Senior Software Engineer

## About the Role Ascend is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join our team on-site in San Francisco to help expand our core product. As an Engineer at Ascend, you'll be part of a small but growing team focused on solving complex technical challenges using Ruby. You'll also interface directly with our customers and work cross-functionally to develop new product features, dashboards, and checkout processes—without any layers. ## Responsibilities ### Objective #1: In your first 30 days - Understand Ascend's platform, product, and customer workflows by collaborating with team members and engaging with customers - Contribute to user-facing projects using Ruby on Rails and Next.js - Partner with product managers and designers to solve customer challenges directly ### Objective #2: In your first 60 days - Take ownership of end-to-end features that process millions in insurance premiums using Ruby on Rails - Build intuitive UIs with Next.js to power financial operations - Develop internal tools to streamline customer workflows - Maintain high product quality through proactive monitoring and continuous improvements ### Objective #3: In your first 90 days and beyond - Collaborate with customers to translate their needs into scalable solutions for the multi-trillion-dollar insurance industry - Develop the industry's leading point-of-sale system for insurance, enabling seamless payments and improving conversion rates - Automate back-office tasks with AI, reducing time and improving accuracy for accounting teams - Help shape technical architecture and processes as the platform scales - Mentor engineers through thoughtful code reviews and technical guidance ## Requirements - 4+ years of experience as a Full Stack or Backend Engineer - 2+ years working in a growth-stage startup - Experience with relational databases - Experience building and scaling consumer products - A strong desire to learn new skills and solve business problems ## Nice to Have - Familiarity or interest in learning Ruby on Rails and Next.js - Familiarity with building external APIs and integrations with platforms such as Salesforce - Experience in building payment, checkout, or insurance products ## Tech Stack & Processes - Ruby on Rails API hosted on Heroku - Next.js with TypeScript hosted on Vercel - Tailwind CSS across all the frontend - Postgres and Redis for storage - Continuous integration and delivery