Tanda is hiring a Senior Software Engineer for our Product Team. We’re a bootstrapped company that has been funded by customers for over a decade. In the last 2 years Tanda has released two new Software Products - Payroll and HR and there’s plans to launch and grow many more. The product team powers our Workforce Management, HR and Payroll products and deploys 30+ changes per day. We have been strongly encouraging our team to adopt AI in the areas it makes sense to - we want to be on the forefront of these new tools and new ways of working.
We will only be considering candidates who are based in Brisbane (or willing to relocate), and excited to work in the office the majority of the time. Tanda values moving fast, and our interview process reflects that. It’s two steps - a 30min phone call with the hiring manager, and then if that goes well an in office pair programming session with the hiring manager and another member of the team.
The traits we value at all levels are:
Curiosity - you like to learn, and don’t make the same mistakes twice.
Initiative - within reason, you are self-driven and always looking to make an impact. The more senior you get, the more we expect you to be manager of one (https://signalvnoise.com/posts/1430-hire-managers-of-one)
Problem solving - you are methodical in your approach to breaking apart problems and figuring out how to solve them in the best way possible under the constraints you face.
The lowest end of the salary range for this role is $160k + Super.
Read about our 11 year journey here: https://ghiculescu.substack.com/p/11-years-of-hosting-a-saas
The Work
At Tanda we like boring and predictable technology. Our product is a Ruby on Rails Monolith deployed on EC2 instances with PostgreSQL on RDS hosted on AWS. Heading into 2026, we have a lot of product to build, and a lot more customers to serve. We encourage Engineers to work with AI & make it easy to sign up to different tools you’d like to try.
In your first 6mo you will work closely with the Head of Product & Head of Engineering. They will help grow your context of our product and code base, and set the expectations about pace and priority. After this period you will join one of the product squads and work to elevate the team's expertise and velocity.
What Success Looks Like
Within your first year, you'll:
Have deep knowledge of our codebase and business domain
Lead the implementation of several major product initiatives
Improve our development practices through code reviews and technical documentation
Help establish patterns and practices that make our monolith easier to work with
Be a trusted voice in technical discussions and architectural decisions
About You
Your extensive Ruby on Rails experience is valuable, but if you have experience with another MVC framework like Laravel we think you’d be able to pick up Rails easily enough. is matched by your passion for building products that matter. You thrive on solving challenging technical problems and get energised when you see your solutions making a real difference for customers. You value clean code but understand that perfect is sometimes the enemy of good.
We expect that you have experience as a Senior Engineer, and have both the projects and impact to prove you can execute. You are comfortable leading from the front, demonstrating what it means to be a professional. You take your work seriously, and keep the customer at the centre of what you do.
You can expect to have a lot of ownership over your work. We enjoy working with curious people who take initiative and demand a high bar for themselves and the team they work with.
Why Apply?
See your impact
We’re a small engineering team, but our product is global. You can personally have a huge impact on our customers’ productivity.
We’re not always sprinting
Our development cycle uses the Shape Up framework. Unlike a lot of “agile” frameworks - we have dedicated ‘cool-down’ time to breathe; using it to fix bugs, refactor, focus on professional development, and try out new technical possibilities.
Experience amazing opportunities
We recognise when people are exceptional, and as a scale-up, we’re flexible enough to give people new opportunities to excel, both in existing teams and in new teams/roles.
Solve deep and interesting problems
Workforce management is an innovative industry, and creative solutions are a necessity to thrive.
Further Benefits
✓ Real projects: We hire based on real demand, not based on arbitrary hiring rounds
✓ Experience: You won’t be shielded from customers or responsibility
✓ Culture: You will be part of a team that is passionate about what they do and don’t suffer boredom easily
✓ Team retreat: a full company retreat usually held at a coastal location for two nights
✓ Professional Development: an annual professional development budget per person, industry conferences, and support for those who want to speak at conferences representing Tanda
About Tanda
Tanda is an established, fast-growing tech company. We are on a mission to build Australia’s leading all-in-one workforce management platform. Our vision is to eliminate employment friction for shift and hourly workers, reducing the world’s unemployment rate. Our main activities centre around engineering, marketing, sales, research, and supporting functions. We build software that helps businesses manage their rostering, time & attendance, staffing optimisation, employee engagement, payroll, and labour compliance.
We service thousands of Australian clients from our Brisbane headquarters and globally with offices in Chicago and London.
If these challenges sound interesting - reach out to us for a chat!
