Senior Product Engineer II - Publishing

📋 Description

• • Kit Global Inc. is seeking a highly skilled and product-minded Senior Software Engineer II to join our dedicated Builders team, focusing on the core publishing platform and creator growth experiences. This role is instrumental in empowering creators to build, monetize, and grow their audiences through an email-first operating system. Kit is committed to helping creators earn $1 billion, and this position plays a crucial part in achieving that mission.
• • As a Senior Software Engineer II on the Builders team, you will be at the forefront of developing the suite of publishing tools that enable creators to craft compelling emails, engaging landing pages, and informative newsletters. Your responsibilities will extend to stewarding Kit's core application experience, its design system, and our frontend platform tooling, ensuring a cohesive and high-quality user experience.
• • This is a hands-on, full-stack engineering role that demands a passion for crafting exceptional user experiences. You will be responsible for architecting and implementing complex features, working in close collaboration with Product and Design teams to deliver impactful solutions that significantly enhance how creators interact with our publishing platform. While you possess strong backend fundamentals and are proficient across the entire technology stack, you also have a keen eye for design and enjoy building beautiful, intuitive user interfaces.
• • You will play a key role in elevating our team's technical practices and code quality. This involves not only contributing code but also architecting our most significant features, ensuring they are scalable, maintainable, and accessible. Your ability to combine deep technical expertise with leadership qualities and a sense of extreme ownership will be vital.
• • You will partner closely with Product Managers and Product Designers to shape both the strategic direction ('what') and the technical implementation ('how') of our product. Thriving in ambiguous environments, you will take initiative, drive projects forward, and actively contribute to the growth and development of your colleagues.
• • Reporting to the Engineering Manager of the Builders team, you will be an integral part of a cross-functional product team. Your daily work will involve close collaboration with a Product Manager, a Product Designer, and your peer Software Engineers. You will also have access to a broader network of Engineers across Kit for support, mentorship, and knowledge sharing. To ensure a smooth transition, you will begin with a dedicated peer onboarding buddy to help you navigate our systems and codebase.
• • Your initial weeks will involve a deep dive into our codebase and the architecture of our publishing platform. You will set up your local development environment and aim to merge your first production code within your first week. This period will also include 'Get To Know You' sessions to foster connections with our globally distributed team.
• • Within your first month, you will work through a personalized onboarding plan, gaining a comprehensive understanding of how our publishing tools support creators throughout their journey, from initial onboarding to conversion. You will identify key opportunities for improvement and actively participate in team rituals for planning, building, and measuring the impact of the features we ship. Regular code reviews and consistent contribution of Pull Requests will be expected.
• • Over the first six months, you will take ownership of architecting and leading at least one major feature from its initial conceptualization to successful launch. You will contribute to the evolution of our legacy codebase through strategic refactoring, applying systems thinking to enhance scalability and maintainability. Driving the adoption of best practices and conventions will be crucial in elevating team-wide technical standards. You will also participate in on-call rotations to ensure service reliability and present at least one 'Lunch & Learn' session to share knowledge. Mentoring peers and championing code quality will be integral to your role.
• • Success in this role is defined by your deep expertise in developing complex web applications with a focus on high-craft, beautiful user experiences, utilizing technologies such as React, JavaScript, and modern CSS frameworks like Tailwind. You should possess expertise with Ruby on Rails, or demonstrate a strong willingness to learn and master it, showcasing your ability to contribute effectively across the full stack, from the browser to the database.
• • You will be expected to architect systems that are well-designed, scalable, accessible, and easy to maintain, coupled with a solid understanding of frontend testing practices. The ability to independently plan, estimate, and execute complex, ambiguous projects while keeping stakeholders informed is essential. Clear and concise communication skills, tailored to the audience, and a commitment to driving team clarity through open knowledge-sharing and collaboration are paramount.
• • Your experience should include effectively partnering with Product and Design teams to create delightful user experiences, prioritizing user outcomes and business impact in your technical solutions. Leading complex technical projects from ideation to launch and iteration, taking extreme ownership to drive clarity, anticipate risks, and prioritize maximum impact, is a key requirement. Experience working within and evolving legacy codebases through migrations and system refactors, and championing solutions that have demonstrated significant positive impact across teams, will set you apart.
• • Furthermore, a proven ability to mentor and teach other engineers, both formally and informally, is highly valued. You should exhibit high agency and the capacity to work independently while maintaining close collaboration with teammates. Adaptability in a dynamic and ambiguous environment, coupled with proactive ownership of problems, is crucial. A strong interest in AI and a willingness to experiment with its evolving landscape to enhance efficiency and effectiveness are encouraged. Openness to direct feedback and a commitment to continuous improvement, with the ability to shape team culture through empathetic feedback and mentoring, are essential traits. Embracing a learning mindset and demonstrating the ability to quickly build new skills and model this for others will contribute to your success.