Lead Software Engineer at Theknotworldwide

WHAT WE DO MATTERS: At The Knot Worldwide, we champion celebration - and that starts with celebrating our people. Our employees are passionate dreamers, thoughtful doers, and lifelong learners who power meaningful moments for millions around the world. We’re united by authentic connection, shared purpose, and a deep commitment to the global community we serve. Here, flexibility and belonging go hand in hand with high performance. Driven by our core values, we believe the best ideas come from empowered teams: those who consistently collaborate with intention to design solutions, spark ideas, and drive impact. Our people are at the heart of our success. ABOUT THE ROLE AND OUR TEAM: We’re seeking a talented and driven Lead Engineer to join our International Markets team. This is a high-impact role within a strategic new line of business at The Knot Worldwide, where we are significantly scaling our global offering. You will build the engine that empowers vendors to grow their businesses and connect meaningfully with couples. Your work will go beyond simple listings; you will develop sophisticated tools that enable vendors to: • Showcase & Brand: Manage high-impact storefronts and multimedia portfolios in our global marketplace. • Real-time Engagement: Facilitate seamless communication through instant messaging and automated lead response systems. • Conversion & Booking: Streamline the journey from initial inquiry to contract signing and secure payments. • Performance Analytics: Provide vendors with data-driven insights and dashboards to optimize their ROI and market positioning. • Smart Matching: Leverage algorithms to ensure the right vendors are appearing in front of the right couples at the right time. As a Lead Engineer, you will be a key architect of our platform's future. You won't just write code; you will: • Architect Scalable Solutions: Design and maintain a robust architecture that supports multiple brands across diverse international markets. • Collaborate on Product: Partner closely with Product Managers and Designers to transform complex user pain points into elegant, customer-facing features. • Drive Engineering Excellence: Mentor peer engineers, advocate for best practices, and contribute to a culture of continuous technical improvement. RESPONSIBILITIES: • Maintain existing services and provide support to the engineers using them, which includes pairing, mentoring and documentation. • Gather feedback from the developers and managers to discover new opportunities to optimize and improve the overall development experience. • Work independently and lead and guide the other engineers on the team. • Lead best practices surrounding testing, continuous integration, code standards, etc. • Contribute technical expertise to architecture decisions. • Establish and advocate for coding best practices on the team, and stay up-to-date on new technologies and industry standards. • Participate in the ideation and execution of the technical and product roadmaps. • Help drive decision making during technical meetings. • Help define and meet technical KPIs around application performance and resiliency. • Code Reviews: Using PRs as a teaching tool rather than just a gatekeeping mechanism. • Unblocking: Identifying where developers are stuck—whether it’s a bug or a lack of documentation—and helping them clear the path. • Knowledge Sharing: Hosting "Brown Bag" sessions or technical deep dives to level up the team’s collective skill set. • Bridging the Gap: Explaining technical constraints to Product Managers and translating business requirements into technical tasks for developers. • Risk Assessment: Identifying potential technical roadblocks early in the planning phase. • Project Scoping: Breaking down large features into manageable technical milestones. • Quality Assurance: Ensuring that the final output isn't just functional, but resilient and secure. SUCCESSFUL LEAD SOFTWARE ENGINEER CANDIDATES HAVE: • Minimum 6 years experience as a software engineer building beautiful, scalable, and highly visible web applications. • Experience building back-end features in PHP and Symfony. • Experience building front-end features in React (Native). • Experience building API’s using REST and GraphQL • Experience working on the server-side in a Node.js application stack with a modern persistence layer. • Experience with Cloud infrastructure platforms, preferably AWS. • Experience with any of the following technologies is a plus: Backend-for-frontent (BFF) patterns, GraphQL Federation, Next.js and Responsive-first design systems, NestJS, Typescript, eCommerce technologies and best practices and Kubernetes. • Familiarity with testing frameworks on the back-end and front-end. You consider solid test coverage to be a critical part of the development process. • Excellent communication skills, both oral and written • Excellent time management skills. You are able to set milestones and exercise independent judgment to ensure projects are completed on time and to specifications. • A passion for self-improvement. You strive to expand your technical skill set, and you are excited about finding and sharing new ways to produce great code at a blazing pace. BENEFITS: • Private health insurance • Life insurance • Employee assistance program: on-demand mental health assistance program for any professional or personal matter • Optional salary advances • Tax relief options: pre-tax savings for food, transport, daycare and work related training expenses • Gym membership discount • Personal time off: 23 working days of holidays per year + additional days each year considering the application of the max. anual working hours of the Collective Bargaining Agreement • Other leave entitlements: enhancements to statutory leave permissions, for instance: maternity, paternity, childcare, illness and others to support work-life balance • Work from home allowance (40€/month) • Food allowance (55€/month) • Employee gifting • Signature events • Employee resource groups • DEI & Sustainability councils • Robust communication and feedback channels • Focused Fridays • Recognition iniciatives • Local events • GROW program • TKWW University for Employee & Leader development • Employee referral program WORK MODEL: • This role is Together@TKWW-eligible and based near one of our office hubs. You’ll be expected to work in the office two days a week as part of our hybrid work model. • This role includes on-call rotations to ensure the stability of our systems. Specific schedules and compensation will be discussed during the interview process #professional-track At The Knot Worldwide, we believe you are more than a resume and invite you to go for it, take the leap of faith, and apply for this job. Together, we have an incredible opportunity to make it even easier for our customers to plan life’s most meaningful moments and for our small business owners to grow and scale. We would love to have you with us on our journey. WHAT WE LOVE ABOUT YOU: • Commit to our customers: You act as one team on behalf of our customers. You lead with head and heart, and build what matters for life's most meaningful moments. • Raise the bar: You define "great" and work backwards. You don't just accept how it's been done, but boldly define how it should be. You are unafraid to innovate, learn, and keep moving forward toward our shared vision. • Be all in: You believe in our mission and take ownership of your work. You debate openly to reach the best outcomes, speaking with clarity and care, embracing diverse perspectives, then commit fully. • Celebrate impact: You measure success by the outcomes you create. You hold yourself accountable to delivering value, while recognizing progress and the lessons learned along the way. You love to win, together. WHAT YOU LOVE ABOUT US: We believe in a wide range of holistic offerings to support our employees so that they can live our values day in and day out. From mental wellbeing, physical health and financial planning, to engaging perks and discounts, we are in the business of celebrating and supporting the Moments that Matter, both in and out of the office.. We offer flexible vacation, generous parental leave, and prioritize initiatives that support the growth, development, and happiness of our people. Together@TKWW is our approach to hybrid work. It’s designed to support how we work best: combining the flexibility we value with meaningful opportunities to connect in person. Whether a role is Together@TKWW-eligible or not, we believe in purposeful moments to come together, build strong relationships, and drive bold ideas forward. • For Together@TKWW-eligible roles, this includes regular in-office time to foster collaboration and connection. • For roles not eligible for in-office expectations, we support connection through virtual collaboration and intentional gatherings. To facilitate in-person collaboration, we have office spaces in Barcelona, Spain; Delhi, India; Galway, Ireland; London, England; New York, NY; and Washington, D.C. __ US Notice: The Knot Worldwide provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability. In addition to federal law requirements, The Knot Worldwide complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. The Knot Worldwide expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. Privacy Notice: The Knot Worldwide (TKWW) processes your personal data to evaluate your application, based on the legal ground of taking steps prior to entering into a potential employment contract. Only the data strictly necessary for this purpose is collected. In some cases, your data may also be processed based on TKWW’s legitimate interests (e.g., to improve recruitment practices or manage candidate pools), to which you can object at any time. You have the right to access, rectify, or delete your data, and to object to certain uses. To learn more about your rights, please consult our The Knot Worldwide (TKWW) processes your personal data to evaluate your application, based on the legal ground of taking steps prior to entering into a potential employment contract. Only the data strictly necessary for this purpose is collected. In some cases, your data may also be processed based on TKWW’s legitimate interests (e.g., to improve recruitment practices or manage candidate pools), to which you can object at any time. You have the right to access, rectify, or delete your data, and to object to certain uses. To learn more about your rights, please consult our Privacy Policy. If you wish to file a complaint, you may contact the competent data protection authority. If you wish to file a complaint, you may contact the competent data protection authority.