Staff Software Engineer

Code for America believes government can work for the people, by the people, in the new digital age, and that government at all levels can and should work well for all people. For more than a decade, we’ve worked to show that with the mindful use of technology, we can break down barriers, meet community needs, and find real solutions.

Our employees build and transform government and community tools and services, making them so good they inspire change. We merge the best parts of technology, nonprofit, and government to help support the people who need it most.

With a focus on transparency and fairness, and deep empathy for partners in government and community organizations and the people that our partners serve, we’re building a movement of motivated change agents driven by meaningful results and lasting impact.

At Code for America, you contribute to exciting work while learning and developing in a supportive and flexible environment. Our compensation and benefits are holistic and thoughtfully curated to represent our employees and our mission. Help us drive real generational change that lasts.

Code for America is looking for a talented Staff Software Engineer who will help shape the technical direction of an engineering team that is contributing to high-impact government services. In this role you will drive reliable, high-quality software delivery — improving how the team builds, tests, and ships the systems that make public services more accessible and effective for the people who need them most.

The pace of change in the policy and government landscape is accelerating at the same time that technology possibilities are shifting rapidly. Together, these shifts create new windows of opportunity to develop technical solutions that make critical public services more effective for the people who need them. Staff software engineers keep delivery moving through those moments, supporting staff and holding high delivery standards so that what we ship stays reliable and effective.

About the role:

All Code for America software engineers are involved in every stage of our products' lifecycle, from prototyping and design to developing features in response to user feedback, to operating technical systems at scale. Staff Software Engineers pair hands-on engineering with leadership — guiding their team’s technical direction, demonstrating sound judgment, and enabling their fellow engineers through collaboration and mentorship. Staff Software Engineers strengthen their team's delivery practices and help other engineers on their team grow, setting a standard for technical judgment and collaboration within their project.

This role will report to the Engineering Manager and is expected to travel no more than 10% of the time.

Code for America is based in California and can employ those who reside full-time within the United States. This is a remote position.

In this position you will:

Technical Delivery

Craft new features that help users more easily navigate government services and receive a dignified experience.

Write automated tests and develop monitoring strategies to ensure a high level of service quality.

Work iteratively to ship minimal features, learn, and harden them to scale once proven

Contribute to design, implementation, and code review, and make technical trade-offs alongside your team, responsibly using AI-assisted development.

Own architecture and data-modeling decisions for significant parts of a production system, weighing tradeoffs across competing priorities — speed vs. maintainability, the familiar tool vs. the right one, ideal vs. feasible.

Support Engineering's culture of writing by producing quality documentation and learning materials for internal and external audiences.

Technical Leadership & Enablement

Establish direction for technical work within your team or project, anticipating challenges, documenting decisions, and helping the team understand the why behind approaches, not just the what .

Collaborate with Product Managers and other cross-functional peers and adapt your approach as priorities, technology, and team needs shift — and actively help others do the same when facing major changes in direction or tooling.

Biasing to action when the team is stuck, committing to a path forward and revising as new information emerges.

Mentor engineers on sound technical judgment and engineering practice, and create conditions for them to grow into unfamiliar problem spaces through pairing, documentation, structured learning, or direct coaching.

Act as connective tissue within your team—guide team norms, surface dependencies early, align on shared patterns, and bring in practices that have worked well elsewhere to strengthen how your team delivers

Other duties as assigned

About you:

7+ years of software engineering experience, with strong expertise in system architecture, data modeling, web technologies, and API design.

Experience working across multiple languages, frameworks, and tech stacks — or a demonstrated ability to ramp quickly into unfamiliar ones.

Demonstrated ability to use AI coding tools judiciously, validating and refining generated code for quality, and modeling that discipline for teammates is needed for this specific role; organizationally, a curiosity about emerging AI tools and a commitment to using them responsibly and effectively

Experience with Agile Software Development models like Scrum, XP, TDD, or BDD

Demonstrated technical leadership in a team environment: setting direction and guiding sound decision-making in constrained or ambiguous contexts

Experience with cloud infrastructure and IaC tooling

Eager collaboration with peers, and in providing technical and professional mentorship

Truly excellent written and verbal communication skills in English

Expert understanding and experience communicating with cross-functional peers, and in translating those conversations into actionable tasks

A deep commitment to Code for America's mission of making government services work well for the people who need them most

It’s a bonus if you have:

Deep expertise in one or more specific technology or domain areas relevant to Code for America's product portfolio.

Experience with making government services better for people who need them most

Personal or professional experience with the justice system, social safety net, or other mission relevant experience

Experience building and integrating AI-powered features in production systems, with evaluation and monitoring.

What you’ll get -

Salary:

Code for America’s salary bands are transparent as a part of our commitment to transparency and fairness. As part of our hiring practices, we aim to target the midpoint of the 2nd quartile of the range for all new hires.

Offer targets vary based on market / geographic location. The offer targets for this role range from $128,945 to $157,850 , annually. Your Recruiter will discuss compensation in more detail & answer any related questions, during the initial Recruiter phone screen.

Benefits and perks:

This role includes a comprehensive benefits package including the following:

Values:

Leadership and teammates who share a strong work ethic and values, and who respect and care for one another

A collaborative, cross-functional, hardworking, and joyful environment

Employee Enablement Support:

Laptop provided

A one-time $700 payment for remote environment setup; $200 stipend (in first paycheck) and up to $500 reimbursement, in accordance with our equipment policy

Cell phone and/or internet reimbursement of $50 per month

Professional Development:

$500 annual (per calendar year) stipend towards professional development; prorated at time of hire

Up to $500 of professional development funds can be rolled over each year, up to a maximum of $1000

Training / guidance for staff required to utilize AI as part of their role, plus o