Sr. Software Engineer

Unify America•Chicago, IL

4d•$135,000 - $150,000

About The Position

We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to help build and maintain the platforms behind our programs. You'll ship features end to end, shape technical decisions, set a high bar for code quality, and mentor other engineers. You'll work closely with our CTO, product manager, and program teams to turn real-world civic engagement needs into reliable, thoughtfully designed software. About Unify America We’re on a mission to replace political fighting with collaborative problem-solving. Yeah, we know it sounds audacious. It is. But we’re doing it—by creating civic experiences that reduce polarization, teaching essential civic skills, and inviting Americans to use their differences to better solve common problems together. Where we work: Higher Education (Civic Gym): Over 50,000 college students have engaged in meaningful cross-partisan conversations. Think of it as training for democracy—reps, sweat, and all. Cities (Democracy Leagues): We partner with communities to run Civic Assemblies, where residents—across the ideological spectrum—solve shared problems together. Our first pilot is in Akron, with more locations to come. We're a small, mission-driven team of about 30 people, and our engineering team is small enough that every engineer has a real voice in how we build. Civic Gym has a more mature technical product that our existing Dev Team is in the process of re-factoring. Democracy Leagues is just at the beginning of building a product suite to prepare us to scale our deliberative democracy work in Ohio and beyond. This role will anchor the Democracy Leagues Dev Team under the guidance of our CTO. About the Role You'll ship features end to end, shape technical decisions, set a high bar for code quality, and mentor other engineers. You'll work closely with our CTO, product manager, and program teams to turn real-world civic engagement needs into reliable, thoughtfully designed software. More specifically, you’ll: Design, build, and maintain full-stack features across our Django and TypeScript/Node.js backends and Vue.js front end Design and evolve data models in both MongoDB and PostgreSQL, making sound tradeoffs about structure, indexing, and performance Work with AWS services such as Lambda, S3, Aurora, DynamoDB, and IAM to build, deploy, and operate our applications Contribute to the architecture of our new civic assembly platform, including a modular, plugin-based design Write clean, well-tested, maintainable code, and hold a high bar in code review Mentor mid-level and contract engineers through pairing, review, and clear technical guidance Help keep our production systems reliable, especially during high-traffic program windows Communicate clearly with non-technical colleagues about scope, tradeoffs, and timelines

Requirements

5+ years of professional software engineering experience, including time in medium- to large-sized engineering organizations
Deep expertise in the JavaScript ecosystem, including TypeScript and Node.js
Strong experience with Vue.js (preferred) or React
Hands-on experience in Python and Django
Hands-on experience with relational and NoSQL databases, specifically PostgreSQL and MongoDB, including the ability to design schemas and data models from first principles
Practical experience working with AWS services such as Lambda, S3, Aurora, DynamoDB, and IAM roles and policies
Experience using AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT) judiciously. You use them to move faster, but you understand, verify, and take ownership of every line you ship, and you're fully capable of designing, debugging, and reasoning through problems without them
Strong written and verbal communication skills, and comfort working with both technical and non-technical teammates
A track record of taking initiative, owning outcomes, and valuing quality over volume
A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field is preferred. We also welcome candidates with equivalent professional experience and relevant certifications or credentials (e.g., AWS certifications, quality bootcamps).

Nice To Haves

Experience with NestJS
Experience with infrastructure as code, especially Terraform
Experience with real-time or video-based applications
Experience in the nonprofit, civic tech, education technology, or public-interest sectors
Experience designing extensible systems (plugin architectures, module contracts, public APIs)
We hire for character and collaboration as much as technical skill. We look for people who communicate openly, treat colleagues with respect, take initiative without waiting to be told, and care about doing things well rather than doing things fast. Given our mission, we especially value people who can engage respectfully with a wide range of perspectives.

Responsibilities

Design, build, and maintain full-stack features across our Django and TypeScript/Node.js backends and Vue.js front end
Design and evolve data models in both MongoDB and PostgreSQL, making sound tradeoffs about structure, indexing, and performance
Work with AWS services such as Lambda, S3, Aurora, DynamoDB, and IAM to build, deploy, and operate our applications
Contribute to the architecture of our new civic assembly platform, including a modular, plugin-based design
Write clean, well-tested, maintainable code, and hold a high bar in code review
Mentor mid-level and contract engineers through pairing, review, and clear technical guidance
Help keep our production systems reliable, especially during high-traffic program windows
Communicate clearly with non-technical colleagues about scope, tradeoffs, and timelines