Forward-Deployed Software Engineer

Location: Remote, New York City, or Oakland

Role Type: Full-time

Compensation : $139,050 or $159,650, depending on seniority

Visa sponsorship: Not available

Hires remotely in: United States

Experience: 3+ years of technical experience

Recidiviz is thrilled to be hiring Forward-Deployed Software Engineers to join our team! We’re a small, fast-moving group that uses complex criminal justice data from our state partners to build products that target the drivers of incarceration. That’s where you come in. We’re looking for new teammates to be the technical bridge between our core engineering team and our state partners, scoping and deploying solutions into government environments on the front lines to help our products increase their impact across the country.

About us

Recidiviz is creating safer, healthier communities by improving outcomes for people in the criminal justice system. We build technology to safely reduce the number of people in prison and to help criminal justice leaders embrace data-driven decision-making.

Using software tools and thoughtful product design, we’ve been able to safely and permanently reduce incarceration and improve outcomes. We work side-by-side with leaders of the criminal justice system, people in prison and on supervision, and ecosystem partners to build a better path forward. In addition to the revenue we earn from state partners, some of the most respected philanthropists and foundations support our work.

People who succeed at Recidiviz lead with kindness and humility, assume good intent, learn from failure, and fix problems when they see them. They are excited to work arm in arm with government leadership and staff to improve outcomes. They are great listeners. They build deep relationships with and empathy for the people we work with and the people who our mission serves, even when those two groups feel at odds.

About the role

As a Forward-Deployed Software Engineer, you will be directly on the front lines of our work, collaborating with state Departments of Corrections, government IT staff, and justice-impacted individuals to scope, adapt, and integrate Recidiviz’s data platform and products into their existing environments. You will partner with state leadership to understand their goals and constraints, define the right technical solutions, and then dive into complex, real-world data systems to make those solutions a reality.

You will also act as a crucial feedback loop. By gaining first-hand context of what works and what doesn't "in the wild," you will collaborate with our core product, design, and engineering teams to level up our platforms. You should have strong engineering fundamentals, an affinity for problem-solving in ambiguous environments, and the patience and customer savvy to turn complex deployments into long-term partnerships.

Core responsibilities

Scope for impact: Collaborate with state agency leadership and IT staff to understand their unique policy objectives and system constraints, working with cross-functional teammates to translate their needs into clear technical approaches and deployment roadmaps.

Problem-solve in the wild: Untangle messy data and legacy systems, writing scripts and crafting creative technical solutions to ensure successful deployments in unique customer environments.

Level up the product: Translate on-the-ground challenges into actionable insights for our core engineering and product teams, contributing code to our platform and products to make them more scalable and configurable.

Build trust: Engage directly with customer stakeholders—from database administrators to agency executives—balancing technical rigor with deep empathy and clear communication.

Travel occasionally: Join state partners on-site (10%) to scope new projects, build relationships, unblock technical hurdles in person, and ensure our tools are driving real impact.

Wild success

Here are a few things you might accomplish in your first year at Recidiviz that would demonstrate wild success in this role:

Successfully scope and lead the technical integration of Recidiviz with a new state partner, unlocking actionable insights for agency staff and leadership within months.

Identify a recurring impact bottleneck across multiple deployments, build a feature to solve it, and successfully merge it into our core engineering platform.

Build deep trust and collaboration with an overburdened agency IT team, turning them into enthusiastic champions of Recidiviz's technology and approach.

Minimum qualifications

High empathy and kindness

3+ years of practical experience building, customizing, and deploying software in a collaborative environment

Experience scoping technical projects, defining product requirements, or translating business/policy needs into technical solutions

Experience in a customer-facing and/or cross-functional role, with the ability to communicate technical concepts to both engineering teams and non-technical stakeholders

Strong proficiency in SQL and relational databases, with an appetite for wrangling large-scale, messy data

Experience writing code and scripts in Python, Javascript/Typescript, or similar languages

A high tolerance for ambiguity and the grit to explore, experiment, and document solutions in complex legacy environments

Willingness to travel occasionally to partner states

Bachelor’s degree in a technical field or equivalent experience

Preferred qualifications

Experience working with government technology, legacy enterprise systems, or highly regulated data (e.g., CJIS, HIPAA)

Experience building and managing data pipelines or utilizing ETL tools

Comfort working in cloud infrastructure environments like GCP, AWS, or Azure

Experience with React and full-stack app development

Familiarity with AI tools like Claude, Cursor, or Copilot

Willingness to travel to state partners - see a map of our current partners here

Compensation

Compensation is standardized based on roles and responsibilities. This ensures equitable compensation and responsible stewardship of our resources. As such, we do not negotiate compensation offers.

The compensation for this role is: $139,050 or $159,650, depending on seniority.

What we offer

Effective, extremely thoughtful colleagues, working together on a mission that matters

90% medical, dental, and vision insurance coverage for you and your dependents

Flexible time off, including 20 days of PTO, 3 days of paid volunteering time, and 13 paid holidays

12 weeks of paid parental leave

401(k) retirement plan with 5% company match and no vesting period

Complimentary One Medical membership (depending on location)

Partnership with Carrot to provide employees with inclusive fertility and family-forming benefits, as well as a small but growing number of hormonal health and gender-affirming care benefits

Monthly ClassPass credit for personal wellness

Free mental health support via Talkspace

Well-located offices in Oakland and Manhattan, with the flexibility to work remotely or go into either office as you choose

An annual company offsite and other ad-hoc gatherings

All the exhilarating challenges and stretch opportunities of a tech startup, combined with the mission-driven heart of a nonprofit

More about Recidiviz

Recidiviz was an all-volunteer effort until early 2019, when Clementine, Andrew, and Joshua founded the organization. Since then, we’ve built an A-team of software engineers, designers, product managers and domain experts, from companies like Google, Apple, Dropbox, Opower, and Sidewalk Labs. Recidiviz was part of Y-Combinator’s 2019 class and has received support from some of the most respected philanthropists and foundations, including Ford Foundation, Mackenzie Scott, Schmidt Futures, Arnold Ventures, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Mozilla Foundation.

Today, Recidiviz works with (and earns revenue from) over 20 state partners – bi