What it means to be a software engineer at Leapsome (by a software engineer at Leapsome)

Software engineers are at the core of any modern tech company. Still, each engineer’s role may vary widely depending on the company’s model and its culture. Knowing this, it’s natural that a software developer is curious about how things are structured in other organizations.

That’s why we decided to give you a broad idea of what it means to be a software engineer at Leapsome — by a software engineer at Leapsome.

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Jacks & Jills of all trades

Software engineers at Leapsome are mostly generalists, but also have one or more areas of expertise. This way, we all possess enough knowledge to be productive in all parts of our stack, but we also complement one another with that extra expertise.

Besides the usual suspects like code reviews and extensive documentation, software engineers are invited to join weekly knowledge-sharing sessions to ensure we learn from one another. These sessions allow engineers to holistically showcase something they’re especially familiar with and enrich their colleagues’ understanding of that specific product area and implementation details.

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Expertise in a particular part of our stack comes in handy for technical leadership and mentoring. In short, we value diverse knowledge, and Jacks and Jills (and everyone in between, above, and beyond) come together as a unit that’s not afraid to tackle even the most complex challenge.

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Not only software engineers: product engineers

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As already mentioned, each tech product has its structure and needs. For us, it means product and engineering aren’t separate areas. Our developers are part of Leapsome’s Product & Engineering team, encompassing all roles directly working on the product.

Engineers are not only expected to build the product but also to manage it. This includes prioritizing tasks, involving other stakeholders (sales, customer success, marketing) when needed, participating in user research, and shadowing client calls to further understand our end-users.

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With business acumen, software engineers are trusted to make sound product decisions and take ownership of the features they build. That translates into understanding what our users need and proposing functional solutions. In some cases, we draw up loosely structured plans and ask the team for feedback.

Writing code that upholds an exceptional standard and delivering impactful features at high velocity is still a substantial part of our role as software engineers. Still, readiness to manage the product is no less essential.

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Detectives, not firefighters

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Even though software engineers are expected to wear many hats, a firefighter’s helmet isn’t one you’d wear often. 

We place a strong emphasis on building a reliable product. When bugs arise, fixing the root cause and ensuring it doesn’t happen again is what guides our decisions. We achieve this through a strong culture of feedback, automated quality assurance, and blameless postmortems.

Building a reliable product goes hand in hand with finding the root cause for every bug. There are no ghosts in the machine. This makes Leapsome engineers more like detectives than firefighters.

Ensuring our product is reliable not only benefits our business but also serves as a bedrock for a healthy work-life balance.

Value ambassadors

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As for all roles at Leapsome, software engineers are expected to embody our values:

Seek impact

What brought us together is the desire to make work fulfilling for everyone. We’re like-minded in that we seek out and hold ourselves accountable to the impact we want to have in this world.

Listen & learn

We thoroughly and genuinely seek understanding. It helps us constantly grow together and learn from each other, as well as from our customers and partners.

Challenge the status quo

We regularly challenge ourselves. We don’t walk the beaten path just because everyone else does. Instead, we reflect, challenge, and seek out better ways.

Take ownership & pursue excellence

We’re a group of smart and dedicated people. Therefore, we trust each other to truly own our work. We’re not afraid of high expectations as we strive for excellence.

Be honest & transparent

We’re honest and transparent with each other and ourselves. We want to get to the core of it, always. We trust each other to handle all shared information with care.

Be kind & humble

We are more than just colleagues — we genuinely care for each other. We give each other the appreciation we deserve and the support we need. We have no interest in serving our own egos.

In our day-to-day, these values translate into a growth-oriented culture with high psychological safety, a strong employee net promoter score (eNPS), and deeply meaningful work.

— by the way, we’re hiring!

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