Software Engineer III

Who we are

Perch Energy is a mission-driven company that focuses on expanding access to clean and affordable energy through community solar. Community solar breaks down the traditional barriers preventing most people from participating in the renewable energy economy by making it accessible, affordable, and more equitable for all. We work in several states across the US to bring community solar to communities and individuals who can most benefit from a more inclusive energy system. By managing the customer experience for solar farm owners, Perch is able to bring electricity bill savings to the masses, from renters and homeowners to businesses, institutions, municipalities and more by connecting them to community solar projects in their area. Perch isn't just a for-profit company, we're a for-purpose company—accelerating the shift to renewables nationwide. Everyone deserves to benefit from clean energy. Everyone has a place on this Perch!

What we’re looking for

We’re looking for a Software Engineer III who is passionate about building reliable, scalable backend systems and enjoys working across the stack when needed. You are a hands‑on engineer who thrives on solving real‑world problems, writing clean and maintainable code, and collaborating closely with teammates to deliver high‑quality features end‑to‑end.

You bring strong engineering fundamentals, a growth mindset, and the ability to work independently on well‑scoped projects — owning medium‑sized features from design through deployment in alignment with our engineering best practices. You’re comfortable contributing to technical discussions, making thoughtful trade‑offs, and following established architectural patterns as you deepen your understanding of our systems.

This role is fully remote, based in India and offers the opportunity to meaningfully influence backend architecture, shape engineering best practices, and work with a mission-driven, high-performing team.

What you’ll own

As a Software Engineer III, you will have clear ownership over features, with opportunities to contribute across the stack:

• Own and deliver small to medium-sized backend features end-to-end: From technical discovery and design through implementation, testing, deployment and iteration

• Take technical ownership of one or more non‑critical backend services or components: Ensuring they remain reliable, maintainable, well‑documented, and easy to extend.

• Write clean, modular, testable code: Primarily in Ruby, Ruby on Rails, and Python, while contributing to frontend code when needed to support full‑stack feature delivery.

• Contribute to the design and evolution of our APIs: Including GraphQL and REST endpoints that power frontend and partner‑facing applications, following established architectural patterns and best practices.

• Ensure strong observability and operational health of owned services: Through logging, monitoring, alerting, and contributing to root‑cause analysis and follow‑through improvements.

• Actively participate in technical discussions: Bringing thoughtful perspectives that balance simplicity, long‑term maintainability, and performance as you deepen your understanding of Perch’s systems.

• Support team productivity through high‑quality code reviews and collaboration: Sharing context, helping unblock others, and contributing to a strong engineering culture.

What you’ll do

• Design and build scalable, resilient backend systems using Ruby on Rails, Python and PostgreSQL

• Contribute to implementation of complex features and integrations, including external systems such as Salesforce

• Take technical design decisions independently for your features

• Own and evolve GraphQL services that power frontend and partner-facing applications

• Improve system reliability through testing, monitoring, alerting, and operational best practices

• Ship production-ready code frequently using a modern CI/CD pipeline

• Review code and designs with a strong focus on maintainability, performance, and long-term impact

What will help you succeed

Experience & leadership

• 4+ years of experience building and operating high-availability backend systems

• Demonstrated experience delivering backend features and owning systems

• Strong fundamentals in system design, API design, and data modelling

• Ability to clearly communicate technical decisions and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

• Actively represent engineering team in key discussions with US stakeholders

• Proven experience mentoring junior engineers and raising the technical bar of a team

• Comfortable working in ambiguous problem spaces and iterating toward robust solutions

Backend & infrastructure

• Strong experience with Python or Ruby, including proficiency in at least one web framework:

• Ruby on Rails

• FastAPI, Django or Flask

• Working knowledge of ReactJS, with the ability to contribute to frontend components to support full‑stack delivery

• Advanced SQL skills and experience with PostgreSQL or similar relational databases

• Hands-on experience with AWS services such as S3, SQS, SES, EventBridge, or similar cloud-native services.

• Containerization using Docker

• Exposure to distributed systems or platform engineering

• Familiarity with background jobs, async processing, and event-driven workflows

Bonus points for

• Experience integrating with Salesforce or other enterprise platforms

• Experience designing and owning GraphQL APIs (Apollo or similar)

• Strong opinions (loosely held) on backend architecture, scalability, and system design

• Exposure to AI-assisted engineering—such as using modern AI tools for coding, debugging, testing, documentation, or exploring LLM-based workflows in backend systems

• Familiarity with observability and distributed tracing tools such as OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, Prometheus, or similar

• Experience with container orchestration and deployment using Kubernetes and Helm charts

• Passion for sustainability, clean energy, and building mission-driven products

What success looks like in this role

• Backend systems scale reliably as usage, data volume, and complexity grow

• Engineers move faster due to clear APIs, architecture, and standards

• Production issues are identified early and resolved with lasting fixes

• Technical debt is addressed proactively rather than reactively

• The backend platform enables product teams instead of limiting them

Benefits:

• Competitive compensation based on market standards.

• Apart from Fixed Base Salary potential candidates are eligible for following benefits

• Flexible Leave Policy

• Office is in the heart of the city in case you need to step in for any purpose.

• Medical Insurance (1+5 Family Members)

• We provide comprehensive coverage including accident policy and life Insurance.

• Annual performance cycle

• Quarterly team engagement activities and rewards & recognitions

• L&D programs to foster professional growth

• A supportive engineering culture that values diversity, empathy, teamwork, trust, and efficiency

Eliminating carbon footprints, eliminating carbon copies. Here at Perch, we cultivate diversity, celebrate individuality, and believe unique perspectives are key to our collective success in creating a clean energy future. Perch is committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. While we are currently unable to consider candidates who will require visa sponsorship, we welcome applications from all qualified candidates eligible to work in India.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request