Lead Backend Engineer, Goodnotes
JVM/Kotlin
+ Equity
Top-rated note-taking app
Posted today
Top-rated note-taking app
201-500 employees
Posted today
+ Equity
201-500 employees
Company mission
To create the best medium for human and AI collaboration.
Role
Who you are
- Mastery in at least one JVM programming language. We mainly use Kotlin, but we’re open to Java and Scala
- A good knowledge of idiomatic Kotlin and familiarity with Kotlin concurrency model is your extra advantage
- Experience running high-performance and high-load JVM based workloads on Kubernetes (e.g. AWS EKS) and AWS Lambda services
- Good understanding of modern distributed databases (we use CockroachDB so it will be an extra advantage if you worked with CockroachDB open-source or Enterprise in the past especially if you were also involved in setting up and operating self-hosted CRDB clusters)
- Expertise in identifying access patterns, defining optimal relational data models and indexing strategies
- Knowledge of non-relational distributed databases
- Previous experience in building client-facing APIs and deep understanding of various L7 communication protocols (HTTP, gRPC, WebSocket, webRTC)
- Expertise in cloud storage, deployment and computing. We use AWS but we’re open to other platform experience
- Knowledge of infrastructure as code (IaC) tools such as Terraform and AWS CDK
- Deep understanding of computer science fundamentals
- You have led the development of complex systems from inception to millions of users
- Robust software engineering practices, testing and automation have no secrets for you
- Excellent problem-solving and story-telling skills
- A love of software craftsmanship, you have a strong desire of self-improvement through side projects and sharing
- Good sense of the best tools for any task
What the job involves
- Goodnotes introduced our own bespoke cloud service to power our growing ecosystem across iOS, web, and Android
- As Goodnotes expands into the Enterprise space, this cloud service is becoming the backbone of how millions of people back up, sync, and share their notes and documents
- Authentication, authorization, and identity management are at the core of making this experience seamless and secure
- The Goodnotes Accounts (GNA) team is driving this transformation
- We’re redefining how user identities are managed at scale, safeguarding access as we roll out powerful new sharing capabilities, and building a platform that empowers engineers across Goodnotes to innovate with confidence
- Our work ensures that every user—whether an individual or an enterprise customer—can trust Goodnotes Cloud as the foundation of their digital note-taking journey
- Architect and design scalable solutions that are easy to maintain to allow the development of exciting features and support more users
- Implement elegant solutions with clean code
- Enable communication across multiple Mobile, Web Frontend, Backend Services and QA teams
- Define and drive the completion of new initiatives and features by removing blockers for the team
- Continuously improve the development practices through research, automation, documentation and testing
- Share your knowledge and experience with the rest of the team
Application process
- An introductory call with someone from our talent acquisition team. They want to hear more about your background, what you are looking for, and why you’d like to join Goodnotes
- A short online coding skills test
- A live coding call with one of our engineers. This is where you get to see what it would be like working at Goodnotes as well as the chance to ask any engineering questions you may have
- A call with your hiring manager. This is the person who will be managing you day to day, working on your growth and development with you as well as supporting you throughout your career at Goodnotes
Our take
Goodnotes is a digital note-taking tool for handwritten notes and (formerly) paper-based information. Thanks to its signature vector ink engine, the app delivers a precise and natural writing experience. It can read handwriting (even the worst handwriting) and allow users to search it, as well as convert it to text for easy sharing into other apps or even web pages. Goodnotes also supports importing, searching, and navigation through PDF, PowerPoint, Word, image files, and more.
The platform is available across iPhone, iPad and Mac. One of the leading note-taking solutions on the App Store (with over 14,000 positive reviews) it competes with apps like Notability and Paper by WeTransfer. Founded in Hong Kong, Goodnotes now operates across the UK and with a number of new features and acquisitions, its proving a powerhouse in digital productivity.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Employee endorsements
Focus on employee wellbeing
"Company cares about each and everyones wellbeing. A monthly budget is provided for everyone to take care of their physical and mental wellbeing. You..."
Funding (1 round)
Jun 2020
$6m
SEED
Total funding: $6m
Company benefits
- Stock options: Meaningful equity in a profitable tech-startup
- Excellent annual leave package + public holidays
- Flexible working hours and location, we're remote friendly!
- Medical insurance for you and your family
- Continuous learning: A learning and development budget or training or courses to build your skills
- Be your best self: A monthly budget for personal growth including books, language/music lessons and online courses
- Noise cancelling headphones
- Monthly wellness budget: Covering gym membership, therapy, massage and much, much more
- Amazing office space in central London and Hong Kong. Your Travel and lunch are also on us!
- Home office set up: Everything you need to create a productive workspace at home. Chairs, desks, hardware, it's covered
- Sponsored working visa with a relocation package to either of our office locations
- Annual team off-site: Get to know your colleagues
- Professional coffee equipment and freshly roasted beans in our offices
Company values
- Dream big
- Build great things
- Operate as an owner
- Win like a sports team
- Learn and grow fast
- Share our passion
- Be user obsessed
Company HQ
London, UK
Articles
Leadership
Steven Chan
(Founder & CEO)Goodnotes was created from Steven's frustration with taking readable and reusable handwritten notes on his first iPad. Since then, the company has grown to millions of happy users.
Paul Onnen
(Senior Vice President of Engineering)Paul loves building things that help make people's lives better and they are using this experience to help Goodnotes be successful as we continue to grow.
Minh Tran
(COO)Minh is a seasoned people and business leader who is obsessed with searching for the world’s best talent and building winning teams that are highly skilled, innovative, and passionate.
Rowena Chung
(Director of Product)Rowena leads product discovery and strategy across Goodnotes' product group. She is committed to understanding the users’ needs and enhancing their productivity and experience with the app.
People progressing
Bret joined Goodnotes in 2018 as a Senior Software Engineer. In 2023 he was promoted to a Principal Engineer.
Joined Goodnotes in 2021 as a Senior ML Engineer and is now a Senior Engineering Manager, leading a product team to build an incredible AI productivity experience impacting millions of users.
Cam joined Goodnotes as a Senior Brand Designer and 3 years later became the Global Brand Design Lead!
Rammy joined Goodnotes as a Senior QA Engineer in December 2019, transitioned to QA lead after 2.5 years and again to QA manager after 4 months.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Goodnotes
Vivien Ko (People Ops Manager)
- We are a team of c 270, from 39 different countries... and still growing
- We believe diverse teams create better outcomes for users, teams, and businesses
- Learn more about one of our Female Directors https://www.goodnotes.com/blog/rowena-product-manager
- We know there's still a lot more we need to do - and we want you to be part of helping us on our DE&I journey!
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