Senior Backend Engineer, Tech Lead

About the Company:

Octave is a modern behavioral health practice creating a new standard for care delivery that’s both high-quality and accessible. With in-person and virtual clinics in multiple states, the company offers evidence-based individual, couples, and family therapy, while pioneering relationships with payers to make care more affordable through insurance. By raising the bar on how care is delivered and how providers are supported, we are building a sustainable system that values equity, affordability, and effectiveness.

About the Role:  

The Senior Backend Engineer, Technical Lead plays a crucial role in developing robust systems and tools to support clients seeking care, providers offering care, and the operational team and infrastructure. As a member of our small but growing team, you will primarily work remotely, utilizing Python (Django), gRPC, and GraphQL to integrate and streamline our operations. The ideal candidate for this role is a growth-minded team player with the proven ability to offer technical leadership when/where needed.

Responsibilities Include: 

• Lead the design, development, and implementation of scalable and robust backend systems and APIs using Python. 
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, product managers, and tech leads to define technical requirements and system architecture.
• Software developer and team leader: continue writing code (at least 30% of your time), communicate with the product manager, delegate work and lead the development of highly responsive user interfaces.
• Mentor and guide junior backend engineers, sharing technical expertise and fostering their professional growth.
• Optimize database design, performance, and security to ensure data integrity and efficiency.
• Conduct thorough testing and debugging of backend applications, ensuring high-quality, bug-free software.
• Oversee deployment and maintenance of backend services, ensuring smooth operation and uptime.
• Collaborate with frontend and other teams to integrate frontend interfaces with backend functionality seamlessly.
• Lead code reviews, enforce coding standards, and promote best practices to maintain high-quality codebase.
• Participate in technical discussions and design reviews to drive innovation and continuous improvement.
• Develop and maintain technical documentation for backend systems and processes.
• Take ownership of the backend development lifecycle, from concept to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
• Stay updated with the latest trends and advancements in backend technologies and tools.
• Participate in on-call rotation to investigate and help resolve live-site issues.

Preferred Requirements:

• Minimum 6 years of experience building robust and scalable backend applications.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code & continuous deployment in production.
• Experience working with healthcare, healthcare technology, and clinical staff, or other regulated industries.
• Experience with gRPC and Protobuf.
• Experience with relational database systems like PostgreSQL or MySQL.
• Experience integrating and synchronizing data with third party APIs.
• Experience with continuous delivery and troubleshooting production code.
• Solid working knowledge of Python and Django web framework.
• Experience  developing and deploying enterprise Python applications into production.
• A preference for writing quality code with automated testing and leaving the code base better than how you found it.
• Comfortable communicating and collaborating with engineers, clinical, and operations staff to solve open-ended problems.
• Interest in doing mission-oriented work especially in the healthcare space.

Octave's Company Values:

The below values drive our day-to-day operations.

• We’re human beings first. We operate with empathy and kindness – with our clients, with our collaborators, and with ourselves.
• People deserve better than status quo. We’re willing to tackle the intractable problems, no matter how big, because someone should. We ask big questions, we craft big solutions, and we challenge ourselves and others to make it happen.
• No bystanders. No stars. No tourists. Each person has been selected to be here, and with that comes a responsibility to bring your expertise, share your ideas, and help make this company better.
• Partnership paves the path ahead. We don’t operate in a silo, internally or externally. To transform the system, we believe in working with others to create something bigger, better, and stronger.
• Quality is crucial at scale. Quality is core to our business, and we refuse to sacrifice it as we grow.
• Progress is a process. In the pursuit of progress, we iterate, reflect, learn, adjust – and always leave things better than we found them.
• There are people behind every data point. We recognize that numbers tell only one part of the story, and we also do the work to understand impacts at the individual level.

Physical Requirements:

• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer. 
• Must be able to frequently communicate with others through virtual meeting applications such as Zoom and Google Meet. 
• Must be able to observe and communicate information on company provided laptop. 
• Move up to 10 pounds on occasion. 
• Must be eligible to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future.

Compensation:

Octave is committed to pay equity. To maintain our commitment to pay equity, Octave will follow Pay Transparency regulations on all open job postings. Current Pay Transparency laws require companies to include a position's salary or hourly wage range (not including bonuses or equity-based compensation) in any internal or external job posting. This requirement extends to job postings published by a third party at an employer's request.

Octave will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with Octave’s legal duty to furnish information.

Starting pay for qualified applicants will depend on a combination of job-related factors, which may include education, training, experience, location, business needs, or market demands. The expected salary range for this role is set forth below and this range may be modified in the future. 

The salary range is for zone 1(all states not in zone 2 or zone 3) $154,000 - $174,000.

The salary range for zone 2 (CO, HI, MD, RI) is $168,000 - $179,000.

The salary range for zone 3 (AK, CA, CT, MA, NJ, NY, WA) is $176,000 - $183,000.

All zones are eligible for equity in the form of stock options.

Additionally, this position is eligible for the following benefits: company sponsored life insurance, disability and AD&D plans. Voluntary benefits such as 401k retirement, medical, dental, vision, FSA, HSA, dependent care and commuter/parking options are also available. Octave offers generous Paid Time Off as well as paid parental leave benefits.

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.