Software Engineer ( Node.js, TypeScript)

About the Role: Come Near is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the technical design and architecture of its highest-priority initiative: a personalized digital engagement platform. This remote, US-based position offers the opportunity to shape a platform supporting the organization’s large-scale digital outreach, including high-impact media events and significant traffic spikes. The Staff Engineer will take ownership of end-to-end architecture across products, data platforms, and cloud infrastructure while setting technical standards and guiding internal engineers and external vendors. The role combines architectural leadership with hands-on development, requiring an experienced engineer who can make sound technical decisions, manage risks, and contribute directly to implementation.

Key Responsibilities: Design and document end-to-end architecture across products, data platforms, and cloud infrastructure. Define technical standards, API patterns, and integration contracts for internal engineering teams and external vendors. Architect reliable, scalable, observable, and resilient systems capable of supporting high-impact events and traffic spikes. Review vendor designs, implementations, and code contributions for architectural quality, security, performance, and long-term maintainability. Collaborate with AI and data teams on personalization logic, event tracking, and data pipeline architecture. Evaluate how personal and sensitive user data is collected, stored, and used. Establish and maintain practical security and data privacy standards for systems handling sensitive personal data at scale. Identify and address architectural, security, operational, and vendor-related risks before they affect delivery or business operations. Contribute directly to development by delivering critical code and prototyping architectural decisions before standardizing them. Make build-versus-buy and build-versus-vendor recommendations based on technical quality, delivery speed, operational complexity, and cost. Establish documentation standards, including architecture decision records (ADRs), design documents, technical standards, and operational runbooks. Advise the Senior Engineering Manager and VP of Engineering and Analytics on architecture strategy, technical risks, platform evolution, and major technical investments.

Required Qualifications: 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including meaningful experience at the Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer, Architect, or equivalent level. Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field. Deep expertise in modern web platform architecture, including frameworks such as Next.js or comparable technologies, API design, content platforms, and edge/CDN architecture. Working knowledge of mobile platform architecture. Strong cloud infrastructure expertise, preferably with AWS, including identity and access management, resiliency patterns, autoscaling, observability, and cost optimization. Experience owning infrastructure-as-code practices using Terraform or an equivalent tool, as well as CI/CD systems. Experience defining, improving, or scaling testing and quality strategies across unit, integration, and end-to-end testing. Experience working with external agencies, vendors, or contractors in shared codebases and architectural environments, including reviewing and challenging technical decisions when necessary. Experience designing, building, and operating highly scalable distributed systems with demanding reliability and performance requirements.

Key Competencies: Ability to influence internal engineers and external vendor teams through technical expertise, sound judgment, and credibility, without relying on formal authority. Ability to manage complex, multi-week technical initiatives independently in an asynchronous work environment. Strong technical writing skills, including the ability to produce clear architecture decisions, design documents, implementation guidance, and review feedback. Confidence in maintaining technical standards and challenging shortcuts that create unacceptable long-term risks. Practical judgment when balancing engineering quality with delivery requirements in a lean, mission-driven organization. Ability to work through ambiguity and incomplete requirements while bringing structure and clarity to complex problems. Strong systems thinking, with an understanding of how technical decisions affect reliability, security, maintainability, cost, scalability, and team effectiveness.

Preferred Qualifications: Experience architecting or operating large-scale data platforms, analytics infrastructure, or data-intensive systems. Experience building, integrating, or delivering AI/ML-powered products and capabilities. Familiarity with MLOps practices, including deploying, monitoring, and operating machine learning systems in production.

Personal Attributes: A personal relationship with Jesus and a passion for Come Near’s mission. A service-oriented mindset, humility, and collaborative leadership. An initiative-taking and meticulous approach to planning and execution.

Technology Stack: Frontend: Next.js, React. Backend: Node.js, TypeScript, Payload CMS.Cloud Infrastructure: AWS, Vercel, Neon, Cloudflare Workers. Data and Analytics: BigQuery, Dataform, dbt, Python.

AI: Custom TypeScript LLM service.

Starting salary: $145,000.Competitive base salary. Annual performance bonus based on organizational performance.80% employer-paid health and wellness coverage.403(b) retirement plan with a 7% employer match. Very generous paid time off. Three annual company rest weeks, around July 4 and between Christmas and New Year’s. Flourishing Fund stipend. Annual education reimbursement stipend. Additional benefits.

Work Arrangement: Remote, US-based. Full-time position.