Thanks to their solid knowledge base on both the front and back end of software development, full-stack engineering has become an increasingly popular position within tech organizations over the past few years.
Being able to work across the stack on a daily basis can result in a newfound nimbleness, as engineers can jump into any project at any given time. For example, at digital media company Cameo, full-stack developers work on the application, website and back end, often at the same time. “Whether it’s implementing a new feature end to end or chasing a bug that spans layers of the system, full-stack engineers are our strength,” Software Engineer Nina Chaubal said.
Built In LA caught up with Chabual and Kyle Boss, a software engineer at social media app Tinder, to learn how full-stack engineers at each of their companies work across the stack on a daily basis.
At social media app Tinder, Software Engineer Kyle Boss said that if something piques full-stack developers’ interest, they’re given the tools and independence to take that idea and bring it to life.
What role does a full stack-developer typically play at your company?
At Tinder, full-stack developers typically work with JavaScript (mainly React at the moment), HTML and CSS. However, if going deeper down the stack piques your interest, we have plenty of AWS microservices that we love to innovate and tinker with.
Our full-stack developers will undoubtedly work on large scale, impactful projects. To be able to accomplish this, our team is given the tools and independence to take an idea — whether it be from a Jira ticket to a back-of-the-napkin drawing — and bring it to life. If we have an idea to improve our build process, we have AWS sandboxes that engineers experiment with. If we want to experiment with the latest and greatest JavaScript framework, new projects come by often (yes, even greenfield ones!) and they are great opportunities to innovate.
Overall, we try to cultivate an environment that embraces each person’s strength.
Our full-stack developers will undoubtedly work on large scale, impactful projects.”
What’s an interesting project you’re currently working on?
While Tinder is a native app, it can also be used on the web at Tinder.com. This means our full-stack developers get to work on core features that are accessed by millions of members worldwide. We also have the ability to work on high-visibility, greenfield projects that support our marketing efforts.
In fact, I recently wrapped up working on a website for Tinder’s interactive video experience, Swipe Night. To keep up with the latest technology trends, the web team decided to generate the entire site, statically, using Gatsby. This gives us many benefits such as being serverless, but it also introduces some unique challenges. For example, a lot of work that is usually done on run-time is pushed to the build for static sites. This means our build times for some larger projects are rather long, so we try to reduce the amount of time it takes for the build to complete and have our changes go live to production.
That said, every line of code we write has an impact on visitors across the world, so it’s meaningful and rewarding work. Our full-stack developers are able to make great web apps in such a way that internationalization, accessibility and performance are baked into every project.
Cameo is a digital media company that enables consumers to book personalized video messages from their favorite pop-culture icons. Full-stack engineers often work on the mobile app, website and back end at the same time, Software Engineer Nina Chaubal said.
What role does a full-stack developer typically play at your company?
On the fan experience team, we take a project that impacts our fans and run through walls to make it happen. We’re working on the Cameo app, the website and our back end, often at the same time. While everyone on our team has their areas of expertise, our ability to roll up our sleeves and work on whatever part of our system is appropriate for the problem at hand makes us an effective team. Whether it’s implementing a new feature end to end or chasing a bug that spans layers of the system, full-stack engineers are our strength.
Whether it’s implementing a new feature end to end or chasing a bug that spans layers of the system, full-stack engineers are our strength.”
What’s an interesting project you’re currently working on?
I’ve been working on sharing Cameo videos to social platforms. It’s an interesting technical challenge to build and test a consistent experience across various apps a fan may share a Cameo to. My favorite part of working on this particular project is that we get to build a richer experience for fans engaging with our app while also impacting the virality of the content each of our talent makes.
