Lead Engineer / Full-Stack & Backend

College Board•Reston, VA

50d•$165,000 - $179,000

About The Position

This is a chance to have a direct hand in building the future of BigFuture, the most widely used college and career planning platform for students. As a Lead Engineer on this team, you are a leader, collaborator, and innovator. You Own the technical direction: Define, document, and communicate the architecture and design patterns for the system or product area. You have a strong interest in understanding our stakeholders and leveraging new technologies to support them. You’ll work closely with product owners, architects, and designers to translate ideas into solutions, and with fellow engineers to raise the bar on code quality, documentation, and sustainable practices including operational readiness and monitoring. From day one, you’ll be encouraged to coach teammates, influence technical decisions, and help simplify complex problems so that students and educators experience fast, reliable, and meaningful tools. Beyond building products, this role offers you the opportunity to elevate engineering practices, explore emerging technologies like AI, and grow into a trusted technical leader whose work impacts millions of students each year. You are not shy about taking on new work you may not have done before while owning all phases of prototyping including requirements definition and analysis, application design, coding, reviewing, testing, deploying, and support. You are eager to lead by example as well as more formally through peer collaboration, coaching and mentoring.

Requirements

7+ years of professional experience designing, building, testing, and managing scalable web applications in AWS-hosted environments
3+ years’ experience building back-end applications using Node(with TypeScript)
Experience with relational and NoSQL databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redshift, DynamoDB)
Experience building observability for your products: Set up CloudWatch, X-Ray, for logging, metrics, and alerts.
Hands-on experience implementing Generative AI applications (e.g., RAG chatbots, model fine-tuning, or other LLM-powered tools)
Enthusiasm for learning new technologies, especially in the fast-moving GenAI space
Strong knowledge and hands-on experience with back-end technologies such as Node.js and/or Python
Experience with asynchronous programming and event-driven messaging patterns
Strong knowledge of AWS services (e.g., Lambda, SNS, SQS, S3, Step Functions, IAM, KMS, API Gateway, CloudWatch, DynamoDB)
Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments
Proven ability to mentor and coach less experienced teammates in new technologies
Strong analytical thinking, structured problem-solving, and practical decision-making skills
Effective communication and documentation skills
Proficiency in reviewing and improving code structure and architecture for testability, maintainability, and scalability, with hands-on experience in JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Node.js, Next.js, APIs, and AWS Serverless technologies (Lambdas, DynamoDB, S3, CloudWatch, etc.).
Leadership in the end-to-end design and implementation of user interfaces, from architectural planning and component strategy through to polished execution, including accessibility, performance optimization, and mentoring peers on building intuitive, scalable, and user-centric front-end solutions.
Strong problem-solving skills, working collaboratively with team members to identify and resolve issues, and partnering with Product Owners to prioritize backlog.
Proven ability to pitch new ideas and implement improved systems and processes, delivering excellent results.
Effective communicator and team lead, able to provide actionable feedback, mentor team members, and participate in interviews to evaluate engineering talent.
Bachelor's degree in computer science, or related engineering fields preferred
A passion for expanding educational and career opportunities and mission-driven work
Authorization to work in the United States for any employer
Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions and a comfort learning and applying new digital tools independently and proactively.
Clear and concise communication skills, written and verbal
A learner's mindset and a commitment to growth: welcoming diverse perspectives, giving and receiving timely, respectful feedback, and continuously improving through iterative learning and user input.
A drive for impact and excellence: solving complex problems, making data-informed decisions, prioritizing what matters most, and continuously improving through learning, user input, and external benchmarking.
A collaborative and empathetic approach: working across differences, fostering trust, and contributing to a culture of shared success.

Responsibilities

Design and deliver high-quality software that is scalable, secure, and reusable—leveraging modern technologies, proven design patterns, and cloud-native practices to power BigFuture’s core tools.
Collaborate with product owners, architects, and stakeholders to uphold the highest engineering standards and translate big ideas into impactful, student-facing solutions.
Break down new product capabilities into actionable, verifiable technical changes that move quickly from concept to reality.
Design and implement solutions to allow rapid testing of innovative concepts using the latest technologies, typically React web apps
Create sharable documentation, both technical and non-technical
Exercise discretion in prototyping: investing time to make sure the most important things work well, and working with the team to mock or minimize less important features
Maintain clean code and strong engineering standards such that when prototypes are greenlit for further development, the project is easy to build upon
Continuously develop the skills required to work with this rapidly developing technology
Participate in, or lead Agile SCRUM ceremonies (Sprint Planning, Grooming, Daily SCRUM, Demo) by contributing to team deliverables and driving alignment, focus, and momentum across sprints.
Elevate team performance by giving and receiving thoughtful code reviews, mentoring peers, and helping solve complex technical challenges.
Assist in resolving production issues with urgency and precision, ensuring a smooth and reliable user experience.
Model discipline in adhering to development standards, security practices, and CI/CD principles while helping the team move fast without compromising quality.
Continuously grow your skills and embrace a poly-skilled environment where everyone contributes beyond their specialty.
Serve as an organizational Subject Matter Expert on implementing Generative AI applications
Work with our Enterprise Architecture team to review and/or establish implementation patterns involving Generative AI tools
Advise on, and where feasible, create tools and infrastructure that will enable teams to safely deploy Generative AI tools
Keep abreast of developments in GenAI capabilities and implementations
Share knowledge of new developments with the team via chats, meetings, and presentations when appropriate
Serve as an advisor to internal teams developing staff education around Generative AI