Senior Software Engineer - Full Stack

At Crisis Text Line, engineering, product, and design work as one team to create a trusted, innovative, and deeply human-centered Crisis Care Platform. Our technology supports millions of people in moments of need and empowers global partners to deliver life-saving support at scale.

We’re seeking a senior full-stack engineer who is passionate about shipping production-ready software, owning high-impact features end-to-end, and tackling complex technical challenges that have real-world impact.

Role:

As a Senior Full-Stack Software Engineer, you will design, build, deploy, and operate core platform features used by people in their most vulnerable moments. You’ll help evolve our API-first, services-driven architecture while raising the bar on security, reliability, and developer experience.

This is a highly hands-on role for engineers who want deep ownership, technical influence, and mission-driven impact.

Our Stack

You’ll work across a modern, cloud-based environment, including:

• Backend: Services, APIs (GraphQL), relational databases
• Frontend: Full-stack ownership of user-facing and internal tools
• Cloud: AWS
• Infrastructure: Terraform (nice to have)
• Observability: Datadog, Grafana
• CI/CD: Automated pipelines and DevOps-first culture

Responsibilities

• Own features end-to-end: Design, build, test, ship, and maintain full-stack features in production.
• Solve hard problems: Break down ambiguous technical challenges and deliver scalable, secure solutions.
• Champion security: Contribute to authentication, authorization, and platform security practices.
• Build for scale: Improve service architecture, APIs, and system reliability as we grow globally.
• Collaborate deeply: Partner with product, design, and engineering peers to deliver high-impact solutions.
• Raise engineering quality: Improve testing, CI/CD, observability, and developer workflows.
• Support production: Participate in on-call rotation to ensure platform reliability.

Qualifications:

• 6+ years of experience programming in a high-level language
• 4+ years of experience in full-stack development
• Experience working with telemetry tools such as Datadog or Grafana
• Experience working with Terraform is a plus
• Experience working within cloud environments (AWS).
• Hands‑on experience with PHP (Symfony framework), Node.js, React/Redux, and Golang
• Strong experience working with relational databases such as MySQL and PostgreSQL, as well as caching technologies like Redis
• Experience building and maintaining REST‑based APIs and GraphQL APIs
• Strong problem-solving skills, ability to communicate analysis and reasoning clearly

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience acting as a security champion, including threat modeling, vulnerability remediation, or leading secure coding practices.
• Hands-on experience building or supporting authentication and identity systems (OAuth, SSO, JWT, RBAC, identity providers).
• Experience designing or evolving service-oriented or API-first architectures.
• Experience in improving or owning CI/CD infrastructure, deployment automation, and release processes.
• Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code, especially Terraform.
• Experience designing for high availability, performance, and observability at scale.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor other engineers, elevate code quality, and contribute to architectural discussions.
• Background working in mission-driven, regulated, or high-trust environments (e.g., healthcare, nonprofit, financial services).
• Strong product mindset with the ability to translate user and business needs into clean, scalable technical solutions.

Reliable High-Speed Internet Required: Must have a stable high-speed internet connection to support seamless remote collaboration, virtual meetings, online job tasks, etc.

The full salary range for this position, across all United States geographies, is $115,192 to $160,018. The upper portion of the salary range is typically reserved for existing employees who demonstrate strong performance over time. Starting salary will vary by location, qualifications, and prior experience; during the interview process, candidates will learn the starting salary range applicable for their location. We pay competitively in the tech-forward nonprofit space and offer a robust benefits package.

Only candidates in the following states will be eligible for employment: CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, MD, MA, MI, MO, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, PA, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA

Benefits & Well-Being

Crisis Text Line offers thoughtfully designed, equity-centered benefits that support holistic wellness, financial security, and flexibility. Our benefits are built to meet people where they are and reduce barriers to care and sustainability.

Highlights include:

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision options that prioritize accessibility and financial peace of mind
• Employer-funded HSA contributions
• Generous PTO, sick time, and 19 paid holidays with a winter break
• 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave after 26 consecutive weeks of service
• Monthly wellness and mental health stipends
• Home office and professional development stipends
• 403(b) retirement plan with employer contribution
• Sabbatical after 3 years of service

Benefits are for U.S.-based employees; international benefits may vary.

This is a remote-only position

Please note: The following eligibility applies to U.S.-based roles only.

Only candidates in the following states will be eligible for employment: CO, CT, FL, GA, IL, IN, MD, MA, MI, NJ, NM, NY, NC, PA, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA.