You and Northwestern Mutual. We believe relationships are built on trust. That our lives and our work matter. And we’re much stronger together than we are apart. These beliefs launched our company nearly 160 years ago. Today, they’re just a few of the reasons why people choose to build careers at Northwestern Mutual.

Our business is about helping people secure their financial futures, and that starts with putting people first – our clients, our employees and our field representatives. Northwestern Mutual is known for financial strength. We’re strong, innovative and growing. Come grow with us.

At Northwestern Mutual, we believe relationships are built on trust. That our lives and our work matter. These beliefs launched our company nearly 160 years ago. Today, they're just a few of the reasons why people choose to build careers at Northwestern Mutual.

We're strong and growing. In a company with such a long and storied history, this may be the most exciting and important time to be a part of Northwestern Mutual. We're strong, innovative and growing.

We invest in our people. We provide opportunities for employees to grow themselves, their career and in turn, our business.

We care.  We make a positive difference in our communities. Nationally, thousands have benefitted from our support of research and programs to fight childhood cancer. Each year, our Foundation, employees and financial representatives donate time, talent and financial support to causes they're passionate about.

We are an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Position: Backend Software Engineer

To support our growing team, we are looking for a Software Engineer: You’re the right fit if you’re the best of the best and have yet to meet a problem you couldn’t solve, the kind of programmer that stays up late until you find that perfect bit of code that works. We need someone that loves to write elegant code but more than that, is passionate about making things work. We need a coder who’s eager to grow but already sees things through the eyes of an architect - someone who keeps the big picture in mind no matter the task. We need a developer that always codes with performance, scalability, and concurrency in mind. We need a hacker who reads code like a book and enjoys digging into unfamiliar source, and we’d love if you were someone who can debug another’s code as easily as you can debug your own.  We need an engineer who is not afraid to dive into shell scripts, config files and virtual machines and whatever else is needed.

You will be working on the systems that provide the future visions of the client and planner experiences for Northwestern Mutual.  The team is split between the home office in Milwaukee and New York office (Learnvest).  Because of this split, occasional trips to the New York office will be available and highly encouraged (but not required).

Your general milestones are as follows:

• Within the first month – while working with engineers on the teams, be able to jump head-first into new applications and ask the appropriate questions / do the appropriate research to identify the general functions and behaviors of the system.  Begin contributing to minor backlog items.

• Within three months – have proficient knowledge of the baseline applications and be able to take the reins around backlog items and appropriately spec and develop code to contribute directly to the GIT repositories.  Be able to dive into the overall application distribution architectures and navigate the cloud environments in which they run.

• Within six months – be able to navigate the full stack of the applications and supporting components, contributing directly to engineering discussions that affect the current and future state of the applications.  Essentially, contributing to the team at your full capacity.

Competencies

• Fast learner and self-starter.  The people you will work with are incredibly kind and extremely willing to share knowledge and a helping hand, but you have to be willing to take ownership of the outlined goals and make things happen.
• Technical, must enjoy getting your hands dirty above and beyond the Java platform.
• Ability to take initiative and work with minimal supervision, yet actively interact with other team members in person or over the Internet (chat, videoconference, email).
• Work collaboratively on creative solutions with engineers, product managers and designers in an agile like environment.
• Bring new ideas and new ways of solving problems to the team.

Education / Professional Experience

Bachelor's degree or Associate's degree in Computer Science or a related field.

4 to 6 years professional development experience in Java.

Experience with REST / SOAP services and clients.

Working knowledge of front end components and frameworks such as React and Node.

Working knowledge of the Spring Framework and JUnit.

Experience writing and debugging multithreaded Java applications.

Experience with Github for source code management.

Our Mission at LearnVest:

Widely recognized as a disruptive player in the personal finance industry, LearnVest is an award-winning subscription-based program designed to help people make progress on their money. The company combines a dedicated planner with innovative technology to help make financial planning affordable, accessible and even delightful.

LearnVest previously raised more than $72MM in venture-funding led by Accel Partners, American Express Ventures and others. The company has been awarded numerous accolades, including one of Time’s “50 Best Websites,” 3 years running Best of Show awards at FinovateFall 2011, 2012 and 2013, and a Forbes cover story hailing LearnVest as an “outlier.” On [May 11], 2015, LearnVest was acquired by The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (“Northwestern”) and is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northwestern.

Req ID: 6742
Position Type: Regular Full Time
Education Experience: Bachelor's Required
Employment Experience: 3-5 years
Licenses/Certifications: None
FLSA Status: Exempt
Posting Date: 06/06/2016