Software Developer (Full Stack)

About the role

This is your chance to join a fast-track insurtech venture on a mission to take the commercial (re)insurance placement workflow into the 21st century and beyond. 

As a key member of our engineering team, you will be working as part of a cross-functional team to drive our core features from start to finish. This will include contributing to defining technical requirements, influencing technical direction and design, UX designs, and implementation of these features. You will also contribute to the research, suggestion and selection of future technologies that can further enhance our product offering.

Our teams have a high degree of autonomy and ownership and we are looking for candidates who can work with minimal supervision.

About Relay Platform (“Relay”)

Building the next generation of technology for the placement of specialty Commercial Lines insurance and reinsurance, Relay works with forward-looking brokerages to help them sell and renew more policies faster.

Relay is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with extensive operations in the US. In August 2022, Relay was acquired by At-Bay, a fast-growing U.S. provider of cyber insurance. Relay was selected by the prestigious Insurtech100 list in 2020 and 2021, and won several other awards such as top 10 Insurtech by Plug and Play, Reaction’s Innovator of the Year, and Assuretech Startup of the Year in 2022.

Our Company Culture

We promote a highly progressive environment to allow our teammates to reach their full potential. Our innovative culture is anchored in four pillars: inclusion, empathy, customer excellence, and agility.

We offer a “work from anywhere, anytime you prefer” policy, along with competitive compensation packages including benefits and stock options.

Additionally, we offer digital team-building events, on-demand remote-work locations, team gatherings in attractive locations (post-covid), and we support our team’s aspirations, regardless of whether they overlap with our commercial objectives or not.

What you’ll do

• Create an extraordinary experience by developing a world-class product addressing key pain points in a large market; 
• Design and develop on a Ruby on Rails backend application along with microservices written in Golang, Node.js, and Python;
• Design and develop a React-based application, delivering a streamlined, elegant front-end experience;
• Integrate with a wide range of external systems using a range of different technologies, and built out our platform to 
• Design within technical constraints while being aware and mindful of business objectives, helping prioritize requirements; 
• Contribute to the development of innovative/value-add features e.g. document extraction and generation, open API documentation, and more (imagination is the limit) 

What we look for

• 2+ years of frontend & backend development experience; 
• Experience with Ruby, ideally with the Ruby on Rails framework;
• Familiarity ReactJS (or other modern front-end framework); GraphQL experience is a bonus;
• Experience in managing development features end-to-end with significant ownership; 
• Familiarity Golang, NodeJS or Python is a plus;
• Any development experience in the following fields would constitute a plus: process automation, open APIs, marketplaces, enterprise software, mobile applications; 

What We’ll Provide

• Health and Dental Benefits – We care about our team and put their health first. We offer inclusive health and dental coverage with customizable plans and access to on-demand virtual healthcare.

• Unlimited Vacations & Flexible Hours– People work best when they’re rested; take time off to recharge and make sure you’re working sustainably. We also offer flexible hours so you don’t need to worry if you need to finish early or just start and work later than most others. We celebrate achievements, not hours worked.

• Fully Supported Remote Working – We’re a fully remote team with employees across Canada and the US and make sure employees are supported with a work from home allowance, access to co-working spaces, and team meetups where we get everyone together to share quality in-person time together.

• Personal Development – We want everyone at Relay to meet their goals, both personal and professional. As well as regular one-on-ones with your manager to help you meet professional goals we also have a Personal Development Program with $500 available to cover courses in anything you might be interested in learning.

• Opportunity and Adventure – We’re a fast-growing startup and there are a lot of opportunities for you to get involved in more than just what is covered in this job description. We hope you’re up for an adventure.

Interview Process

We have a simple and transparent three stage recruitment process – we move quickly and want to respect your time.

Step 1: Video call with the Hiring Manager (30 minutes)

Step 2: A technical interview via video call with two members of our engineering team. We have a short take-home assignment that should take 1-2 hours to complete, and during this stage of the interview, we will ask you to walk through your solution, giving reasoning behind your decisions and approach. (1 hour)

Step 3: Video call with Harry Porter-Mills, Head of Technology & Infrastructure (30 minutes)

If all goes well we’ll make an offer!

We value diversity

Relay’s dedication to promoting diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion is clearly reflected in all of our work and interactions.  Diversity is more than a commitment to us – it is the foundation of what we do. Our commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is embedded in the daily fabric of everything we do, and in our lives here at Relay. We recognize, appreciate and celebrate Diversity of thought, experience, style and choice.

We are fully focused on equality and believe deeply in diversity of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin, opinion, and all the other fascinating characteristics that make us different. 

We also firmly believe that diverse teams build better companies and better products. We encourage applications from qualified candidates from all backgrounds, including candidates of colour, women, queer candidates, candidates with family caregiving responsibilities, immigrant candidates, transgender candidates, and candidates with disabilities. We welcome applications from candidates who took time to look after their family.

Product Designer

About the role

This is your chance to join a fast-track insurtech venture on a mission to take the commercial insurance placement workflow into the 21st century and beyond. 

You will be building a product used daily to place major insurance deals – deals that secure people against a wide range of risks, from cyber threats to the most common commercial insurance threats. These deals are multifaceted with a lot of information exchanged, multiple steps, and several exceptions to consider. You will help us wrangle the complexity to provide user-friendly, attractive, and efficient solutions to this underserved market. 

As a key member of our lean product team, you will have input not only into design but strategy, sales, marketing, branding, and technology. You will have plenty of opportunities to learn, influence, and lead according to your goals and strengths. You also possess graphic design skills and are ready to roll up your sleeves and help our marketing team convey the right message to our target audience through your visual designs.

About Relay Platform (“Relay”)

Building the next generation of technology for the placement of specialty Commercial Lines insurance and reinsurance, Relay works with forward-looking brokerages to help them sell and renew more policies faster.

Relay is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with extensive operations in the US. In August 2022, Relay was acquired by At-Bay, a fast-growing U.S. provider of cyber insurance. Relay was selected by the prestigious Insurtech100 list in 2020 and 2021, and won several other awards such as top 10 Insurtech by Plug and Play, Reaction’s Innovator of the Year, and Assuretech Startup of the Year in 2022.

About Our UsersOur users include:

• Brokers and other intermediaries who negotiate terms and advise underwriters
• Insurance underwriters who assess risk, give insurance quotes, and issue policies
• Insurance seekers (our customers’ customers)

You will help streamline and design an end-to-end solution for all participants. You will help us do discovery and validation with underwriters and brokers. You will co-facilitate discovery sessions with existing and prospective customers, interview SMEs (active or former brokers or underwriters), test UI concepts, and collect feedback.
Our Company Culture

We promote a highly progressive environment to allow our teammates to reach their full potential. Our innovative culture is anchored in four pillars: inclusion, empathy, customer excellence, and agility.

We offer a “work from anywhere, anytime you prefer” policy, along with competitive compensation packages including benefits and stock options.

Additionally, we offer digital team-building events, on-demand remote-work locations, team gatherings in attractive locations (post-covid), and we support our team’s aspirations, regardless of whether they overlap with our commercial objectives or not.

What you’ll do

Research and Strategy

• Conduct user research with our customers and industry partners to deeply understand the problem space (the why not just the how)
• Research competitors, insurance concepts, and sample documents from our customers

Interaction and Visual Design

• Create wireframes, sketches, storyboards, process flows, user journey maps and other artifacts to effectively communicate interactions and facilitate conversations
• Test assumptions and validate solutions with customers through high-fidelity mocks and interactive prototypes
• Write copy (customer onboarding emails, default form inputs, etc)
• Turn functional UI solutions into sleek expressions of our brand (which you will also help us define)

Design Ops

• Document research findings, opportunities, ideas, and “jobs to be done”
• Apply user-centred design principles to our product and design process
• Develop a design system, streamline design-developer collaboration, and work closely with developers to translate designs into practical, on-time implementations

What we look for

• 2+ years in UX/UI Design (other formative experience a plus)
• Particular expertise in at least 2: user research, complex interaction design, visual design
• User-centered design advocate who thrives on deeply understanding users
• Good listener experienced in facilitating tough conversations, building relationships, giving and receiving feedback, and collaborating with others
• Fast learner with interest in complex subjects, who can quickly pick up (re)insurance lingo and technical concepts
• Experience with designing modular workflows, complex form solutions, or insurance products would be a plus
• Experience in B2B customer research is a plus; experience with continuous discovery a plus
• Experience working with a small team towards impactful product development milestones, with strong appreciation of business needs
• A drive to get better every day, demonstrated by evident career progression and explorations
• Passionate about honing your craft during and outside of work with high initiative to get things done
• Figma or similar; experience designing or using Design Systems a plus

Core Skills

• Product Design
• User Experience (UX)  
• User Research
• User Interface Design
• Interaction Design
• Visual Graphics Design
• Wireframing
• Figma
• Insurance

Interview Process

We have a simple and transparent three-stage recruitment process – we move quickly and want to respect your time.

Step 1: Video call with the Hiring Manager or our Senior Product Designer (30 minutes)

Step 2: A in-depth interview via video call with two members of our product/design team. We will walk through a case study of your choice that demonstrate your product design experience from research to completion, giving the reasoning behind your decisions and approach. (1 hour)

Step 3: Video call with Edmund Lo, Head of Product & Engineering (30 minutes)

If all goes well we’ll make an offer!

We value diversity

Relay’s dedication to promoting diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion is clearly reflected in all of our work and interactions.  Diversity is more than a commitment to us – it is the foundation of what we do. Our commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is embedded in the daily fabric of everything we do, and in our lives here at Relay. We recognize, appreciate and celebrate Diversity of thought, experience, style and choice.

We are fully focused on equality and believe deeply in diversity of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin, opinion, and all the other fascinating characteristics that make us different. 

We also firmly believe that diverse teams build better companies and better products. We encourage applications from qualified candidates from all backgrounds, including candidates of colour, women, queer candidates, candidates with family caregiving responsibilities, immigrant candidates, transgender candidates, and candidates with disabilities. We welcome applications from candidates who took time to look after their family.