Position: Backend Engineer (Python)
Company: VP Team
Experience required: 3y
Category: Python
English level: upper
Published: 2022-01-01T00:00:00+02:00

**What are we doing?**

Let’s Enhance improves image quality using Deep Learning and Computer Vision technologies. We have more than 5M users from 40+ countries and dozens of companies using our API.

We won first place on Product Hunt twice. Our first round of financing was led by Techstars International and Digital Future. Recently we raised the $3M Seed round led by the US fund Chamaeleon.vc and NL-based Acrobator.vc. We also have several angel investors backing us, including founders and famous Computer Vision researchers. 

The company is at the stage of active growth. By the end of 2020, we grew 300% and reached the $1M ARR mark, and in 2021 we raised a round of investments to scale the new product.

**Why are we doing this?**

Let’s Enhance has an ambitious mission to provide a one-stop solution for all image enhancement, editing, and optimization tasks.

**How are we as a company / project different from others? Why is it worth working with us?**

Flat structure, no bureaucracy
Working directly with the company founders
High culture of feedback, based on which people in the company develop even more efficiently
Freedom - you can choose technologies and implement everything at your discretion. Same with making decisions
An opportunity for professional and career growth (potentially into a lead developer)

**How old is the project? What stage is it at?**

The project is already 4 years on the market, at the stage of active development. Now we are launching a B2B product from scratch - Claid.ai.

**What to do in the project?**

You can get into Integration or Web squads (depending on your background; it will be possible to determine during the interview).
It can be designing, building, and supporting backend services for our API products, preparing documentation and SDKs that make developers happy.
Developing fast and reliable image processing pipelines in collaboration with ML engineers.
Deploy this into the cloud using Kubernetes.
Occasionally help some of our amazing B2B customers with integration.

**What professional skills are important to us?**

Startup mentality, GSD (Get S..t Done) attitude, constant learning, and ambition to grow. Good communication skills.
Sense of “good enough” solutions for specific problems, when to take shortcuts, and when it’s better not. Intuitive understanding of “simple” vs. “easy”;
Understanding of compute-bound vs IO-bound load, and how to handle them in production;
Experience building web services in one of the major server-side languages. We run on Python, Flask, fastapi, and asyncio stack;
Experience with RDBMS (PostgreSQL);
Understanding of modern development practices: CI/CD, cloud computing, IaC.

**It’ll be amazing if you also have:**

Experience with ML in production;
Experience with time-series databases (Clickhouse or others);
Formal CS/math/physics background.

**Do you need English, and at what level?**

Upper-Intermediate and higher. The primary language of communication in the company is English.

**What else is important to us?**

We work remotely, have no time trackers, so it is important that the employee work autonomously in a distributed team.
The ability to build and maintain relationships with people, tolerance, respect for others, and communicate with colleagues is an integral part of our company culture. As a result, we have an atmosphere of trust and openness and expect this from future team members.
Proactive: you love to propose solutions, not just work in customized processes. We have a startup atmosphere where every idea has a direct impact on business development. We hear everyone and support the implementation of your ideas.
We are looking for a specialist for complex and challenging tasks. It's like building a public API, image processing algorithms, running neural networks.

**Why was the position opened?**

Our company is growing while developing various products, and experienced specialists are needed.

**Team size and structure?**

We have structured the team into separate squads. So now there are 2 squads, we build the 3d. We have 3 ML researchers, 6 backend developers, DevOps, 2 frontend developers, and product manager in our company. 

**Where are the people who make the technical decisions on the project?**

In Ukraine and the USA. CEO and Founder Sofia Shvets in California, responsible for business development and fundraising mostly. Founder / CTO Vlad Pranskevičius most of the time is in Kyiv. All team members are involved in making technical decisions.

**Who works for us?**

Our policy is to hire talented and smart people who become not only colleagues but also fascinating interlocutors for each other. And our current employees are people who have a lot to learn from.

**The conditions:**

Is there a trial period and how long does it last? - Trial period lasts 2 months.
Overtime, how often, what is the approach to payment? - They are not at the company level. We try to be reasonable and take care of the mental health of our employees.
What is the work schedule? - Flexible working hours (most of the team is located in the European time zone. The ideal condition thus would be the intersection of at least 50% of the working time with colleagues).
Our working time zone is 11.00-19.00 (GMT + 3)
Is it possible to work remotely? - There is an opportunity to work fully remotely, in a hybrid format or the office (if you are in Kiev).
Number of vacation days? - Unlimited vacation. The whole stake is on personal responsibility and your focus on a result.
Is there a prospect of business trips, and where? - Not foreseen soon.
Is relocation outside of Ukraine possible? - Not provided.
Social package (medical insurance, other): 
Medical insurance, paid conferences. According to the results of the probation period, you have the opportunity to participate in the options program, because we are growing now it can be very profitable. So we will be glad to tell you about all the advantages of the system at the meeting.
Office address: Kiev, Podil (2 minutes walk from metro Kontraktova)

**The process:**

Is there a test task? - No.
Interview in English? - Partially.

**How many stages of the interview?**

Intro call with a recruiter (30 min)
1.5 hours - Technical interview in question-answer format
1.5 hours - Live-coding session (close-to-real challenge that the team faces in the context of daily tasks)
30 min - HR Interview