Application Guide

How to Apply for Senior Platform Engineer

at Swiftly, Inc

🏢 About Swiftly, Inc

Swiftly is a mission-driven tech company that's making urban transit more efficient and sustainable. With over 200 transit agencies as clients, including major metros like LA Metro and SEPTA, you'll have the opportunity to work on products that directly improve the daily commute for millions of people while reducing urban emissions.

About This Role

As a Senior Platform Engineer, you'll be at the core of Swiftly's infrastructure modernization, focusing on cloud, observability, and reliability. Your work will directly impact the scalability and resilience of real-time transit data systems, ensuring that agencies and riders get accurate information when they need it most.

💡 A Day in the Life

A typical day might involve collaborating with your product team to plan infrastructure improvements, writing Terraform to expand into a new AWS region, and setting up dashboards to monitor system health. You'll also spend time troubleshooting issues with real-time data ingestion, participating in design reviews, and mentoring junior engineers.

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Interview Prep

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🎯 Who Swiftly, Inc Is Looking For

  • You have deep experience with AWS, including designing and implementing multi-region architectures, and are comfortable with infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation).
  • You're an expert in observability, having built and standardized monitoring, logging, and tracing across complex systems using tools like Prometheus, Grafana, or Datadog.
  • You have a strong background in building reliable, high-throughput data ingestion pipelines, possibly with technologies like Kafka, Kinesis, or similar streaming platforms.
  • You're a collaborative engineer who thrives in empowered product teams, embraces prototyping, and balances technical excellence with practical, incremental delivery.

📝 Tips for Applying to Swiftly, Inc

1

Tailor your resume to highlight specific AWS projects, especially those involving multi-region setups or infrastructure modernization. Quantify the impact (e.g., reduced latency, cost savings).

2

In your cover letter, mention your experience with observability tools and how you've used them to improve system reliability. Be specific about the tools you've used and the outcomes.

3

Showcase any experience with real-time data systems or transit-related projects, even if it's a side project. This demonstrates domain interest.

4

Research Swiftly's engineering blog or public talks (if any) to understand their tech stack and challenges. Mention something you learned in your application.

5

Since the role is remote (EU), emphasize your ability to work asynchronously and across time zones. Provide examples of successful remote collaboration.

✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter

["Highlight your expertise in AWS and multi-region architecture, and explain how you'd approach modernizing Swiftly's cloud infrastructure.", "Emphasize your passion for observability and how you've used it to drive reliability in past roles.", "Connect your experience with real-time data ingestion to Swiftly's mission of improving transit efficiency.", "Express enthusiasm for Swiftly's impact on urban sustainability and reducing emissions, showing you care about the mission."]

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🔍 Research Before Applying

To stand out, make sure you've researched:

  • → Read about Swiftly's product offerings (e.g., real-time passenger info, operations management) and understand how they help transit agencies.
  • → Look into Swiftly's engineering culture by reading their engineering blog or any public talks by their engineers.
  • → Research the transit technology landscape and competitors to understand Swiftly's unique value proposition.
  • → Check out Swiftly's customer success stories or case studies to see the impact of their platform on transit agencies.

💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics

Based on this role, you may be asked about:

1 How would you design a multi-region AWS architecture for a real-time data platform? Discuss failover, data replication, and consistency.
2 Describe your approach to standardizing observability across a diverse set of services. What metrics, logs, and traces would you prioritize?
3 Tell me about a time you improved the reliability of a data ingestion pipeline. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
4 How do you balance technical debt with new feature development in an agile environment?
5 Given Swiftly's mission, how would you ensure the platform can handle spikes in real-time data from transit agencies (e.g., during disruptions)?
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⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Don't overemphasize generic cloud experience without linking it to the specific challenges of real-time data and multi-region setups.
  • Avoid being vague about your observability experience; be ready to discuss specific tools, metrics, and how you've used them to solve problems.
  • Don't neglect the mission-driven aspect; Swiftly values humility and intent, so show you care about the impact beyond just technology.

📅 Application Timeline

This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.

Typical hiring timeline:

1

Application Review

1-2 weeks

2

Initial Screening

Phone call or written assessment

3

Interviews

1-2 rounds, usually virtual

✓

Offer

Congratulations!

Ready to Apply?

Good luck with your application to Swiftly, Inc!

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