues

• Help the product team to better understand engineering challenges and break down complex projects into manageable and easy to grasp tasks

• You'll mentor and provide guidance for other engineers

• You'll improve engineering standards, tooling and processes

What you'll need

• You have 5+ years of experience working in software engineering, proficiency in Node.js and TypeScript

• Experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL or similar)

• Confident knowledge of SQL

• Frontend experience with React is highly welcome (but not needed)

• Experience with any of the mainstream cloud stacks (preferably AWS)

• Experience with structured hiring e.g. in a scaleup or big tech and assessing specific tech competencies and working with recruiters is a huge plus

• You have solid communication skills and have experience collaborating closely with teams of different disciplines across Product & Engineering

Benefits

• Urban Sports Club membership discount 
• Mobility benefit: monthly public transport (BVG) ticket fully covered by the company
• 30 vacation days per year for all employees
• An allowance of 10 weeks per year of fully remote work from anywhere in the world, as long as you maintain core working hours (12 pm to 5 pm CET)
• You'll be working with a truly product-led company with PM's, engineers and designers at the heart of the company
• We’re a well-equipped start-up that recently raised its Series A round, can get all the tech equipment you need!
• We have a hybrid setup with office and work-from-home days so that we can foster a nice culture and in-person collaboration when needed
• Core working hours are 12 pm to 5pm, with the rest of your working time being flexible so you can work in a style that suits you best (early riser or a night owl)
• Regular team events and offsite

🌈 At Kittl, we embrace diversity and value every team member's unique background, identity, and experience. We're all about respect, honesty, and inclusivity. Together, we create a safe and supportive work environment where everyone thrives. Join us on this exciting journey of making our company and product even better!