Backend Engineer - Java/Kotlin

Who We Are

At Help Scout, we’re on a mission to help businesses delight more customers. We’ve been on this journey since 2011, and today more than 12,000 companies use our platform to provide outstanding customer support. We’ve been fully remote from the beginning, and have a team of 140+ people all over the world.

We love crafting beautiful products and growing a business together, but we're also trying to do something bigger. We're building a company that brings out your best and leaves the world a better place — a company that seeks balance between profit and purpose. That's why we've been a Certified B Corporation since 2019 and have pledged 1% of our equity back to the community.

Help Scout’s success hinges on hiring talented, high-accountability people who want to be part of creating a culture where we all feel challenged and supported to do our best work. We hope that excites you to join us!

Company Values

Happy to Help

Help is our first name. We show up for others, not because we have to, but because we want to. We share knowledge and give freely by default, and operate with generosity and empathy for each other, our customers, and our community. After all, there is no I in team (or software).

Craft over Convention

Although it’s tempting to follow a well-worn path, we push ourselves to run beyond it — even when that sets us apart from our peers. We’re building a culture where it’s safe to be ambitious and hold each other to high standards. That’s why we obsess over the last 10%, because it shows up for our customers and the business in powerful ways.

Progress not Perfection

The work of building a product, culture, and brand is never done – we ship our best effort, listen, iterate, then repeat. Seeking progress requires the vulnerability to be curious, humble, and hungry to learn. Great ideas can come from anywhere, so we share our work openly, welcome the perspective of others, and continuously search for what can be improved.

Own the Outcome

Ownership is key to our collective success. We consider the impact on our team and our community before we act, and believe that trust and integrity are non-negotiable. To create a better future, our decisions are made with stakeholders today and ten years from now in mind.

Read more about how we define, share, and live these values here.

Your Impact

As a member of one of our Product teams, you’ll build AI-enabled software applications and APIs against highly scalable systems, creating delightful product features for our customers to either increase their productivity, ensure their customer service is proactive, personalized, and meaningful, or knowledge based.

The ideal engineer for this position enjoys building and collaborating on elegant solutions. You’re keen on the opportunity to tackle both customer and product-oriented problems.

About The Role

• You’ll work with Java and Kotlin, and collaborate with JVM, JavaScript, and PHP Engineers, project and product managers, and designers within an engineering team of about 50 people.
• You’ll be a part of key decisions on implementation, testing, and backlog prioritization, code reviews, and architectural decisions.
• You’ll participate in an iterative software approach, remote, agile development, and autonomous work in a trust-based environment.
• You’ll make purposeful and data-driven improvements to our systems and quantitatively measure success
• You’ll provide engineering support focusing on performance, security, and usability, to ensure a magical customer experience.
• You can expect challenges from our product team, and you’ll work with our technically-committed founders to create impactful solutions for businesses globally.
• You’ll partner with our Talent team to help us hire our future team members when needed.
  
  

About You

• You’re an engineer motivated by creating AI-enabled software that helps people to deliver outstanding experiences.
• You leverage your expertise in Java, with a required proficiency in Spring Boot, to architect robust and scalable solutions.
• You’re experienced in crafting relevant, customer-focused solutions, enthusiastic about the JVM ecosystem, and comfortable with high traffic volumes.
• You have a passion and curiosity for science and data-driven results to validate our ideas are hitting their goals.
• You’re friendly, collaborative, and humble, unafraid to ask for help, ready for complex challenges, and confident in your abilities.
• You have strong opinions that are loosely held. You are happy to hear and action others folks point of view and equally happy to give feedback to others.
• You communicate empathetically and collaboratively with both engineering and non-engineering stakeholders, recognizing the importance of clear communication in a remote culture.
• You are considerate in your impact on others, with a thoughtful, flexible approach to mentoring and guiding decisions, leaving codebases better than you found them.
• You are aligned with or excited about the idea of remote teams, having experience or adaptability to remote-friendly work.
  
  

Time Zone Note

Since we have remote team members based in European and North American timezones, ideal working hours are roughly 9 AM - 5 PM ET. As long as the team consistently has four hours of overlap each day, you’re all set.

More Information About Our Culture And Organization

• Engineering Leadership Team Values
• Success Measure and Guiding Principles
• Experience Org: mission, vision, strategy
  
  

Compensation

Each role at Help Scout has a pay range aligned to our salary formula and based on national market data. We take a competency-based approach and pay is based on the level and band of your role. We assess leveling during the hiring process for new teammates, during our bi-annual performance review cycles, and when a teammate’s role changes.

Our remote compensation philosophy is not based on the employee’s geographic location. You are paid the same no matter where you live.

The salary range for this role is $126,000-$147,000.

Perks & Benefits

Help Scout offers a variety of perks and benefits to support you and your family. Our offerings include healthcare coverage, wellness resources, and so much more. Visit our careers page to learn more.

Hiring Guidelines:

All of our roles are remote, however, some roles may carry specific location-based eligibility requirements. Additionally, because Help Scout is a fully remote company and we hire from many countries, we do not sponsor visas. Help Scout teammates need to be authorized to work from their home location.

For our Sales roles, we are only able to hire in the United States.

For other roles, we are only able to hire in the following countries: United States, Canada, Australia, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy, Spain and Norway.

We’re working on expanding this list. Our Talent Acquisition team can help answer any questions about location after starting the recruiting process.

We are an equal opportunity employer and are committed to building a company that embraces and celebrates diversity and inclusion. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We have read the studies and understand that diverse teams build better products, bring more perspective to the table, contribute to a company’s financial success, and help foster a more inclusive environment for all employees, but the bottom line is that it's the right thing to do.

To provide you with the best experience, we can support you with accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process. Simply inform our recruitment team during your conversation with them.

A note on the use of AI in our interview process

While we understand that AI in an important tool in a modern skillset, we ask that you do not utilize AI assistants live on our interviews. Of course, use any tools you need to prepare! But we'd like for you to have a real human-to-human conversation with our team.

On our end, we utilize a platform called Brighthire as a notetaker and review tool to ensure a fair and transparent hiring process.

About Help Scout

We're on a mission to help businesses delight more customers. We love crafting beautiful products and resources to solve that challenge, but we're also trying to do something bigger. We're trying to build a company that brings out your best and leaves the world a better place — a company that seeks balance between profit and purpose. That's why we've been a Certified B Corporation since 2019, have pledged 1% of our equity back to the community, and have been remote since day one, now with 140+ people in 115 cities worldwide.

To learn more about who we are, visit the About page.

Compensation Range: $126K - $147K

At Help Scout, we’re on a mission to help businesses delight more customers. We’ve been on this journey since 2011, and today more than 12,000 companies use our platform to provide outstanding customer support. We’ve been fully remote from the beginning, and have a team of 140+ people all over the world.