What is the hiring process like for Analytics Engineers at Nubank?

Nubank was born to fight bureaucracy and empower people. Here, we combine technology, design, and data to create incredible products and services that give back people control over their financial lives – and we combine all that with excellent customer service that is simultaneously human and efficient. We are growing fast, and our Analytics Engineers at Nubank has an essential role in this process of backing all decisions we make with data.

The AE team is responsible for building the bridge between our business needs and our infrastructure, allowing all Nubankers to properly and efficiently use data in their processes. Since this is a growing demand around here, we are constantly searching for new talents to join our purple revolution.

To attract the best professionals in the market, our team has designed a selection process divided into eight steps. This way, we want to ensure the candidates have a pleasant experience while simultaneously allowing us to better understand the skills, goals, and professional journeys of the people who hope to work at Nu. 

But don’t worry. We will describe each step in detail and give you valuable tips from AEs who have been through the hiring pipeline and are now part of the team. Write this down!

All of Nubank’s job openings are listed on our platform, and you are the one who takes the first step.

“Before sending your application, it is important that you understand the Analytics Engineering team’s role in Nubank. Carefully reading the job description, including the referenced articles, helped me a lot in the first phase,” advises Airton Gessner, one of our Analytics Engineers.

When you are ready to apply, you can do it via the platform by importing your information from LinkedIn or your resume and manually filling out some extra info.

We are interested, for example, in understanding your motivation to work at Nubank and which of your professional or academic experiences make your profile match the requirements of the Analytics Engineer job.

Next, we evaluate your application as a whole, and if you are fit for the job, we invite you to the following selection step. 

Solving complex problems using programming knowledge is part of Analytics Engineers’ routines. Therefore, it is essential that the candidate is sufficiently skilled in mastering these technologies.

In the technical assessment phase, you will receive a link with an online practical test involving writing SQL queries and other programming exercises. 

The exercises should be done in your preferred programming language, and your choice of language will not interfere with your evaluation. We focus on aspects like a clean and organized code, your thought process, and the final result you obtain.

You will have one week to start your evaluation, but after you open the link and register, you will have precisely 120 minutes to complete it. After starting the test, you are not allowed to pause it nor retake it. Therefore, before you begin, reserve a comfortable place with a stable internet connection and make sure you will have the time needed.

After you complete the test, our team will evaluate your answers and give you feedback as soon as possible, informing you if you will move on to the next stage.

This will be your first contact with us – and we are very happy about that. Your interview may be conducted by a member of our Analytics Engineering team or someone from the People (HR) team at Nubank.

“One tip I give is that, before the remote interview, you reflect on the areas you have worked in and the cool stuff you have developed that would interest us so that you don’t forget to mention relevant experiences during the interview,” suggests Julio Oliveira, who is also a team member.

In this stage, we want to learn more about your professional moment and your previous experience, understand the biggest challenges you faced and the lessons you learned. We want to know what next steps you wish to take to advance your career and how that may fit into Nu.

This stage of our selection process is also when we dive a little deeper into what an Analytics Engineer does daily and the main challenges we face. 

“I advise you to read the articles in our blog about the Analytics Engineering team, and during your interview, ask questions that may have come up,” Julio adds. You will have 30 minutes to get to know us better and ask questions you may have about what it’s like to be part of the team.

We’re halfway there! Once you are approved in the remote interview, the next step is a technical case that will be sent to you via email. The time offered to solve this case is approximately seven days. 

The main goal of this stage is assessing your technical knowledge of data architecture, business context, and ability to communicate your decisions. These topics are common in the routine of our team at Nubank.

Thabata Pontes, from Nubank’s Analytics Engineering team, recounts, “The case was the phase when I felt that even if I weren’t approved, it would have been a valid experience for all that I learned. So my advice is to not only study the technical part but learn the business side of the case.” 

For her, Nubank’s blog was a great source of relevant information for this step and all the others.

This moment is when you’ll have the opportunity to structure your line of thought and, based on your knowledge, deliver the most appropriate solution to the problems posed in the case.

Currently, two people from the Analytics Engineering team are randomly chosen to evaluate your case resolution. The applicants are made anonymous to prevent any biases during the evaluation.

“Explain your choices, show your interest in building them with us, and make the most out of this opportunity even if you don’t feel ready for it!” Thabata adds.

If you have reached this step, congratulations! This is a moment when we will have the opportunity to exchange ideas about different ways to deal with our data users’ problems and possible solutions for them. 

In this step, Nubank’s People (HR) team will schedule a meeting with you and a few Analytics Engineering representatives for you to present your case. Feel free to choose the presentation format that you feel most comfortable with.

“A tip I can give for this step is to see your case presentation as if you were actually working with us in this project. So pay attention to the problems raised and what would be the best solution for it in the short and the long terms”, says team manager Vinicius Barreto.

Our time together is divided as follows:

• Initial 5 minutes: We briefly introduce the people present in this session, tell you what we do in our routine, and give you a chance to briefly introduce yourself and tell us your journey so far.

• Following 50 minutes: Now, we focus exclusively on your presentation. We will listen to the solutions you propose to discuss the case’s subject. With that, our goal is to understand how you build your reasoning and answer your questions. “Dedicate some time to create an organized presentation, so we can more easily follow your thought process,” recommends Vinicius.

• Last 5 minutes: We answer any questions you may have about the Analytics Engineer job or about Nu as a whole. We will be happy to answer whatever you ask us, but as our time is restricted, try to select and structure your main questions.

Overall, your presentation is a moment for us to discuss different scenarios and potential new problems. And, of course, it is also an opportunity for us to evaluate how your solution would address these new situations. 

If your case doesn’t cover one or more of the issues raised, we will use part of the time to assess what you would change in your proposition to make your solution appropriate for a new problem. It is worth mentioning that these are not points used to reject anyone during the selection. 

“Don’t worry about trick questions. We don’t appreciate them and don’t use them in our process. However, during the proposed modeling, there are different points for improvement that help us assess the candidates’ attention and seniority level,” Vinicius explains.

For this step, someone from our People (HR) team will contact you to have an open conversation about the challenges we have for you here at Nu. This is one more opportunity for us to understand your professional journey. 

“In the interview with the People team, there are no right or wrong answers. Our intention is to get to know you better and understand how your profile can add to our culture and help us solve our team’s challenges,” comments Thiago Rodrigues, a Nubanker in the Analytics Engineering team. 

A tip from Thiago? “I suggest that you review your resume and remember the most relevant challenges and contributions you had throughout your professional and academic life.”

This is an important stage when the people who participated in the process meet to talk about their positive qualities and improvement opportunities. On top of that, we try our best to reduce any chance of biases of any kind, making this stage a crucial moment to understand each person’s perspective.

After all the discussions, we deliberate if we want to send you a job offer. In case we decide not to go forward with your process, our People representative will contact you with our feedback.

If you have reached this step, that means you have passed all the stages, and we are happy to make you an offer! This is a stage to be celebrated by both parties because we want to have you working with us, and we’re sure that you are also interested in working with us. 

At this time, our People team will contact you to explain the details of your offer and answer any questions you may have about compensation, benefits, working arrangements, contract, among others. We will also send you an email to formalize your employment and decide the best moment for you to start.

When all the details are finalized, we will send you a welcome kit with everything you need to start your first day of work as a Nubanker in our team. With the welcome kit, you will receive materials with cool content explaining more about our culture and positioning. 

We have a three-month onboarding process ready to provide you all the information and tools you will need to help us empower even more people and eliminate bureaucracy from their lives.  This onboarding covers knowledge about our business unit and more technical aspects. 

Our onboarding for the Analytics Engineering team is prepared for you with lots of dedication and care. We believe that our purple revolution should begin on day one, and that is why we plan each phase to ensure your arrival is unforgettable.

Now that you know our selection process, what do you think about applying for it and joining our Analytics Engineering team soon?

We are getting ready to welcome you and answer any questions you have at any stage of the selection process. If we don’t have the answers for you during our conversation, we will search for the best person inside Nu to help us solve your queries.

We think it’s important to emphasize that if you don’t pass one of the stages in our process, that does not mean your opportunities with us are over. You can work on the improvement points we indicated in your feedback, and after 6 months, you can apply again to the same job. 

Author: Rina Sakurai