The Opportunity

We are looking for an experienced backend engineer to join our small and effective team with a focus on our APIs and supporting our platform at scale. This doesn't mean you are isolated from product development &emdash; everything we do serves our users in some way, and being a small team we regularly share responsibilities. However, this role will tend to spend more time on efficiency and system design rather than delivering this quarter's new features. The right candidate should have a depth of experience supporting a large API surface area with efficient, well organized code, and should be excited about maintaining and improving performance over time. Experience with developer tooling, database design, query optimization, and DevOps workflows will serve you well in this role.

This role is remote, targeting US compatible timezones, with flexibility for the right candidate.

What Makes You a Great Fit

• Designing, building and maintaining HTTP APIs in a modern backend framework is one of your core skills. We use rails, but prior experience is not required.
• A track record in performance optimization (code, database) and addressing scaling challenges.
• Regular user of AI tools, with a nuanced understanding of when they can help and when they don't.
• Your understanding of deployment technologies (Linux, containers, databases, CI, etc) is deeper than a surface level
• You thrive on shipping, and seeing the results of your work in other people's hands.
• Fast work pace, that you help set. Not driven by arbitrary deadlines, but from the excitement of shipping to customers and working with excellent peers.
• Code is code. You are excited to solve the problems in front of you even if you don't yet know the language or framework.
• Cooperative by nature. Our API is core to all our product, so we have the privilege of working with a wide variety of teams.
• High agency, low overhead. We succeed because we can build faster and better than larger teams.

We need a proven problem solver who can design efficient database schemas, create clean APIs, and collaborate both internally and externally. We succeed because we can build faster and better than larger companies. This works because we take ownership, we don't wait for someone to tell us what to do, and we align with each other on values and mission, allowing for independent thinking. We have process where it matters, and no BS for everything else.

We also maintain a variety of smaller services, both custom in house and open source forks, as well as a set of data processing pipelines for map related data. They are built with a variety of languages and regularly provide opportunities for work outside of the ruby/rails ecosystem.

Obligatory Tech Details

• Core APIs built with rails
• Restful, versioned APIs
• MariaDB, ElasticSearch, Redis, ClickHouse
• kubernetes on our own hardware
• Elastic APM
• prometheus+grafana
• fluentd+kibana
• React for frontend web
• Variety of proprietary as well as open source mapping tech (graphhopper, planetiler, pelias)

About Ride With GPS

At Ride with GPS, every team member is driven by a single goal: continually shipping a great product that riders love, and to help them go on better rides, more often. In a market crowded with deep-pocketed competitors, we outperform by combining our engineering skills, cycling passion, and modern development tools. Through pragmatic, incremental releases, we deliver high-quality work fast, and take pride in punching above our weight class. Nothing beats the satisfaction seeing real riders using what we’ve built.

We are a profitable and growing mission driven business.

The Team

We are cyclists. We are explorers. We are artists. We are writers. We are parents. We are friends. Above all, we are a group of professionals striving to do the best work of our lives. By joining Ride with GPS, you will become a part of a highly capable team that helps millions of people have a great time on their bikes.

Benefits

We offer a competitive salary as well as health, dental and vision insurance, and a 401k with a 10% match. We strongly believe in testing our own software, and as a result are more than happy to help defray some of the costs of cycling, including offering a one-time new bicycle stipend as well as an annual bike supply budget.

Ride with GPS is a remote first workplace with team members all across North America. We have a small office in Portland, OR that staff is welcome to use as desired.

Twice a year we invite all staff to a central meeting place, to provide an opportunity to work in person, as well as ride together.

How to Apply

Use the application form below to submit your application directly. Please include a paragraph about your relationship to cycling or the outdoors. Being a cyclist is not required, but we find it helpful to all have a common interest that aligns with our professional work. We'll respond in a timely manner and move things forward for promising candidates.

At Ride with GPS, we’re united by a shared mission: to help people go on better rides, more often. We welcome people from all backgrounds and believe that diverse perspectives make us stronger. While we each bring our own beliefs and experiences, we aim to create a workplace that stays grounded in collaboration, respect, and focus. We want to ensure that our time together is spent doing great work in service of that mission. If that sounds like a place where you’d thrive, we’d love to hear from you.

We hire people, not resumes. If you think you’re right for the role, apply now.