Linear

Senior / Staff Backend Engineer

North America

Not SpecifiedCompensation
Senior (5 to 8 years), Expert & Leadership (9+ years)Experience Level
Full TimeJob Type
UnknownVisa
Software, SaaS, Project Management, Issue TrackingIndustries

Job Description

Employment Type: Full-Time Location Type: Remote

Position Overview

At Linear, we are on a mission to bring magic back to software. To empower product teams to do their best work, we are building an issue tracking and project management tool that combines UI elegance with world-class performance. Founded in 2019, Linear has become the tool of choice for 10,000+ companies to plan and build their products.

Linear was set up as a fully remote company from the start. Today, our small but mighty team is distributed across North America and Europe. What unites us is relentless focus, fast execution, and our passion for software craftsmanship. We are all makers at heart and care deeply about the quality of our work.

As a small team, we’re all generalists and are constantly picking up new challenges. When it comes to code, we’re looking to work with experienced people who can pick a problem and solve it. We use TypeScript and build scalable systems so we can continuously make progress on a solid foundation. We don’t expect you to have a background in everything we use, but we do expect strong JavaScript fundamentals and experience building scalable infrastructure and backend solutions.

Note: We are an equal opportunity employer and remote-only company. At this time, we can support hiring within the Eastern US time zone and most European time zones.

Responsibilities

  • Build the backend for various user-facing features
  • Optimize real-time, synchronized data delivery across our clients
  • Improve database and infrastructure performance by implementing caching solutions and connection pooling
  • Enhance observability, monitoring, and alerting for our service to better respond to operational incidents
  • Scale our service via architectural changes and infrastructure improvements
  • Open-source any non-trivial innovations that come out of our work on the product
  • Redefine best-in-class software development processes to build a purpose-built product

Technology Stack

  • Databases & Caching: Tech Node, Postgres, and Redis
  • API: Public GraphQL API with access to all user data
  • Synchronization: Proprietary data synchronization library built for speed and offline support. Delta-packets are transported using WebSockets.
  • Frameworks: TypeORM, TypeGraphQL
  • Infrastructure: Hosted on Google Cloud with Kubernetes (k8s)
  • Monitoring: DataDog
  • Collaboration Tools: GitHub, Slack, Notion

What We Offer

  • Interesting and challenging work
  • Work-life balance
  • Competitive salary and equity
  • Employee-friendly equity terms (extended exercise)
  • Paid lunch and coffee during workdays
  • Remote work with no commuting required
  • Reimbursement for co-working space/desk at an office
  • Health, dental, and vision insurance (based on country requirements)
  • Regular team events and off-sites
  • 5 weeks of paid vacation
  • 4 months of paid parental leave (or more based on country requirements)

Learn How We Think and Work

  • Read Me: A story about our mission
  • Why and How We Do Work Trials: Linear blog post
  • How We Structure Our Product Teams: Talk by our Head of Product, Nan Yu, at Config 2024
  • Scaling Our Real-Time Sync Engine: Talk by our co-founder, Tuomas Artman, at Linear's 2023 offsite
  • Building for Quality: Our Investment in Linear: Accel Series B blog post

Skills

TypeScript
JavaScript
backend development
scalable systems
infrastructure
Postgres
Redis
caching
connection pooling
observability
monitoring
alerting

Linear

Software development tool for task management

About Linear

Linear is a software development tool that helps teams build products more efficiently. It provides features for task management, issue tracking, and workflow customization, making it suitable for both startups and large enterprises. The platform simplifies complex tasks by breaking them down into manageable sub-issues, which enhances productivity. It includes automated backlog management to save time by auto-closing and archiving issues. Linear is designed for speed, offering rapid keyboard shortcuts and real-time synchronization. Users can create custom workflows and views to tailor the platform to their needs. A unique feature called "Cycles" helps teams prioritize their work by automatically tracking started issues and rolling over unfinished tasks to the next cycle. Linear's goal is to streamline the software development process, allowing teams to focus on building great products.

San Francisco, CaliforniaHeadquarters
2019Year Founded
$50.8MTotal Funding
SERIES_BCompany Stage
Enterprise SoftwareIndustries
51-200Employees

Benefits

Work life balance
Competitive salary and equity
Employee-friendly equity terms (early and extended exercise in the US)
Work remotely, no commuting to the office
Health, dental and vision insurance (US)
5 weeks paid vacation
Parental leave
M1 Macbook Pro, 5K display and accessories
Stipend to set up your home office
Latest productivity software
Paid lunch and coffee during work days
Paid co-working space/desk at an office
Regular team events and offsites
Quarterly hack weeks
401(k) Plan (US)

Risks

Potential reputational damage from association with Carta's unethical practices.
Increased competition from new integrations like Plain, offering similar features.
Challenge of maintaining rapid growth after raising $35 million in Series B funding.

Differentiation

Linear offers rapid-fire keyboard shortcuts and real-time sync capabilities.
The platform provides automated backlog management, reducing manual labor for development teams.
Linear's 'Cycles' feature helps teams focus on upcoming work with configurable tracking.

Upsides

Linear raised $35 million in Series B funding to expand its operations.
The rise of remote work increases demand for Linear's collaborative software development tools.
Integration with AI-driven tools could enhance Linear's task management efficiency.

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