Software Engineer III - Personalization & Discovery

Job Description:
Here at Rakuten Kobo Inc. we offer a casual working start-up environment and a group of friendly and talented individuals. Our employees rank us highly in terms of commitment to work/life balance. We realize that for our people to be innovative, creative and passionate they need to feel valued and supported. We believe in rewarding all our employees with competitive salaries, performance based annual bonuses, stock options and training opportunities.

If you’re looking for a company that inspires passion, personal, and professional growth – join Kobo and come help us on our mission of making reading lives better.
The Role
Rakuten Kobo is looking for a Senior Software Engineer, Full Stack, to join our awesome development team that owns personalization and discovery. The team is responsible for ensuring that users enjoy a customized and curated experience whenever they visit our webstore, mobile apps, and e-readers. This is a remote position based in Toronto, Canada.

As a Senior Software Engineer, you'll drive the delivery of impactful initiatives and provide invaluable mentorship to the team. You’ll work closely with cross-functional stakeholders, including the data department, to ensure alignment. Our engineers are enthusiastic and operate across the development spectrum, including front-end user interfaces, design system, back-end services, infrastructure, and deployment pipelines. We take full responsibility for our work, from driving requirements gathering and solutioning, to implementation and testing, through to releasing and monitoring. Rakuten Kobo is looking for an engineer who shares these passions, takes pride in delivering high-quality solutions, and is eager to champion creativity.

Reporting to the Senior Software Engineering Manager, the Senior Software Engineer will play a pivotal role in shaping the technical direction and execution across all aspects of delivery. This includes leading architectural discussions, establishing best practices, navigating complex challenges, and ensuring the reliability and observability of our systems in production.

Responsibilities
Lead the development of front-end user experiences and back-end services to enable impactful features and functionality related to personalization and discovery.
Work closely with data engineers and data scientists to integrate engineering systems with data infrastructure and state-of-the-art machine learning models.
Enhance the performance of critical subsystems and event-driven architectures, pushing the boundaries of near real-time processing of complex computations.
Actively participate in the design system process to identify, implement, and document reusable components for our own in-house component library.
Take ownership of technical decisions and guide the team through complex challenges, ensuring best practices are followed and scalable solutions are implemented.

The Skillset
Required
Computer Science or Computer Engineering degree, or equivalent experience.
Ability to clearly communicate and collaborate with team members and cross-functional stakeholders. Comfortable presenting to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Passionate about fostering a culture of learning and technical excellence through knowledge sharing, mentorship, meticulous code reviews, and constructive feedback.
Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment, with a focus on iterating quickly and improving continuously. Familiar with Agile methodologies, such as Kanban and Scrum.
Experience with ASP.NET MVC, WebAPIs, RESTful Services, .NET 8 Microservices.
High level of proficiency with object-oriented languages (C#), TypeScript, and SQL.
Familiar with message brokers (RabbitMQ) and service bus technology (NServiceBus).
Familiar with architectural patterns, such as API gateways and back-end for front-end.
Experience with relational (MSSQL) and non-relational (RavenDB) databases.
Experience with implementing observability solutions (such as metrics, logs, traces).
Knowledgeable about testing strategies and techniques (unit, integration, end-to-end).
Experience with trunk-based development and version control systems, preferably Git.

Nice to Have
Familiar with front-end development frameworks (React, Next JS), styling libraries (Tailwind, Styled Components), and design systems (React Aria, Storybook).
Experience with CI/CD pipelines, leveraging GitHub Workflows and Argo CD.
Familiar with communication protocols, including HTTP, RPC, and WebSockets.
Experience with containerization and orchestration, using Docker and Kubernetes.
Experience with test automation using Selenium or Playwright.
Knowledge of scripting languages, such as Python or Ruby.
The Perks:
Flexible hours and hybrid remote working environment
Subsidized in-office lunches
Full benefits starting from your first day
Paid Volunteer days, unlimited sick days, and 3% RRSP matching
Monthly commuting allowance for those who are hybrid
Lifestyle spending account
Talent and development training budget
Free Kobo device + free weekly e-book or audiobook
Weekly Kobo Tech University sessions
Maternity/paternity leave top up
Dog friendly office
About Rakuten Kobo Inc.
Owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten and headquartered in Toronto, Rakuten Kobo Inc. is one of the most advanced global ecommerce companies, with the world’s most innovative e-reading services offering more than 6 million eBooks and audiobooks to 30 million + customers in 190 countries. Kobo delivers the best digital reading experience through creative innovation, award-winning e-readers, and top-ranking mobile apps. Kobo is a part of the Rakuten group of companies.

Rakuten Kobo Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Accessibility accommodations for candidates with disabilities participating in the selection process are available on request. Any information received related to accommodation needs of applicants will be addressed confidentially.

Rakuten Kobo would like to thank all applicants for their interest in this role however only qualified candidates will be shortlisted.
Beware of fraudulent job offers claiming to be from Rakuten. Rakuten does not send unsolicited job offers or request money during the recruitment process. Learn more: https://rakutenemploymentalert.com/

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