Openly is a technology-enabled premium insurance provider working with independent agents.
Kerry Czubko, Engineering Director, shares everything you need to know about their Engineering team!
In this Video
Kerry discusses:
What is Openly and what does the company do?
Openly is a technology-enabled premium homeowners insurance provider that partners with independent agents. The company aims to modernize and streamline the traditionally slow-moving insurance industry through advanced technology.
How is the Openly engineering department structured?
The Openly engineering team consists of approximately 60 employees. It is divided into two primary areas: the Platform Directorate and the Product Directorate. Together, these directorates support various specialized functions including:
- Claims and billing engineering
- Insurance product support
- Cloud infrastructure
- Data engineering
- User interface and frontend development
- Platform services
The engineering team is currently focused on scaling their state footprint beyond 24 states into new markets like Nevada and New Jersey, while also preparing to launch their second major product line, which is auto insurance.
What is the tech stack used by Openly engineering?
The engineering team at Openly utilizes a modern and diverse technology stack:
- Backend: Go is used for core systems and APIs.
- Data and Services: Python is utilized for data management framework services and pipeline tooling.
- Frontend: Vue, Nuxt, HTML, CSS, and Tailwind.
- Cloud Provider: Google Cloud Platform (GCP) serves as the primary cloud environment.
- Data Infrastructure: BigQuery, Composer, Airflow, Aiven Kafka, and Apache Spark.
- DevOps and Tools: CircleCI, Datadog, and Git for version control.
What is the interview process for engineering candidates at Openly?
The recruitment and technical evaluation pipeline for software engineers consists of several stages:
- Recruiter Screen: An initial conversation with a technical recruiter to discuss the role and ensure alignment with career goals.
- Hiring Manager Interview: A meeting with two engineering managers.
- Technical Assessment: A peer-level technical interview with two members of the team the candidate would be joining.
- Take-Home Challenge: A practical technical assignment designed to evaluate coding and problem-solving skills.
- Challenge Review: A collaborative session with team peers to review the take-home challenge, ask clarifying questions, and discuss the technical approach.
- Job Offer: The final stage of the evaluation process.
What is the culture like within the Openly engineering team?
The work environment is characterized by collaboration and continuous learning:
- Openly emphasizes a shared mission with an ego-free, collaborative environment where team members learn from one another.
- Curiosity is one of the company core values, prompting employees to ask questions and challenge legacy industry standards.
- The company actively hires engineering talent from outside the insurance industry to foster fresh perspectives and diverse viewpoints.
- Openly operates on the belief that diverse teams build and ship superior software products.
