Dream jobs starts here

San Francisco / United States / California

Job Title: Software Engineer Company: Merit Finder Location: San Francisco, California, United States (On site) Employment Type: Full time Base Salary: $120,000 - $140,000 per year Application Deadline: 08-31-2026 Position Summary: Merit Finder is seeking a skilled and motivated Software Engineer to join our on-site engineering team in San Francisco. This role is focused on building scalable, reliable systems and data-driven features that power our product. The ideal candidate combines strong software engineering fundamentals with hands-on experience in data analysis and system architecture. You will work closely with product managers, data teams, and other engineers to design, implement, and operate services and pipelines that deliver measurable value to our customers. Key Responsibilities: 1. Design and build backend services and systems using Python and Java that are maintainable, performant, and scalable for production use. 2. Own and contribute to system architecture decisions, including service boundaries, data models, APIs, and infrastructure patterns. 3. Work closely with the data team to design and implement data pipelines, ETL processes, and data models that support analytics, reporting, and product features. 4. Analyze data to inform product decisions, identify trends, and measure feature performance; translate analytical findings into implementation plans. 5. Develop, test, and deploy high-quality code using best practices in unit testing, integration testing, CI/CD, and observability. 6. Optimize system performance and resource utilization across services and databases; troubleshoot and resolve production issues. 7. Collaborate with cross-functional teams (product, design, QA, data science) to define requirements, scope work, and deliver solutions on schedule. 8. Review code, mentor junior engineers, and promote engineering best practices including clean code, documentation, and reproducible development workflows. 9. Contribute to technical roadmaps, participate in architectural reviews, and help prioritize technical debt and platform improvements. 10. Maintain clear documentation of designs, interfaces, runbooks, and deployment procedures. Required Qualifications: 1. Strong programming experience in Python and Java, with demonstrable projects or production experience in both languages. 2. Proven experience with data analysis: extracting, cleaning, modeling, and interpreting data to answer business questions and inform product work. 3. Solid understanding of system architecture: distributed systems, service-oriented design, data storage and retrieval strategies, caching, and reliability patterns. 4. Experience building and maintaining data pipelines or ETL workflows and familiarity with common data tooling and query languages (SQL). 5. Experience working in production environments, including deployment pipelines, monitoring, alerting, and incident response. 6. Familiarity with software development best practices: version control (Git), code review, testing strategies, and CI/CD. 7. Excellent problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and strong communication skills for collaborating with technical and non-technical partners. 8. Ability and willingness to work on site in San Francisco, CA. Preferred Qualifications: 1. 3+ years of professional software engineering experience (adjustable based on candidate background and demonstrated skill). 2. Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Azure and associated managed services. 3. Familiarity with containerization and orchestration tools (Docker, Kubernetes). 4. Experience with streaming or batch processing frameworks (Kafka, Spark, Airflow) is a plus. 5. Exposure to product analytics, A/B testing frameworks, or machine learning model deployment is a plus. 6. Experience designing APIs (REST/GraphQL) and implementing authentication/authorization mechanisms. 7. Experience mentoring peers and contributing to healthy engineering culture. What We Offer: 1. Competitive base salary: $120,000 - $140,000 per year, commensurate with experience and skills. 2. Opportunity to work on impactful problems at the intersection of software engineering and data. 3. Collaborative, mission-driven team environment based in San Francisco. 4. Professional growth opportunities including technical ownership, mentoring, and cross-functional collaboration. 5. Standard benefits package (medical, dental, vision), paid time off, and other company benefits; specific benefits details will be provided during the interview process. Location and Work Arrangement: This position is fully on site at our San Francisco office. Candidates must be able to commute to and work from the office regularly. How to Apply: To be considered, please submit a resume and a brief cover letter explaining your fit for this role and your experience with Python, Java, system architecture, and data analysis. Applications will be accepted through 08-31-2026. Equal Opportunity: Merit Finder is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Note: All offers of employment are contingent on verification of credentials and the successful completion of reference and background checks where applicable.

No

Yes

Yes

Python, Java

Data Analyst, Architecture

Yes

python, java