(100% Remote) Software Development Lead

Posted 3 years ago
Stack Overflow

About Toptal

Toptal is a global network of top freelance talent in business, design, and technology that enables companies to scale their teams, on-demand. With $100+ million in annual revenue and over 40% year-over-year growth, Toptal is the world’s largest fully remote company.

We take the best elements of virtual teams and combine them with a support structure that encourages innovation, social interaction, and fun. We see no borders, move at a fast pace, and are never afraid to break the mold.

Position Description

Toptal is a quality-first company - we always strive to make the result of top quality. In Toptal, quality is the responsibility of the whole team led by the Software Engineers in Test. We believe that top quality can only be reached by assuring this on multiple levels: product, engineering, and their respective team.

We believe that QA is more about communication and collaboration rather than documentation and processes and because of that, our Software Engineers in Test are following a holistic approach. In reference to the product, you will work closely with product managers to ensure the team builds the proper software that reaches company goals and brings value to its users. In reference to engineering, you will support fast and reliable delivery of software, leading and coordinating software assessment and testing activities. Last but not least, in your team, you will lead process transformations to improve quality, mentoring your teammates for better testing.

As a member of the Talent Community team, you will provide value to our users, the freelancing professionals after they are accepted on our talent network. The mission of the team is to keep our talents engaged beyond hiring, help to connect with other talents that they can improve their skills or career development, and learn about interesting clients.

This is a remote position that can be done from anywhere. Due to the remote nature of this role, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship. Resumes and communication must be submitted in English.

Responsibilities:

  • You will be able to use your knowledge to bring a huge impact on how we design the team’s approach to the quality of the product.
  • You’ll get to work with UI, contract, and model-based testing tools using technologies like JavaScript, Cypress, Puppeteer, Cucumber, Selenium, Pact, etc. every day. It’s a plus to have experience with Watir.
  • You will work closely with the product team, stakeholders, and users from the preliminary planning work, understand the product very well, from different perspectives, and have a holistic view over it. Plan and deliver new features.
  • You will encourage and teach developers to craft and implement tests in the most efficient way. Ensure high-level testability or coverage, sufficient monitoring solutions, and debugging mechanisms. Work to maintain and improve our automated test suites.
  • You will build tools and libraries to simplify the development and improve the quality of the work.

In the first week, expect to:

  • Begin your onboarding and integration into Toptal.
  • Get familiar with our product portfolio and team structure.
  • Review our extensive Toptal Engineering Documentation to become familiar with our working processes.

In the first month, expect to:

  • Attend regular meetings. Examples include daily standups and the once a month Engineering All-hands meeting.

In the first three months, expect to:

  • Be actively engaged in the development of new features your team works on.
  • Participate in the development of more broad solutions as a part of the guild (e.g. Quality Guild).
  • Learn and take part in the utilization of the latest Front-end technologies.
  • Have the opportunity to use and improve the Back-end technologies within the scope of the team.
  • Develop automated tests in order to ensure that our products flawlessly support our business and behave at sky-high quality standards.

In the first six months, expect to:

  • Work on a domain with extensive A/B testing to support decisions.
  • Work on a product used by tens of thousands of users every day.
  • Develop your team’s trust to make strategic decisions in regard to tools or methods involved in the QA process.

In the first year, expect to:

  • On-board, mentor and be part of the interviewing team, in order to support the growth of our top-skilled engineering team.
  • Become a champion of new ideas that will thrive to achieve the purpose of our company while ensuring the quality culture that we value the most.
  • Take joy in deployment to production multiple times a day and collaborating daily with your team or other individuals while working in a distributed model.

Requirements:

  • You must have proven knowledge of OOP, databases, development, and test methodologies.
  • Understand core software testing concepts, paradigms, and approaches.
  • Experience with the JavaScript testing ecosystem i.e. Cypress framework.
  • Experience with the Ruby testing ecosystem (RSpec, Watir, Cucumber) will be considered a plus.
  • Experience with service-oriented architecture or microservices is a plus.
  • Eagerness to do what is needed to get things done, including tackling different responsibilities for a period of time.
  • Ownership. You take responsibility for the success of the engineering teams.
  • Quality. You take pride in everything you deliver as a reflection of yourself.
  • Be able to train your team on software testing.
  • Self-organization. No one will tell you exactly how to work.
  • Ability to communicate clearly and constantly with teams via Slack and other collaboration tools.
  • You must be detail-oriented.
  • Critical thinking and enthusiastic skepticism.
  • You must be a world-class individual contributor to thrive at Toptal.