Backend Engineer

Please note, this position is based in our Swiss HQ in Mendrisio, Switzerland, which is 7km over the border from Italy and easily commutable from Milan, Como, Varese or Lugano. We are also happy to assist with your relocation to this beautiful part of Europe and we have a hybrid remote working policy. Your Role: We’re looking for a Backend Engineer to help us take our product to the next level. This position will take end-to-end ownership of product and feature delivery, from system design and backend architecture to integration with our infrastructure, observability of what gets shipped, and the best practices that keep the team moving fast and sustainably. You’ll also help shape how we integrate AI into our workflow and products, both as a tool that makes the team more effective, and as a capability we build for our users. Key Responsibilities:

• Play a key role in QA’s shift to an AI-first ecosystem
• Be able to produce well-structured, maintainable, idiomatic code with good documentation; unit tests for every feature, bug fixing, and code reviews.
• Collaborate on a cross-functional team, including front-end developers, UI/UX designers and product managers, to quickly deliver new features.
• Work closely with the SRE Team to ensure smooth deployments, ensuring that errors are logged with enough info to debug effectively.
• Contribute to the Backend Chapter, participating in technical discussions and cross-team activities

• Effective use of AI tools in the development workflow (IDE-integrated assistants, chat-based tools) with strong critical thinking: ability to review, challenge, and validate AI-generated code, craft effective prompts, and still reason independently about algorithms, requirements, and trade-offs
• Solid experience in coding with backend programming languages. Experience with Kotlin and/or Python is an advantage
• Solid experience with relational databases and with other types of databases: PostgreSQL and Redis are an advantage
• Advanced knowledge and experience on modern web patterns: RESTful APIs, WebSocket, GraphQL are an advantage
• Experience with distributed version control systems: Git (GitHub and/or Bitbucket)
• Familiarity with cloud-oriented technologies: Docker, AWS or Azure is an advantage
• Familiar with cloud architecture patterns and best practices for designing highly available, scalable, and secure distributed systems; experience with event-driven architectures is an advantage
• Experience with observability and troubleshooting in production: log monitoring, error tracking, and APM
• Security-minded approach to development: secure coding practices and vulnerability remediation as part of the regular workflow
• Good level of English proficiency, both spoken and written
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team, with a sense of urgency and integrity

Nice to Have:

• Passion for or experience in e-learning projects is a strong bonus
• Hands-on experience building AI-powered features (e.g. LLM integrations, RAG, AI-assisted user experiences) is a strong bonus
• Experience running and monitoring AI products in production: evals, output quality tracking, and observability specific to AI/LLM systems is a strong bonus

Pulled from the full job description

• Annual leave
• Employee discount

Wellbeing & benefits Your wellbeing matters to us. That’s why we offer benefits designed to help you recharge and thrive, including:

• Four weeks of paid vacation per year (that increases to five weeks after two years with the company!) plus two days off per year to volunteer at your favorite non-profit
• 3 days per year for professional development
• Access to our Benefits Hub, with many discounts and savings!
• Train subscription
• Relocation bonus
• Highly-skilled teammates and lots of opportunities for growth and development

Personal growth Learning and opportunity is at the core of what we do - and that applies to you too! You’ll have the unique opportunity to develop your skills on our QA authored courses in the latest tech (you’ll get 3 training days/year to do this). You can also delve deep into our world-class digital learning content on a variety of tech and business topics. Our people We are an equal opportunity employer, focused on promoting a welcoming and inclusive environment. We embrace diversity, welcome applications from all candidates and aim to support the career growth of everyone. This means no matter what your gender, age, ethnicity, beliefs, or sexual orientation, or if you are disabled or a carer, we welcome you and the different perspectives you bring to our diverse family. We’re proud of the progress we’ve achieved over the last few years to build an inclusive culture and celebrate our diversity. As a Disability Confident Employer, we guarantee that all applicants with a disability who meet the role criteria will progress to the next stage of the process. Please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments. A little about QA At QA, we believe the future belongs to organisations that are able to learn, master and apply new skills at pace and scale. As the largest tech training company in the UK and the fastest growing in the US, we partner with 96% of the FTSE and most of the Fortune 500. We have served over 4,000 customers and 1+ million learners in the last 3 years. Our Mission We teach the critical AI, technology, digital and Human skills needed to transform and succeed in a changing world.We do this through tailored learning programmes that connect learning across an organisation, create continuity for learners, and feature collaborative, cohort-based modalities to apply skills at pace and at scale. Our unique end-to-end learning solutions draw from deep expertise across Apprenticeships, Instructor-led training, Self-paced Learning and Blended Learning. You can find out more about us at https://www.qa.com/about/careers/

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