Meet Char Kuperstein, Software Engineer

We're continuing our employee spotlight series so you can get to know our teammates and learn why they chose to work at Narvar. To give you an inside look into our engineering org, we chatted with Char Kuperstein, who joined us nearly 2 years ago as a Software Engineer in our San Francisco HQ. We hope you enjoy getting to know her!

What team are you on and what do you work on?  

I’m on the Track team. Mostly this means building out Track features and keeping our code base up-to-date, but I also get the opportunity to contribute to other fun projects. Some of those include building the UI for new features, improving our APIs, implementing UI integration testing, and helping build various internal tools.

Why did you decide to join Narvar?

I was referred by a friend and former coworker. I had actually never heard of Narvar before he started working here, though I had unknowingly used Track for several online purchases. What really got me excited when I had my on-site interview was actually having fun with the people who interviewed me and learning about all of the different technologies I’d get to work with. I was really interested in getting out of my restrictive frontend comfort zone and making a big impact, and Narvar offered that opportunity.

How would you describe the engineering culture?

There are a lot of highly intelligent people here working on really interesting things. Many of us are passionate about various technologies and love discussing insights or sharing knowledge across the organization. It’s a pretty humble environment as well—it’s okay to not know something and to ask for help or take some time to do research. Learning new things and finding ways to improve existing code are highly encouraged. We tend to have high standards for writing quality code, but ultimately we all want to build cool things and help each other be the best versions of ourselves as engineers.

What are some of the interesting technical challenges you've solved?

There is never a lack of challenges to tackle! One of our mandates has been creating code that is scalable, yet flexible enough to allow for a wide variety of retailer customizations. One example of how we address this is by creating what we call a “theme object” that allows our implementations team to easily define retailer brand settings and choice of features that are then injected into our UI and rendered. We don’t have to write custom code for any of this, and it makes a lot of jobs easier!

What’s your favorite thing about working here?

I love the people I work with. We teach and learn from each other, and while we work hard, we also have a lot of fun and don’t take ourselves too seriously. I don’t think I’ve been in the office a single day where someone didn’t make me laugh uncontrollably.

What brand are you most loyal to and why?

I’m an ultrarunner and outdoor adventurer, so a lot of my favorite gear comes from Patagonia and The North Face. I admire Patagonia’s sense of ecological responsibility in creating long-lasting quality gear that they encourage everyone to repair rather than toss. My Houdini running rain jacket is one of my favorite things ever, especially with all of this San Francisco rain! The North Face makes some of my favorite camping, skiing, and running gear, and I have been loving their “walls were meant for climbing” campaign this past year.

Char running the Miwok 100K Trail Race last May.

What’s your favorite company tradition?

My team dressed up as dinosaurs last year for Halloween, so, that.

Char and fellow engineer, Dylan, decorating for the 2018 Narvar Halloween party.

Go-to karaoke song?

Most likely a one-hit wonder in the 90s alt rock genre, or “Les Poissons” from The Little Mermaid. People love “Les Poissons”.Want to work with Char? We're looking for humble, collaborative, and innovative people to join our team. Check out our open engineering roles here!