Engineer, Backend

Notability•San Francisco, CA

17h•Hybrid

About The Position

Join Notability and shape the future of learning. We’re building the next generation of tools designed not just to capture notes, but to fundamentally improve how people learn, think, and collaborate. Our app brings the natural expressiveness of paper into the digital age, empowering millions of students, educators, and professionals worldwide to organize their ideas, deepen their understanding, and achieve their goals. Our mission is simple: we help you learn. As part of our team, you’ll help create experiences driven by empathy, exceptional design, and the belief that great ideas can come from anywhere—including you. Come help us make learning better for everyone. We're seeking an early-career software engineer to join Notability’s backend team. We own the central systems used by all the Notability clients and deal with API requests, scalability challenges, build tooling, and more. You'll be part of a team building value for our business through rapid iteration, sound judgment, and clear, generous communication. We are the pillar holding up Notability’s future business growth.

Requirements

Evidence you've shipped something real, professionally or on your own
Clear, concise communication, written and verbal: you make complex things simple for the people around you, and teammates are energized by working with you
Good judgment, and ownership of outcomes rather than tasks
Genuine care for the people you work with: you build trust, give and receive feedback well, and treat collaboration as the job rather than an interruption to it
Solid grasp of web fundamentals (browser, network, async behavior, application state)
Fluency with AI coding tools
Demonstrated curiosity: something you built, wrote, or figured out on your own initiative

Nice To Haves

Comfort reading and reasoning about TypeScript, and modern web code
Experience with GraphQL
Experience with infrastructure as code and/or Docker
Experience with Google Cloud Provider or Amazon Web Services
Experience building with LLM APIs, agents, or AI-assisted developer workflows
Writing, teaching or learning in public via a blog, repo, etc

Responsibilities

Own core features across our entire backend system, from direct interactions with client software to database queries to the nitty-gritty of scalability challenges.
Ship stable, readable, well-tested code serving Notability’s whole business
Communicate clearly, concisely and proactively in writing, conversation and use of AI: crisp problem statements and messages, readable PR descriptions, well-timed questions, honest status
Drive your work to completion: you find a way around ambiguity, review feedback, and edge cases
Jump into unfamiliar areas to solve tough problems
Operate with respect for the ideas, victories, mistakes, and time of your collaborators
Take in feedback from mentors and peers to continuously self-improve
Bring ideas and opinions: balance product and tech needs through open collaboration

Benefits

Competitive compensation that includes base salary, bonuses and profit sharing
Equity Awards in the form of Stock Options
Comprehensive healthcare fully covered for you and your family including medical, dental, and vision
Flexible work and vacation schedules
401k with matching contributions
Matching gifts to nonprofits
Lunch Stipend (When Working from HQ)
Public transit stipend
Home workstation reimbursement
ISP stipend
Monthly phone bill stipend