Senior Software Engineer - Ruby on Rails

Job Description

We’re looking for smart and creative thinkers who care deeply about finding new and innovative ways to address old problems. As a Software Engineer at ZestFinance, you’ll use Ruby on Rails along with Agile development methods to develop applications and systems that are the foundation of our business.

The ideal candidate should think of herself/himself as a startup-minded engineer ready to take ownership and make large, immediate contributions. You can truly think through the product and have a strong influence on features, designs and roadmaps, developing smart and intuitive business systems. You are ready and willing to tackle anything that might come up within the development realm.

 Specifically, you will:

• Design, scope and implement new systems and features - from financial transaction processing to innovative event-driven customer relationship management workflow processes
• Work with Product Management, Marketing and Business to define features, priorities and timelines
• Help us continue to improve on our commitment to the Agile principles, focusing on test-driven development, pairing and continuous process improvement
• Lead and mentor other team members and act as a subject matter expert in your field

• Bachelor’s degree, preferably in CS or related discipline.  Advanced degree preferred
• 5+ years of experience designing and developing high volume transactional web applications including 2.5 years experience using RoR
• Experience working with common Internet technologies (e.g. Linux, MySQL, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, AJAX)
• Broad industry knowledge - comfortable with concepts like REST and tools like Cucumber, CoffeeScript, Backbone, Chef and Amazon Web Services
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, especially the ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical audience
• Good understanding of the financial services industry
• Strong work ethic and a collaborative can-do attitude

Why ZestFinance?

• We’re socially conscious and passionate about saving the underbanked billions of dollars
• We’re Agile: We have short iterations, developing and releasing features every week.  We move fast and adapt to stay with business changes
• We're Balanced: We work hard but smart. Our experienced team can build market-leading systems and do it fast - all without 15-hour days
• You’ll have fun: from Flex hours to catered lunches and more, Zestians enjoy what they do and the people they do it with

Based in Hollywood, CA, ZestFinance was founded by Douglas Merrill - the former CIO of Google - along with a handful of ex-Googlers and Capital One folks to bring social responsibility to the consumer loan industry. 

Traditionally, underwriting has used a handful of variables. ZestFinance takes an entirely different approach to underwriting using machine learning and large-scale big data analysis.

With a team of some of the world’s best data scientists from Google and lending experts from Capital One, ZestFinance analyzes thousands of potential credit variables – everything from financial information to technology usage – to better assess factors like the potential for fraud, the risk of default, and the viability of a long-term customer relationship.

ZestFinance offers excellent benefits, including health/dental/vision/life insurance, unlimited vacation, we contribute to your 401K, provide paid parking, reimburse for cell phone, home broadband, and gym memberships.  All this and free lunch & snacks as well!