Senior Backend Engineer (f/m/d)

As a Senior Backend Engineer at Contentful, your primary responsibilities include owning and scaling the Insights API, focusing on high-performance event ingestion, and collaborating with data engineers to optimize workflows. You'll also design robust APIs, contribute to system architecture, maintain operational stability, and ensure compliance with GDPR.

To succeed as a Senior Backend Engineer at Contentful, you should have proven experience in building high-traffic APIs, strong proficiency in server-side TypeScript, and familiarity with API and Data Contracts. Additionally, experience with Cloudflare Workers, CI/CD pipelines, and Infrastructure as Code will be beneficial.

Contentful promotes a culture of inclusivity and collaboration. As a Senior Backend Engineer, you'll find yourself in a supportive environment that values employee contributions. With benefits like a generous amount of paid time off and a commitment to work-life balance, you'll be positioned to thrive both personally and professionally.

Contentful is dedicated to the professional development of its employees. As a Senior Backend Engineer, you'll have access to an annual education budget to enhance your skills and career growth, alongside networking opportunities through various events held throughout the year.

At Contentful, employees enjoy a comprehensive benefits package that includes stock options, fertility and family-building benefits, an annual wellbeing stipend, a communication stipend, and new hire office equipment stipends, making sure you have everything you need to work your best.

Yes! Contentful embraces hybrid and distributed work environments, allowing for flexibility in how you choose to work. You’ll receive the necessary support and equipment to ensure you can successfully thrive in a remote setup.

The hiring process at Contentful for a Senior Backend Engineer typically includes an initial screening, technical interviews focused on your expertise in API development and system architecture, followed by culture fit discussions. This thorough approach ensures that both the candidate and the company align well.

When answering this question, focus on specific projects where you developed APIs, detailing the challenges you faced, the solutions you implemented, and the technologies you used. Showcase metrics that reflect the success of your APIs, such as traffic handled, performance improvements, or user satisfaction.

To ensure GDPR compliance, explain your understanding of personal data handling and the principles of data minimization and encryption. Provide examples of how you incorporate privacy by design, such as implementing user consent mechanisms and data access controls within your API architecture.

Discuss various optimization strategies you’ve used in past projects, such as caching strategies, load balancing, and efficient querying techniques. Share tangible outcomes from improvements made, such as reduced latency or increased throughput, to provide concrete examples.

In your response, discuss how TypeScript improves the development process through features like strong typing, interfaces, and better tooling. Provide instances where using TypeScript led to fewer bugs, faster development, or enhanced code maintainability in your projects.

Outline a methodical approach to diagnosing latency issues, such as using monitoring tools, analyzing logs, and reviewing query performance. Offer an example from your experience where you successfully identified and rectified latency issues to demonstrate your problem-solving skills.

When discussing API design, emphasize factors like usability, scalability, security, and performance. Provide examples of how you have applied these principles in previous API projects, highlighting how your designs have improved developer experience and client satisfaction.

Talk about the CI/CD tools and processes that you have utilized, such as GitHub Actions or GitLab CI. Discuss how essential CI/CD practices are in maintaining code quality and facilitating rapid iterations, and share an example of how you implemented CI/CD in previous projects.

Explain the concept of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and its benefits, such as version control, consistency, and automation of infrastructure provisioning. Share tools you have used, like Terraform, and provide an example where IaC improved deployment processes or infrastructure reliability.

Describe your approach to collaboration, emphasizing communication, shared goals, and leveraging diverse expertise. Provide a specific example of a successful project where collaboration played a key role, demonstrating your ability to work well with others in a collaborative environment.

Discuss the importance of observability in API operations. Explain the tools and practices you apply, such as logging, monitoring, and tracing. Offer an example of how you’ve enhanced observability in previous projects, which improved system insights and response to issues.