Our impact-driven tech community is looking for a backend developer who is motivated by working on software and solutions that make a measurable effect on business.

Who we are

Columbia Road builds seamless and commercially effective customer journeys that create impact. We help our clients get more revenue and more customers, but also to sell better. 

Our tight-knit team consists of business consultants who understand software and of highly talented business-driven design and technology specialists. We believe that technology is a tool that we need to master, but the actual business impact of the service is the first thing we want to understand and select proper tooling after that. 

Currently, we have over 20 nationalities working in the company and the official language is English. We believe in giving a lot of responsibility and freedom to our employees. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the heart of our essence and everyone at Columbia Road is committed to these values.

Take a look at our Culture Code to get to know us better. Columbia Road is a part of the Futurice family of companies. 

The job & what you’d be working on

As a backend developer consultant, you will work in a high-impact role in the core of our clients’ businesses. You will be a trusted advisor to client stakeholders and your contribution will have a significant effect on the client’s success.

You will be using different languages in the backend and work closely with the clients’ infrastructure. You will navigate cloud environments (AWS, Azure or GCP) and play an essential role in API development (REST, GraphQL, SOAP). You will design and improve backend systems, including their database models and integrations and work closely together with frontend devs to devise the optimal API designs in an iterative manner. You're able to describe where monolithic architecture works better than a microservice system, as you may have firsthand experience from them both.

You enjoy working in the world of integrations and you are ready to jump into leveraging integration platforms (e.g. Boomi, Mulesoft) - if that’s what the client needs. You enjoy diving into business problems - not just the technical ones. You are able to see business needs behind the technical requirements.

Your ability to navigate through complex backend structures is essential, yet this role extends beyond traditional backend development. We seek a developer who can embrace the full-stack aspect of our work, although we don’t expect you to master all layers. In the end, no backend solution lives for itself.

Roadies work as diverse teams of digital experts, tailored to each project. The more experience you have, the more you'll be able to take responsibility for your client projects and coach other Roadies. You’d often be responsible for the completion of a challenging project or activities in which you take ownership of a team. 

Columbia Road’s focus on digital sales still means that we are tackling a large variety of projects ranging from ecommerce platforms and data platform projects to site optimisation and mobile development. To mention a few:

• We help Elisa run modern online sales in a fully integrated team
• We helped Vahterus on their digital sales transformation journey
• We worked with Posti on a scalable e-commerce platform

Our ways of working

As we believe that best results arise from employee freedom, all teams have wide latitude to choose the best tools and ways of working for themselves and the people in the client organization. Even as your focus is likely on some part of backend and integrations, we value people who aren’t too afraid to get their hands dirty with the other areas when necessary.

All of our consultants work directly with client stakeholders to build a good understanding of their business and its challenges. While development is probably where most of your time goes, we are in the business of creating impact for our clients, and that means spending some time to understand how the business functions. 

Read more about how we code and design high performing digital sales channels. When it comes to remote versus on-site, we are flexible and always work according to what’s best for our clients - we hope that you can commit to spending at least a few days a week at our client’s premises.

We offer a wide range of learning opportunities as continuous learning is one of our core values, therefore you will be offered various learning opportunities in your daily work as well as internal learning events, trainings and meetups to share and enlarge your knowledge.

Requirements

Expertise that will help you thrive in this position:

• Broad experience in building web services
• At least four years of experience in backend development. Languages and frameworks familiar to you could include two or more of the following: Java, Scala, Python, C#, .NET, or PHP
• Past experience of APIs (e.g. REST, SOAP, GraphQL) 
• Past experience of relational and NoSQL databases
• Past experience or general understanding of cloud infrastructure, e.g. Azure, AWS, Google Cloud Platform
• General knowledge of the entire web development process (design, development, deployment, operations)
• Great communication skills
• Analytical mindset and problem-solving skills
• Past experience in consulting or digital commerce would be very valuable but is not necessary

Experience in the following is considered a bonus, but not required:

• JavaScript, TypeScript
• Previous experience with integration platforms such as Boomi and Mulesoft
• Previous experience in data engineering (data warehousing, data pipelines)
• Interest towards data engineering

Recruitment process

The recruitment process usually has 1-3 steps during which we get to know who you are and what motivates you. You will learn more about Columbia Road and get to meet different people from our company. You'll have the opportunity to present highlights from your career and tell us about your skills, roles, and learnings.

We’re committed to creating a good match between you and our organisation, and want to spend time to get it right. When we’re done with the face-to-face discussions, we’ll contact the people you have chosen as references.

We hope to hear from you soon!

Benefits

• A community-led organization with a high level of autonomy
• As a Columbia Road employee, you have the option to buy stocks of the company through the common employee share program
• A yearly bonus based on company performance (equal to all full-time Roadies)
• Recurring training and learning sessions to support your professional growth
• A diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace
• Offices in downtown Helsinki (with gym and pool) and Tampere
• Pick the laptop, phone of your choosing
• Extensive health care services, including dental and mental health
• Insurance for travel and free-time
• Lunch benefit
• Phone benefit
• Weekly breakfasts and healthy daily refreshments
• Flexible vouchers for sports, culture, commuting, and massage
• Option to have a bicycle salary alternative as a part of total compensation
• Recurring Roadie-ideated events and activities
• Childcare services when your child falls ill
• A possibility to book the office for private events during the weekends
• Compensation for working on open source or social programs in your free time