Staff Software Engineer, Platform
WHO WE AREActBlue is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating cutting‐edge technology that fuels Democratic victories and enables progressive causes to thrive.Our vision is simple: building change through the power of people. Since our founding, we've been building innovative solutions to revolutionize grassroots fundraising – if you've donated to a Democratic campaign or a progressive organization online, you've probably used our platform! We believe in putting power in the hands of small‐dollar donors by helping thousands of groups — from local candidates to national movements — mobilize their communities and create a lasting impact. Every member of our team is deeply committed to advancing our shared mission and core values. Together, we are shaping the future of democracy.THE OPPORTUNITYWe're looking for a Staff Engineer to serve as a technical leader and force multiplier on the SRE team. This is a role for someone who thrives at the intersection of deep systems expertise and organizational influence — someone who can own multi‐quarter reliability initiatives, drive observability strategy across our platform, and build the practices and culture that make ActBlue's systems resilient at scale.You'll operate as a senior technical voice within Platform Engineering, collaborating across SRE, application teams, and infrastructure to reduce systemic risk, advance SLO‐based reliability, and build an incident response program that the entire engineering org can trust.WHAT YOU'LL DOTechnical LeadershipOwn and drive SRE technical strategy in key domains: observability, incident management, reliability engineering, and platform operationsServe as a go‐to consultant for infrastructure and reliability concerns across engineering teamsLead architecture decisions for monitoring, alerting, and SLO frameworks; contribute to org‐wide RFCsProvide L2 on‐call support for the most complex and urgent incidents; actively build incident response capability across teamsDraw on past incidents and post‐mortems to drive systemic prevention, not just remediationDelivery & ImpactLead multi‐quarter SRE initiatives with complex cross‐team dependencies (e.g., observability buildout, on‐call training program, service ownership registry)Remove blockers for teammates; move stalled projects forwardDefine and maintain SLIs/SLOs for tier‐1 business flows: contributions, disbursements, compliance reportingContribute to ActBlue's multi‐year reliability roadmap; anticipate how upstream team decisions affect SRE goalsPrefer automation over manual process; reduce toil through tooling and systemic fixesCollaboration & CommunicationWork across team and org lines to build buy‐in for reliability investmentsCommunicate technical strategy and its business value to non‐technical stakeholdersDocument and evangelize SRE practices through Architecture Council, team wikis, and cross‐team forumsMentor engineers at all levels on observability, incident response, and reliability principlesProvide high‐quality feedback on technical proposals that have reliability implicationsEnrichmentSet the technical standard for the SRE team; model the practices you want the team to adoptContribute to a culture of psychological safety and blameless post‐mortemsHelp build an on‐call program that is sustainable, well‐supported, and continuously improvingWHAT YOU BRINGMust‐Haves8+ years of experience in SRE, DevOps, or systems/infrastructure engineeringDeep expertise in observability tooling (we use Datadog: APM, RUM, DBM, dashboards, SLOs, alerting)Strong command of Kubernetes and cloud‐native infrastructure (we run EKS via Flux on AWS)Experience defining and operating SLIs and SLOs in production environmentsDemonstrated ability to lead cross‐functional reliability initiatives and build organizational buy‐inStrong incident management experience: on‐call, post‐mortems, blameless cultureStrong PlusesExperience with CDN and edge infrastructure (we use Fastly with VCL)Familiarity with Rails monolith operations at scaleExperience with FinOps / cloud cost accountabilityExposure to PagerDuty, Jeli, or similar incident toolingWho Thrives HereYou think in systems, not just symptomsYou bias toward automation, documentation, and enabling othersYou're comfortable operating with ambiguity and driving toward clarityYou believe reliability is a shared organizational responsibility, not just an on‐call team's jobWORK & BENEFITS SNAPSHOTThis posting is for a full‐time, remote, salaried position. Travel may be required on a limited basis to attend all‐staff and departmental retreats (1‐2 times per year). Additional travel may be required for select positions.Registered States*Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Washington D.C.*While ActBlue is currently registered to support remote work in the states listed above, we possess the ability to register in additional states as needed. If you are located in a state not listed, we may still be able to proceed with your application, but please note that the offer process may take longer to accommodate registration requirements.Work Schedule:This role requires availability during established, regular business hours (Mon‐Fri) and is expected to be a part of an on‐call rotation which will result in working nontraditional hours as needed.Work Environment:Employees can expect to work with distributed teams across all U.S. time zones. Our roles require extended technology usage, and proficiency with virtual communication tools such as Zoom and Slack. Regular attendance in virtual meetings is inherent to every position.Salary Range Details:$191,679 - $216,566 - $241,452ActBlue is committed to consistent compensation practices across our organization. Final salary offers will take into account factors such as candidate experience, interview performance and current team salary parity.Benefits:Flexible work schedules and an unlimited time‐off policyFully paid and trans‐inclusive health, dental, and vision insurance for employees and their families; plus fully‐paid health reimbursement arrangement to use for out of pocket expenses and fully‐paid short‐and‐long‐term disabilityFully paid basic and AD&D life insurance and a voluntary supplemental life insurance optionDependent and health care flexible spending account optionsEmployee Assistance Program (EAP) benefits for employeesAutomatic 2% Employer‐paid 401K contribution, plus up to an additional 6% match on employee contributionsA minimum of three months paid medical, family and parental leave (for all new parents, adoptions included)Commuter or home‐office benefits, including a $1,000 home‐office setup allowance for all new full‐time remote employeesAdditional perks including quarterly snack deliveries and digital subscriptions to the Boston Globe & New York TimesActBlue is unable to sponsor work visas at this time.UNION INFORMATIONThe terms and conditions of this position are subject to a collective bargaining agreement with the Communications Workers of America, the exclusive bargaining agent of covered ActBlue Technical Services employees.BACKGROUND CHECKSAs part of our hiring process, ActBlue will conduct a background check at the time of offer. This will be completed in compliance with applicable laws and will not be initiated without your consent.INCLUSION STATEMENT FROM ACTBLUEActBlue is committed to equal employment opportunities and fostering a diverse, inclusive workplace. We celebrate unique perspectives, honor the dignity of all individuals, and recognize that diverse backgrounds and identities strengthen our mission.If you're passionate about our work and see yourself in this role, we encourage you to apply—even if you don't meet every requirement.We also provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities throughout the hiring process and employment. To request an accommodation, email recruitment@actblue.com.ActBlue will never ask candidates to buy equipment, nor will we email from anything other than an actblue.com or actbluetech.com email address.#J-18808-Ljbffr