Behavioral: Culture and Mission Alignment (Software Engineer, Onsite)

Context

You are interviewing for a Software Engineer role at a mission-driven technology company. The panel aims to assess your alignment with the mission, ethics and safety orientation, decision-making under ambiguity, feedback culture, collaboration style, and quality standards.

Answer the prompts below with specific examples. Using STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result, Reflection) is encouraged.

Prompts

1. Mission motivation
   • What motivates you about our mission? How does it connect to your past work and the kind of impact you want to have?
2. Safety/ethics over speed
   • Describe a time you prioritized safety or ethics over shipping fast. What risks did you identify, what actions did you take, and what was the outcome?
3. Principled decisions under uncertainty
   • How do you make decisions when the data is incomplete? Share a concrete example and the framework you used.
4. Inviting and acting on blunt feedback
   • How do you create channels for candid feedback? Describe a situation where you received tough feedback and what you changed as a result.
5. Disagree and commit
   • Give an example of disagreeing with a decision, then committing to it and ensuring success despite your initial view.
6. Sustaining a high quality bar
   • What practices do you use to maintain a high quality bar over time (not just at launch)? How do you prevent regressions and avoid "quality theater"?