Backend Engineer

About Us

Leap’s mission is to combat climate change by enabling a reliable electric grid that runs on clean energy. The electric grid is transforming from dirty (but predictable) fossil fuels to clean (but less predictable) renewable energy. To do so, the grid needs more flexible demand and supply to help maintain stability and reliability.

Leap plays a crucial role in opening up wholesale energy markets to all distributed energy resources, enabling our partners to get paid for providing flexibility to the grid. 

Leap is a privately-held tech company with funding from top VCs and well-known energy entrepreneurs. Our core operations are in the San Francisco Bay Area and Utrecht (NL), but we are a distributed workplace with teammates based in Atlanta, Boston, Boulder, Austin, New York, and Portland, ME.

Who are we looking for?

We are very much looking forward to meeting a Backend Engineer with a focus on backend but is also not afraid to jump into frontend. Someone who loves to learn complex systems and grow into it helping build and scale our platform out.  Must be able to commute to our Utrecht office 1-2 times per week.

Here’s what we hope you’ll bring:

• Are flexible and can act quickly on new insights we still get every day. 
• Enjoy and have experience building and connecting to APIs.
• Have strong technical skills and appreciate an open discussion, but you are also perfectly capable of working independently.
• Enjoy working collaboratively in a team with a diverse group of amazingly talented and fun people. 
• Experience is definitely a plus, but willingness to learn and innovate is a must. 
• An interest in frontend and is not afraid to touch frontend code (no experience required).
• Yes we are looking for a superhuman, but if you are just as chill and relaxed as the rest of us you should be fine! 

In this role you will:

As a startup, the organization is still very flat, and we are working very cooperatively to build great products. When you join our team you will be working on, among other things:

• Our internal market for energy trading (DEX)
• Connecting DEX to external energy markets (e.g. CAISO in California, ERCOT in Texas)
• Expose DEX through an API
• If you enjoy frontend work; build an amazing dashboard for our customers to interact with
• Setting up required servers and infrastructure

Tech stack that you’ll get to play with:

• Kotlin
• PostgreSQL
• Kafka
• AWS
• Typescript, React
• Whatever you think we must add to make everything perfect

What’s it like to work at Leap?

Product: At our core we are a tech company. We love technical challenges and build things that we are proud of and would like to use ourselves. Everyone is highly involved in building and designing our products, making them extremely valuable and a pleasure to use.

Purpose: Some of us worked in energy before, some of us haven’t. All of us would like to make a difference and do our part in helping the world move towards a more resilient grid run on renewable energy. 

Fun: We work hard, but enjoy our time at work as well as outside of work. With the team spread out over multiple time zones we also embraced flexibility early on, and are focused on results instead of time spent or presence. 

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

What to expect from the screening process

Intro Chat: You’ll speak to a Recruiter about your background and interests and get a chance to learn more about Leap.  You’ll also have some time to ask questions.

Coding Assignment: You’ll receive a coding assignment to complete within a reasonable time (you can work on it over a weekend or suggest the timeframe you think you can complete it in).  The team will review it and conduct a reference check.

Technical Interview: Chat with your potential future co-workers via Zoom - you’ll chat for about an hour with a few of the people with whom you’ll be collaborating. What are we looking for at this stage: 

• How do they work, make decisions and process information?
• In-depth understanding of their business development management & energy storage experience. 

You’ll also have some time to ask questions of the team.

Reference check: Our admin will reach out to you to gather required information.

Compensation call: A Recruiter will reach out to you with a salary range based on the criteria listed below to ensure there is alignment.  If so, a final interview will be scheduled.

Behavior Interview: Chat with your potential future Manager via Zoom - you’ll chat for about an hour with the Manager and one of the people with whom you’ll be working. What are we looking for at this stage: 

• Can the candidate provide the team with structure/guidance?
• Does the candidate have experience dealing with problems? How do they solve problems?
• How do they work cross-functionally? 
• How do they execute? How do they communicate (can they communicate downward, upward laterally)? 

You’ll also have some time to ask them questions.

Founder Interview: Chat with your potential future C-level executive via Zoom - you’ll chat for about 30 minutes with leadership.  What are we looking for at this stage: 

• Will this person bring an aspect of diverse opinions, experiences, and specialized skills which enhances not just the team, but the overall company culture.

You’ll also have some time to ask questions.

Background check: We’ll ask to speak with two to three people who can speak to your work.

Our decision: If you’re selected, we’ll make an offer and open the avenues for communication with our team members to support you in making your decision. If you’re not selected in the current round, we promise to give you some context as to why not, if you’d find that useful. Keep in mind that we’re growing, and we expect there to be many future opportunities!

Note that our clients are mostly US-based, and so we look for the ability to communicate with clarity in English, verbally and in writing.

Compensation & Benefits

Compensation 

We use a compensation calculator to keep the ranges as equitable as possible.  We start with a benchmark, then include a location factor and a compa ratio (your experience level).

Benefits

• Remote work with flexible schedule
• Paid parental leave 
• Unlimited paid time off, holidays 
• Pension plan