Senior Software Engineer

What we do at Plato

Plato is building the digital backbone of the global trade economy. Starting with the $48T wholesale industry, we empower the modern wholesaler to connect their people and data in a single analytics and workflow hub. By leveraging data science and AI we automate workflows and combat labor shortage making SMB wholesalers competitive with large corporations. 

🎯 Why we do what we do

The future of wholesale is data-driven. Unlike popular opinion, Industrial SMEs are ready to make the step to become more proactive in their processes but lack the technology to steer them to success. Our founders come from a wholesale family and gathered a rock star team of ex-Big Tech, VC and top tier consulting companies to reshape the operations of this $48tn industry. Our initial product leverages cutting-edge data science to provide customized demand forecasts and product recommendations combined with intelligent workflow automation.

We are about to create category-defining software. Our primary customers are C-suite executives within large-scale wholesale and distribution businesses. We are committed to helping them enhance their decision-making processes and optimize their operations through the smart use of their data - bringing their operations into the 21st century! But don’t just hear it from us! We are supported by a list of top-tier EU & US VCs, advisors, and angels providing insights from some of the best SME tech companies such as Miro, Celonis, Personio, Workday, Forto and Microsoft.

🔮 What we’re looking for

At Plato we are building a real-time data platform that is interoperable with a wide range of ERP systems. As a member of the backend team you will play a pivotal role in developing and maintaining the backend infrastructure that enables us to build user-facing features on top of our data platform and support write backs to ERP systems.

This role combines the best of backend engineering with the challenges of system integration, and scalability. The ideal candidate is a seasoned backend engineer who thrives in a dynamic startup environment. You will need to be adept at designing scalable architectures, contributing to cross functional design decisions and optimizing performance, whilst ensuring seamless integration with various ERP systems.

Your ability to collaborate across teams, refactor legacy codebases, and implement best practices in software design will be key to driving our platform's evolution. If you are passionate about building robust, high-performance systems and enjoy tackling complex technical challenges, this role is perfect for you.

🚀 What you’d be working on

• You’ll work with Kotlin/Java and Sping Boot to design, implement, and improve our backend systems.
• Building user-facing features on our vertical slice architecture, within a mostly monolithic system that contains some service-oriented elements.
• Use domain-driven design principles to develop features that are both intuitive and scalable.
• Be an advocate for innovative techniques and technologies that can improve our backend technology stack
• Work closely with our product, data science, and engineering teams to ensure seamless integration and functionality of our backend systems.
• Use containerisation and work with build tools such as AWS pipelines or Jenkins to streamline our deployment processes.

🏅 What you bring along

• 3+ years of experience in backend engineering; high-growth tech company experience is a plus
• You have fluency in object oriented programming and a typed backed language - if it is Kotlin or Java that is a plus but not a requirement
• You have experience with Postgres and optimising database query performance
• You have experience with monolithic and service-oriented architectures and understand how to design systems that scale without over-engineering
• You enjoy working in a team environment and can effectively communicate complex technical concepts
• You are comfortable working in a fast paced environment where you will need to refactor and optimze existing codebases to maintain a clean and efficient system
• Experience in modern cloud architectures including proprietary technologies offered by AWS and/or GCP
• Experience with containerisation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is an added advantage.
• It would be beneficial if you have previously built high performance real-time streaming infrastructure using Kafka

🛠️ The tools you will be using

• Kotlin/Java
• Spring Boot
• PostgreSQL
• Pulumi
• Kafka/AWS SQS
• AWS ECS

🗒 Hiring Process 

Step 1: Intro call (30 min.) - Oliver

• Intro call with one of the founders to get to know each other and introduce Plato.

Step 2: System design call - Oliver + Nikolai

• Technical interview with Nikolai, Backend Lead

Step 3: Technical fit - in office

• 2 technical 1 hour long interviews

Step 4: Meet the founders

• Meet the other co-founders

Step 5: Reference checks

• Before sending the offer, we ask you to provide 2-3 contacts for us to do some reference checks.

Step 6: Offer

• Congratulations! We are convinced by your skills and personality and see a great fit! You will get an offer from us including an appropriate share package.

We are moving fast, and we also want to grow our team fast – that is why we are trying to conclude the whole process within a short time (2-4 weeks).

🖌️ Our way of working

• Office: We work from our beautiful and centrally-located Berlin office
• We believe working on-site is crucial in our stage to foster ideas and communication
• We are, however, open to remote work once a year to escape the Berlin winter
• Team: Regular team events and lunches
• Tech: Top of the range tech setup
• Package: Competitive comp and meaningful equity in rapidly growing startup

🦄 You should join Plato if, 

• you’d like to be part of a rocket ship backed by top-tier investors from day one,
• digitize an old economy with cutting-edge AI technology,
• while enjoying the adventurous and demanding road of venture building,
• in a team of motivated A-players who push hard to make this a reality.

🎯 Our Values

We go the extra mile to leave a dent.

1. Hustle: We work hard to make our vision become reality.
2. Purpose: We are here to enjoy the ride and raise the bar.
3. Resilience: We persevere during challenges and stay optimistic.

We are drivers, not the passengers.

1. Ownership: We are results-oriented and take end-to-end responsibility.
2. Proactivity: We initiate new ideas and don’t stay idle.
3. Velocity: We prioritise action over processes and processes over chaos.

We are obsessed with our customer.

1. Empathy: We care about our customers and prioritise their needs.
2. Reliability: We underpromise and overdeliver on customer needs.
3. Humility: We understand the problem before we seek solutions.

We shoot for the moon no matter if we fail.

1. Boldness: We dare to push the boundaries of what is possible.
2. Agility: We think critically and quickly adjust to changing circumstances.
3. Growth: We stay curious and learn from our mistakes.

We count on everybody's voice.

1. Respect: We act with empathy, encourage new ideas and keep a low ego.
2. Transparency: We adopt an honest, direct yet polite communication style.
3. Trust: We assume every team member acts with best intentions.

Please send your application including any questions, resume or referrals you might have to [email protected] or just pm me here in LinkedIn.

We are excited to hear from you!

Oliver, Nikolai and Matthias