Full-Stack Engineer
About AcelyAcely is the leading AI tutor for the digital SAT and ACT, helping students get into their dream college. Our mission is to democratize opportunity for high school families through AI-native tools that empower students to learn smarter and gain confidence.Backed by Forerunner Ventures, we've grown to $10M ARR with a lean, 12-person team, proof that small, mission-driven teams can deliver outsized impact. Our product has traction, our users are engaged, and we're now at an inflection point: ready to scale with speed, craft, and AI-native excellence.The RoleWe're looking for a Full-Stack Engineer who wants real ownership over the product students actually touch. You'll work across our React front-end and Node.js/TypeScript back-end, shipping features that reach hundreds of thousands of students preparing for the most consequential tests of their lives.This is a small team, which means the scope is wide and the ceiling is high. You'll work directly with Product, Design, and Marketing, take features from a rough idea through to production, and help decide what "good" looks like as we grow. This is the right role for someone who wants to build, not just take tickets.Why This Role MattersEvery engineer on our team is a meaningful fraction of our total engineering capacity. What you ship shows up in student outcomes within weeks, not quarters.We're at the point where the product's ambition is outpacing our headcount. We need someone who can take an area of the product, understand what students and families need from it, and drive it forward without waiting to be told what to do next.In our small, mission-driven team, your impact will be immediate and visible. You'll have the autonomy to make real technical decisions, the ownership to build systems that last, and the satisfaction of knowing your work helps democratize access to quality education.What You'll DoBuild student-facing features end to end across our React front-end and Node.js/TypeScript back-end, from initial scoping through production and iterationOwn your work all the way through, taking responsibility for design review, testing, release quality, and what happens after the deployShape the product, not just implement it. Partner with Product and Design to pressure-test ideas, flag trade-offs early, and propose better approaches when you see oneImprove how we ship by strengthening our testing, QA, and release practices as we push for higher quality without giving up speedContribute to our engineering practices and tooling, bringing what you've learned elsewhere about how strong teams work and helping us adopt itCollaborate closely with a small, senior team where code review is a real conversation and technical decisions get made in the openDefine your role by pitching in wherever you can drive impact: dive into infrastructure, help with data questions, or pick up an area nobody owns yet; you have the flexibility to shape your role beyond traditional functional boundariesRequirementsStrong production experience with React, Node.js, and TypeScript, with a track record of shipping and maintaining real user-facing softwareGenuine full-stack range: you're comfortable moving between UI work, API design, and data modeling in the same weekDemonstrated ability to scope your own work, take an ambiguous problem, break it down, communicate the plan, and execute itStrong judgment about quality and trade-offs, knowing when something needs to be done properly and when shipping today is the right callClear communicator who works well with non-engineers and can explain technical decisions to Product, Design, and MarketingFluency with modern AI-assisted development workflows as part of your day-to-day engineering practiceSomeone who actually cares: about students, about craft, and about the team around youUS-based and able to work as a full-time employeeNot required, but a strong plus:Basic infrastructure and DevOps experience (CI/CD, deployments, observability)Experience with both document and relational databases, especially MongoDB and PostgresExperience at a larger or AI-native engineering organization, and the practices you'd bring from itExperience with experimentation and A/B testing (Statsig or similar), payments (Stripe), or analytics instrumentation (Segment, Mixpanel)Comfort with ambiguity and wearing multiple hats in a fast-paced startupBenefitsCompetitive salary ($160k - $190k based on experience) + equityRemote-first (with optional quarterly SF meetups)Full health benefits (medical, dental, vision)401(k) with company matchFlexible PTO + company holidaysProfessional development budgetHome office stipendWellness resourcesMonthly hackathons