Service Development Engineer (Ruby / Ruby on Rails) - Recipe Business

Employment information

Job Description

About Cookpad 

Cookpad is a recipe sharing and search service that was launched in Japan in March 1998 with the mission to ‘Make everyday cooking fun’. The service is currently available in 67 countries and regions and supports 26 languages (as of February 2024).

We believe that making everyday cooking fun gives rise to conversations and a sense of fulfillment around the dining table, which brings happiness to people’s lives. We also believe that the actions people take in order to cook—such as shopping for ingredients, gathering around the table, and thinking about recipes—create connections with producers, family members, and fellow cooks, and that these connections can enrich society by contributing to solutions for environmental issues and the development of food culture.

In September 2024, we unified our Japanese and global development platforms, enabling a single development structure that allows us to build from Japan for a global audience. This marked the beginning of a new phase, and we are now looking for motivated individuals to take on global challenges with us.

Current Challenges

• Accelerating service improvements and new feature development for our global audience
• Maintaining our development infrastructure following the unification of our platforms, and removing technical debt
• Rebuilding our global development organisation, including integration with members across different countries

What You’ll Be Doing

We are looking for a backend engineer who can help lead our team and service with the power of technology, in order to make everyday cooking fun for people around the world. As a member of our team, you will be responsible for:

• Developing web applications using Ruby and Ruby on Rails
• Designing APIs and architecture based on requirements
• Leading the technical direction of projects or supporting other engineers
• Improving the development environment to enable fast development and deployment

What Makes This Role Meaningful

• The opportunity to take on unique technical challenges unlike anything you’d encounter elsewhere, as you build for our global user base
• The experience of releasing features for our large global user base
• The joy and responsibility of receiving direct feedback from users across the world
• The chance to focus on the unique domain of cooking and dive deep into challenges you won’t encounter elsewhere

Qualifications

• Experience in developing applications using Ruby on Rails
• Basic knowledge and development experience in web applications, databases, or infrastructure
• Ability and experience to support the growth and development of the wider team
• Experience leading development as a team leader in a team of three or more people
• Experience and ability to design appropriate architectures with consideration for requirements and maintainability
• Ability to stay up to date with the latest technologies and apply them appropriately to the product

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading technical architecture or organisational initiatives in a Tech Lead or CTO-like role
• Contributions to open source software or active involvement in developer communities
• Experience speaking at conferences or academic events
• Knowledge or experience in developing multilingual or multi-region services
• Knowledge or experience in web frontend or mobile application development
• Knowledge or experience with infrastructure such as AWS
• Ability to communicate effectively in English

What We Look For

• An interest in and curiosity about building applications that are offered in multiple languages and used around the world
• A passion for understanding users and delivering value in B2C services, while maintaining a good balance with technical excellence
• An interest in cooking and the ability to proactively identify problems and propose solutions
• The leadership to define a clear direction for the service or technology and drive it forward