Staff Engineer I (Senior Middleware Developer)

ABOUT Bottle Rocket:

Bottle Rocket has been a thought leader at the intersection of transformative technology and business innovation since our inception in 2008. Headquartered in Dallas, we design and develop experiences for the Connected Customer that produce undeniable value for many of the world’s most distinguished brands. Our more than 450 award-winning experiences have set new standards in connecting people to what they want and are transforming how our clients compete and win in the marketplace. Bottle Rocket is a strategic partner within the world-wide WPP integrated communications network.

ABOUT This Position:

You will be working with a team of developers to design and implement the responsive and scalable cloud-based services that power our award-winning mobile experiences. You will work collaboratively with subject matter experts to model and implement efficient business systems; researching and suggesting technical solutions that fit the client's requirements. We build backend systems for many domains, working to compose numerous 3rd party and custom-built solutions into a cohesive, asynchronous, well-documented API for our clients.

At Bottle Rocket, we seek T-shaped employees who take personal responsibility for the success of our projects, form a deep understanding of the client's domain and can develop and provide deep insight into the system and problem domain for our clients.

Previous Kotlin, Java, Scala, and/or functional programming experience is recommended but not mandatory. If you have strong technical experience solving problems and owning solutions we encourage you to apply!

Qualifications and Education Requirements:

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science or relevant work experience 
• Minimum 10 years experience working as a developer writing code
• Minimum 8 years experience developing backend systems with JVM languages
• Minimum 4 years experience in architecting and delivering microservices and RESTful designs
• Experience with AWS or GCP
• Experience in communicating complex solutions to external clients, in a way that non-technical stakeholders would understand
• Experience in SCRUM and Agile methodologies

Key Competencies

• Experience implementing and utilizing API Gateways
• Willingness and interest in functional programming concepts
• Relational/non-relational database experience
• Familiarity with Linux
• Work with fellow engineers and business stakeholders to understand requirements
• Learn new technologies quickly and effectively, as necessary
• Tremendous initiative and self-direction
• Working knowledge of Git and Git flow
• Experience working in agile teams
• Working knowledge of Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) principles.
• Good time management skills
• Strong communication skills with a high emphasis on the ability to explain technology in business terms and to express opinions clearly in a straightforward manner
• Self-driven and self-managed with the ability to operate effectively with minimum oversight
• Experience leading and mentoring a team of developers
• Experience creating projects from the ground up to business requirements with minimal guidance.
• Demonstrated thought leadership experience – assess and research middleware   technologies landscape, speaking at technology conferences, writing technical blog posts     
• Strong passion for technology – the "geek gene" that loves to tinker, learn, and explore. This isn't a tag-line – tell us specifically what you're passionate about!

Bonus Points:

• Professional Kotlin or Scala experience
• Adept with functional paradigms (Haskell, Clojure, Scalaz or Cats)
• Open source contributions
• Technical blogs
• Active in local meetups or tech community
• Node.js experience