Senior Full Stack Engineer - Core UX (Europe)

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Full Stack Engineer - Core UX (Europe)

Company: Kalepa

Location: Europe (Full Remote)

Job Type: Full-time

Category: Engineering - Full Stack / UX

Date Posted: 2026-09-03

Experience Level: 5-10 years

Remote Status: Full Remote

🚀 Role Summary

• Focus on refining existing product functionality to deliver an exceptional user experience, ensuring consistency and a cohesive look and feel across the platform.

• Implement performance improvements that directly impact end-user satisfaction and product usability.

• Collaborate with a global team of full-stack, data, ML, and DevOps engineers to build scalable backend solutions.

• Drive iterative improvements and shape the everyday experience of users through meticulous attention to layout, interactions, and visual polish.

• Contribute to the development of AI systems for the insurance industry, focusing on the user-facing aspects of these professional-grade AI tools.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the core role is Senior Full Stack Engineer, the emphasis on "Core UX" and refining product functionality indicates a strong focus on the user-facing aspects of the platform, requiring a blend of deep technical expertise and a keen eye for user experience design and implementation. The "Europe (Full Remote)" location suggests a need for asynchronous communication skills and potential collaboration across various European time zones.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Develop and enhance user interfaces using modern frontend frameworks, with a preference for React, ensuring a premium, well-crafted feel.

• Implement robust backend solutions leveraging serverless technologies (Lambda, EC2), asynchronous workflows, and cloud environments.

• Write clean, efficient, and maintainable code in Javascript, Typescript, or Python, adhering to best practices in software engineering.

• Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and other engineers to translate user needs and business requirements into high-quality technical solutions.

• Debug and resolve complex technical issues across the full stack, from the frontend to the backend and database layers.

• Contribute to system design discussions, focusing on scalability, performance, and maintainability of core product features.

• Participate in code reviews, providing constructive feedback to peers and ensuring adherence to coding standards and architectural guidelines.

• Optimize application performance, focusing on responsiveness, load times, and overall user experience.

• Stay abreast of emerging technologies and industry trends, particularly in AI, generative AI, and their application in the insurance sector, and propose innovative solutions.

• Own features from conception through deployment and ongoing maintenance, demonstrating hustle, determination, and a strong sense of ownership.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities are framed to highlight the blend of frontend polish and backend scalability expected from a Senior Full Stack Engineer focused on Core UX. Emphasis is placed on ownership, collaboration, and the iterative improvement cycle, aligning with Kalepa's values.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong academic foundation in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field is typically expected for a Senior Engineer role. Equivalent practical experience will also be considered.

Experience: 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a demonstrable track record of improving and polishing existing functionalities to deliver a premium user experience.

Required Skills:

• Proven experience in full-stack development, with significant expertise in modern frontend frameworks, preferably React.

• Proficiency in Javascript and/or Typescript for frontend development, and Javascript, Typescript, or Python for backend development.

• Strong fundamentals in system design, including microservices, APIs, and data modeling.

• Expertise in debugging complex issues across the entire software stack.

• Hands-on experience with serverless technologies such as AWS Lambda and EC2.

• Familiarity with asynchronous workflows and managing them effectively.

• Experience working with cloud environments (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP).

• Comfortable working with relational databases, with a preference for PostgreSQL.

• Ability to take full ownership of work, drive projects to completion with minimal oversight, and demonstrate hustle and grit.

• Proactive communication skills, including surfacing blockers, asking pertinent questions, and keeping stakeholders informed.

• Experience and comfort with experimentation, rapid testing, rigorous measurement, and quick iteration. Preferred Skills:

• Experience with LLMs (Large Language Models) or generative AI technologies.

• Experience with distributed systems architecture and implementation.

• Familiarity with other object-oriented programming languages.

• Understanding of CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.

• Experience in the insurance or FinTech industry.

📝 Enhancement Note: The required skills are directly extracted and elaborated from the job description, emphasizing the blend of frontend and backend expertise, cloud-native technologies, and the soft skills aligned with Kalepa's values. Preferred skills are included to provide a fuller picture of an ideal candidate.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase a minimum of 2-3 significant projects demonstrating full-stack development expertise, with a clear emphasis on user experience refinement and performance optimization.

• For each project, clearly articulate your specific role, the technologies used, and the challenges encountered.

• Provide concrete examples of how your contributions directly improved user interaction, UI polish, responsiveness, or application performance.

• Include demonstrable evidence of system design decisions and their impact on scalability and maintainability.

• Highlight experience with serverless architectures, asynchronous workflows, and cloud deployments within your project examples. Process Documentation:

• Demonstrate an understanding of iterative development processes, including rapid testing, rigorous measurement, and quick iteration cycles, ideally through project case studies.

• Illustrate your approach to debugging and problem-solving, perhaps by detailing a complex issue you resolved and the steps taken.

• Show examples of how you have collaborated with cross-functional teams (designers, product managers, other engineers) to deliver features.

• If possible, include examples of contributions to backend architecture or database schema design that improved efficiency or scalability.

📝 Enhancement Note: This section focuses on translating the "About the role" and "You'll be right at home if you" sections into tangible portfolio requirements. It emphasizes showcasing practical application of skills, particularly in UX refinement, performance, and full-stack development, aligning with the company's values of hustle, customer impact, and experimentation.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: $80,000 – $165,000 USD per year.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary (based on experience level).

• Significant equity options package, offering ownership in the company's growth.

• Comprehensive health benefits package.

• 20 days of paid time off (PTO) per year, promoting work-life balance.

• Global team offsites, fostering team cohesion and collaboration across dispersed teams.

• Phone reimbursement, covering communication costs.

• Gym reimbursement, supporting employee well-being.

• Student stipend, assisting with ongoing education and professional development.

Working Hours: A standard full-time workweek of approximately 40 hours is assumed, with flexibility inherent in a remote, global team environment. The emphasis on hustle and determination suggests a dedication to achieving goals, but also an expectation of efficient work practices.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range is directly from the job description. The benefits are a direct enumeration of provided perks. The working hours are an inference based on typical full-time roles and the company's culture, acknowledging the remote nature. The note about salary variability is included as stated in the original description.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Insurance Technology (InsurTech), specifically focused on developing AI-powered professional-grade AI systems for insurers. This is a $7T global industry undergoing significant digital transformation.

Company Size: While not explicitly stated, the description mentions a "small team where individual contributions have an outsized impact," and refers to "global team offsites" and "remote employees speaking 10+ languages across the globe." This suggests a growing, globally distributed company, likely ranging from startup to early-stage growth (e.g., 50-250 employees).

Founded: The founding date is not provided, but the context of recent offsites (2021-2025) and backing by leading investors implies a company that has moved beyond its initial seed stage and is in a growth phase.

Team Structure:

• The Core UX team is a specialized unit within a larger engineering department.

• The broader engineering team includes full-stack, data, ML, and DevOps engineers.

• The company operates with a global, distributed workforce, fostering diversity in perspectives and experiences.

• The team structure likely emphasizes autonomy and cross-functional collaboration, given the "small team" and "outsized impact" statements. Methodology:

• AI-Driven Decision Making: Core to Kalepa's mission is building AI that can perform professional work in insurance, starting with augmenting professionals and automating over time.

• Customer-Centric Development: Every feature is measured against its impact on insurers' speed, accuracy, or profitability.

• Data-Informed Iteration: The company values experimentation, rapid testing, rigorous measurement, and iteration as a key advantage.

• Transparency and Meritocracy: Open communication, challenging ideas, and rewarding excellence are central to how the team operates.

Company Website: kalepa.com

📝 Enhancement Note: This section synthesizes information from the "About Kalepa" and "Our Values" sections, translating them into operational context for an engineer. The company size and founding date are inferred based on typical startup growth trajectories and the provided context.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is positioned as a Senior Full Stack Engineer, indicating a level of technical expertise and autonomy beyond a mid-level position. It implies leadership in technical execution, mentoring junior engineers, and significant influence on architectural decisions within the Core UX domain.

Reporting Structure: As a Senior Engineer on the Core UX team, you would likely report to an Engineering Manager or Lead Engineer responsible for the UX domain or a broader product engineering group. You will collaborate closely with Product Managers, UX Designers, and fellow engineers across global teams.

Operations Impact: The Core UX team's work directly impacts the usability, performance, and adoption of Kalepa's AI products by insurers. By ensuring a premium user experience, this role contributes significantly to customer satisfaction, retention, and the overall success of Kalepa's mission to transform the insurance industry with AI. Your contributions will be instrumental in demonstrating the value and effectiveness of the AI systems.

Growth Opportunities:

• Technical Specialization: Deepen expertise in frontend technologies (React), backend development, cloud-native architectures, and potentially explore specialized areas like AI/ML integration within the UX.

• Leadership Development: Opportunity to mentor junior engineers, lead technical initiatives within the Core UX team, and contribute to architectural strategy.

• Cross-Functional Exposure: Gain experience working across different engineering disciplines (data, ML, DevOps) and with product management and design teams, broadening your understanding of the full product lifecycle.

• Impactful Projects: Work on challenging, novel problems in the InsurTech space, contributing to products that have real-world impact on a massive industry.

• Career Progression: Potential to advance into Lead Engineer, Staff Engineer, or Engineering Manager roles within Kalepa as the company scales.

📝 Enhancement Note: This analysis is based on the "Senior" title, the "Core UX" focus, and the company's stated values and growth trajectory. It aims to provide a clear picture of the role's positioning and potential career paths within Kalepa.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Fully Remote. Kalepa embraces a distributed workforce, enabling employees to work from anywhere within Europe (for this specific role).

Office Location(s): While the role is remote within Europe, Kalepa does have an office in NY and organizes global offsites in various international locations (e.g., Lisbon, Cartagena, Buenos Aires). This indicates a hybrid approach to fostering in-person connection.

Workspace Context:

• Global Collaboration: Expect to work with colleagues across various time zones, requiring strong asynchronous communication skills and a flexible approach to scheduling meetings.

• Technology-Centric: The environment is built around cutting-edge AI and software development, providing access to modern tools and technologies.

• Collaborative Culture: Despite being remote, the company emphasizes transparency, experimentation, and challenging ideas, fostering an environment where contributions are valued and discussed openly.

• Focus on Impact: The workspace is geared towards individuals who are driven by delivering tangible customer impact and solving complex problems.

Work Schedule: While the core workday might align with typical business hours in Europe for synchronous collaboration, the remote and global nature implies a degree of flexibility. The emphasis on "hustle and determination" suggests a commitment to achieving goals, which may involve working outside standard hours when necessary, balanced by the autonomy of a remote role.

📝 Enhancement Note: This section extrapolates from the "Full Remote (Europe)" location and the company's emphasis on global teams and offsites, painting a picture of a modern, distributed work environment.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A recruiter or hiring manager will review your application and resume, assessing for core qualifications and alignment with Kalepa's values.

• Technical Assessment (Core UX Focus): Expect a technical interview or coding challenge that evaluates your proficiency in frontend frameworks (e.g., React), Javascript/Typescript, and system design principles relevant to building polished user experiences. This may involve live coding or a take-home assignment.

• System Design / Architecture Discussion: A deeper dive into your experience with system design, cloud technologies, serverless architectures, and asynchronous workflows. You'll likely discuss past projects and architectural decisions.

• Behavioral / Values Interview: This crucial stage assesses your fit with Kalepa's core values (Hustle, Customer Impact, Meritocracy, Transparency, Experimentation). Prepare to provide specific examples from your experience that demonstrate these values.

• Final Interview: A discussion with senior leadership or a founding team member to assess overall fit, strategic thinking, and long-term potential.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate for UX Impact: Select projects that clearly demonstrate your ability to refine user interfaces, improve performance, and create a polished user experience. Quantify the impact where possible (e.g., "reduced load time by X%", "improved conversion rate by Y%").

• Showcase Full-Stack Breadth: Ensure your portfolio includes examples of both frontend implementation and backend architecture/development, highlighting your full-stack capabilities.

• Detail Your Role and Contribution: Be explicit about your specific responsibilities and contributions within each project, especially in team-based efforts.

• Highlight Problem-Solving and Experimentation: Showcase instances where you tackled complex problems, experimented with solutions, and iterated based on results, aligning with Kalepa's values.

• Technical Depth: Be prepared to discuss the technical rationale behind your design choices, technology selections, and implementation strategies.

Challenge Preparation:

• Practice Coding Challenges: Familiarize yourself with common full-stack coding interview problems, focusing on areas like algorithm implementation, data structures, and API design.

• System Design Scenarios: Prepare to design scalable systems, considering factors like data storage, API endpoints, user authentication, and performance optimization.

• Value-Based Storytelling: Rehearse specific anecdotes that illustrate how you embody Kalepa's values. Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to structure your responses.

• Understand Kalepa's Business: Research Kalepa's mission, the insurance industry, and the role of AI in transforming it. Be ready to discuss how your skills contribute to their strategic goals.

📝 Enhancement Note: This section provides actionable advice tailored to a Senior Full Stack Engineer role with a UX focus, emphasizing the need to demonstrate technical skill, problem-solving ability, and alignment with Kalepa's unique cultural values.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Frontend Framework: React (preferred), with strong understanding of modern Javascript/Typescript.

• Backend Languages: Javascript, Typescript, Python (or strong OO background).

• Cloud Infrastructure: AWS is heavily implied through "serverless technologies (Lambda, EC2)" and "cloud environments."

• Databases: Relational databases, specifically PostgreSQL.

Analytics & Reporting:

• While not explicitly listed, expect to work with tools for monitoring application performance, user behavior, and potentially A/B testing results. This could include tools like Datadog, New Relic, Sentry, Google Analytics, or internal dashboarding solutions. CRM & Automation:

• Not directly applicable to this engineering role, but understanding how the product integrates with client CRM systems or internal workflows might be beneficial. The focus is on building the core product, not managing CRM operations. Other Technologies:

• Serverless: AWS Lambda, EC2.

• Asynchronous Workflows: Understanding of message queues (e.g., SQS, Kafka) or similar patterns.

• Potential Future Tools: Experience with LLMs/Generative AI, distributed systems.

📝 Enhancement Note: This section consolidates the technical requirements mentioned in the job description, categorizing them for clarity and adding context about potential related tools not explicitly stated but implied by the role's nature and industry.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Hustle and Determination: Expect to take full ownership of your craft, relentlessly pursue excellence with speed, and tackle challenging problems without giving up. This is foundational to how work gets done and how success is achieved.

• Deliver Customer Impact: Every contribution is measured by its ability to help insurers make better decisions, driving speed, accuracy, or profitability. A deep focus on customer outcomes is paramount.

• Meritocracy: Kalepa hires and rewards exceptional people and ideas. A high bar is set, and excellence is recognized with rapid growth and opportunities.

• Transparency: Honest, transparent communication is valued over politics. Ideas are challenged, not people, fostering an environment where truth-seeking and problem-solving are prioritized.

• Experiment Relentlessly: Embrace a culture of testing quickly, measuring rigorously, and iterating to find solutions to novel problems. Speed of learning is a key competitive advantage.

Collaboration Style:

• Global and Distributed: Collaboration occurs across continents and time zones, requiring proactive asynchronous communication and a flexible approach to synchronous interactions.

• Cross-Functional Integration: Engineers work closely with product managers, designers, ML engineers, and data scientists to build cohesive AI solutions.

• Open Feedback Culture: The emphasis on transparency and challenging ideas suggests a culture where constructive feedback is regularly exchanged, driving continuous improvement.

• Ownership-Driven: Individuals are empowered to take ownership, which fosters a collaborative environment where people support each other in achieving shared goals.

📝 Enhancement Note: This section directly elaborates on Kalepa's explicitly stated values and implied collaboration style, framing them within the context of a remote, global engineering team focused on AI and InsurTech.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Solving Novel Problems: Many challenges in building AI for insurance have not been solved before, requiring significant innovation and a willingness to navigate ambiguity.

• Balancing Polish with Speed: As a Senior Engineer on Core UX, you'll need to balance the desire for meticulous UI polish and performance with the company's value of rapid experimentation and iteration.

• Global Asynchronous Collaboration: Effectively collaborating with a globally distributed team across different time zones presents inherent communication and coordination challenges.

• Scaling Core Product Functionality: As Kalepa grows, ensuring the core product remains scalable, performant, and maintains its high-quality user experience will be an ongoing challenge.

• Integrating AI into User Workflows: Bridging the gap between complex AI capabilities and intuitive, user-friendly interfaces for insurance professionals is a significant technical and design challenge.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Deep Dive into InsurTech AI: Gain unparalleled experience in applying AI and machine learning to real-world problems in the massive insurance industry.

• Mastering Modern Frontend & Backend Stacks: Continuously hone skills in React, Typescript, serverless, and cloud technologies within a high-impact environment.

• Leadership and Mentorship: Opportunities to grow into technical leadership roles, mentor junior engineers, and influence architectural direction.

• Cross-Disciplinary Learning: Exposure to ML, data science, and DevOps practices within a tightly integrated engineering team.

• Industry Recognition: Contribute to a product that is actively transforming a major global industry, potentially leading to significant professional growth and industry recognition.

📝 Enhancement Note: This section identifies potential challenges inherent in the role and company context, linking them to growth opportunities that leverage Kalepa's values and the nature of its work.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• Technical Depth & UX Focus: Be prepared for questions on how you've improved user experience through code, specific examples of performance optimizations you've implemented, and your approach to building responsive and polished UIs with React.

• System Design & Scalability: Expect scenarios asking you to design scalable backend systems, microservices, or APIs, with a focus on cloud-native principles, serverless technologies, and handling asynchronous tasks.

• Problem-Solving & Debugging: Be ready to walk through a complex bug you've solved, detailing your diagnostic process, the root cause, and your resolution.

• Ownership & Initiative: Prepare stories that showcase your hustle, determination, and ability to take full ownership of projects from start to finish with minimal oversight.

Company & Culture Questions:

• Value Alignment: Prepare specific examples (using the STAR method) that demonstrate how you embody Kalepa's values: Hustle, Customer Impact, Meritocracy, Transparency, and Experimentation. Be ready to discuss why these values resonate with you.

• Motivation for InsurTech/AI: Articulate your interest in the insurance industry, AI, and Kalepa's specific mission.

• Collaboration in Remote Teams: Discuss your experience working in distributed teams and your strategies for effective asynchronous communication and collaboration.

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Quantify Impact: Whenever possible, use metrics to demonstrate the success of your projects, especially those related to UX improvements and performance gains.

• Tell a Story: Frame your project walk-throughs as narratives, highlighting the problem, your approach, the solution, and the impact.

• Focus on Your Role: Clearly articulate your specific contributions and decision-making processes, especially in team projects.

• Technical Rationale: Be ready to explain the "why" behind your technical choices, demonstrating a deep understanding of the technologies used.

• Visual Aids: If possible, use diagrams or screenshots to illustrate your points and make your presentation more engaging.

📝 Enhancement Note: This section provides targeted preparation advice for a Senior Full Stack Engineer role, emphasizing the need to demonstrate technical prowess, cultural fit with Kalepa's specific values, and strong communication skills during the interview process.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior Full Stack Engineer position:

• Submit your application through the Kalepa careers portal via the provided Greenhouse link.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 key projects that best showcase your full-stack expertise, with a strong emphasis on UX refinement, performance optimization, and successful UI implementation. Prioritize projects where you can quantify impact.

• Tailor Your Resume: Highlight experience in React, Javascript/Typescript, Python, serverless technologies (Lambda, EC2), PostgreSQL, and system design. Clearly articulate your 5+ years of experience and any contributions to improving user experience. Use keywords from the job description.

• Prepare Your Value Stories: Rehearse specific examples using the STAR method that demonstrate your alignment with Kalepa's core values: Hustle, Customer Impact, Meritocracy, Transparency, and Experimentation.

• Research Kalepa: Understand their mission to build AI for insurance, their product offerings, and their unique culture. Be prepared to discuss why you are excited about this specific opportunity and company.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.

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