Senior Engineer, Zum

Backend Platform

$180-220k

+bonus and equity

Kubernetes
Python
Java
Kafka
Node.js
Postgres
Segment
Datadog
Senior level
San Francisco Bay Area

Office located in Redwood City, CA

Zum

Student transportation services

Open for applications

Zum

Student transportation services

101-200 employees

B2BArtificial IntelligenceLogisticsTransportRidesharing

Open for applications

$180-220k

+bonus and equity

Kubernetes
Python
Java
Kafka
Node.js
Postgres
Segment
Datadog
Senior level
San Francisco Bay Area

Office located in Redwood City, CA

101-200 employees

B2BArtificial IntelligenceLogisticsTransportRidesharing

Company mission

To bring student transportation into a new age enabling equality, innovation, efficiency, and sustainability.

Role

Who you are

  • Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science or equivalent degrees
  • 5+ years industry experience as a Software Engineer
  • Experience in building enterprise software platforms
  • Hands-on architecture design and coding skills
  • Experience working with relational and non-relational databases
  • Excellence in one or more programming languages - Node.js, Java, Python
  • Hands-on experience with deploying and managing apps on the cloud - AWS/Google
  • Strong technical experience and eagerness to establish good engineering practices
  • Good planning, organization, and decision-making skills
  • Good communication with engineers, product managers, and other stakeholders
  • Good sense of humor with a great ability to work with others

What the job involves

  • You will have opportunities for hands-on contribution in building Zum’s technology platform
  • You will be the owner of one or more backend platform verticals
  • You will get to build customer-facing product features and build/expand platform capabilities as you see fit for your needs to deliver business value
  • You will get to build and optimize CI/CD pipeline
  • You will build microservices with the latest technologies like Kubernetes, Kafka, Postgres, gRPC, etc
  • You will get to actively contribute towards establishing good engineering practices - write high-quality, maintainable, testable and scalable code, and perform code reviews
  • You will develop applications to improve visibility and traceability across the system using tools like Datadog, Rollbar, Segment, etc

Our take

The largest mass transit system in the US is student transportation, and it’s more than double the size of all others combined. It’s rife with inefficiencies, however: circuitous routes mean many students are spending more time travelling and less time sleeping, exercising, or participating in enrichment activities, affecting student outcomes and inequalities.

Zum is looking to overhaul school transport with the help of cloud computing and AI. It has a central hub from which it manages route planning and vehicle assignments across 4,000 areas and school districts in California, meaning fleet deployment, maintenance, and operational efficiency can be optimised. It also offers cameras and tracking in vehicles, and is committed to having a fully electric, 10,000-strong bus fleet by 2025.

This is an ambitious plan, but it’s clear that the US school busing system is in dire need of an overhaul. We’re seeing startups like Via offer a similar service to NY schools, gathering similarly strong momentum. With Zum fast approaching Unicorn status, and its California roll-out continuing without a hitch, it appears for now to be leading the modern student transportation startup pack.

Kirsty headshot

Kirsty

Company Specialist

Insights

Led by a woman
Top investors

Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks

18% employee growth in 12 months

Company

Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)

Jun 2024

$32m

GRANT

Jan 2024

$140m

SERIES E

Total funding: $368.8m

Company benefits

  • Medical, dental and vision benefits, including paid membership to One Medical
  • Unlimited vacation policy
  • Free daily catered lunches + fully stocked kitchen at HQ
  • Ability to have a huge impact at an early-stage, mission-driven startup
  • Fun office culture and a team you would be proud to work with

Company values

  • Customer Obsessed - We obsess about our customers’ needs. We delight and wow them by going above and beyond. We work diligently to gain and keep their trust
  • Think Big. Execute Meticulously - We think big. We scale hurdles, and we invent new paths. We're never satisfied. We're agile. We're always moving; we're always delivering with speed
  • Do Things The Right Way - We hold the highest integrity and always do what's right, regardless of what it takes
  • Build Better Communities - We’re committed to our mission of helping families and schools realize their full potential

Company HQ

Redwood Shores, Redwood City, CA

Leadership

Worked as a Lead Product Manager at Yahoo!, eBay, then took up a Sloan Fellowship at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Spent over a decade as a Major in the Indian Army, then went on to found and lead BAPAR, before taking up a Researcher role at Stanford University's SEED Institute.

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