Engineer IV - Req002277_1 - 3175 - Remote Eligible

Engineer IV

This is a fully remote role. Candidates who live near CB offices have the option of being fully remote or hybrid (Tuesday and Wednesday in office). This is a full-time position.

BigFuture is committed to empowering all students to take the right first step after high school, reaching over 7 million students each year as the leading free resource for college, scholarship, and career exploration. The BigFuture HED teams build and maintain the full breadth of BigFuture products like BigFuture College Profile, Connections, Search, Intel, Wellspring and Aquifer that support the outcomes for the strategic HED and BigFuture. We work in an agile, collaborative environment that values creativity, curiosity, and problem-solving, delivering clean and sustainable solutions that scale to meet the needs of millions while reducing technical debt. Engineers on our team not only code, but also mentor, document, and partner with product and design to shape solutions and influence the direction of our work. We thrive on learning from each other, raising risks early, and finding simplicity in complexity, all while celebrating shared successes and growth. Together, we are mission-driven technologists who take pride in building products that positively transform the educational and career trajectories of students nationwide.

As an Engineer IV, you will contribute across the full stack with a primary focus on backend systems (60%) while still engaging meaningfully in frontend development (40%) to deliver high-impact, student-facing features. You bring deep experience in backend engineering-designing APIs, working with distributed systems, building serverless services, and ensuring performance and reliability at scale-while also demonstrating proficiency in modern frontend frameworks. You can navigate complex integrations, troubleshoot across service boundaries, and collaborate with UI engineers and designers to ensure cohesive, high-quality experiences. You\'ll work closely with product owners, architects, and other engineers to translate requirements into scalable technical solutions while raising the bar on code quality, documentation, and sustainable engineering practices. This role also offers opportunities to mentor teammates, influence system architecture, and explore emerging technologies like AI.

In this role, you will:

• Lead backend design and development (primary focus), building scalable, secure, and reliable services, APIs, and data integrations using modern cloud-native and serverless patterns.
• Develop backend components that support BigFuture\'s core capabilities, ensuring performance and resiliency for millions of users.
• Contribute to frontend implementation using React/Next.js-translating UX designs into performant, accessible, and modular interfaces.
• Break down product capabilities into verifiable technical work, ensuring backend and frontend systems integrate seamlessly.
• Champion Agile, CI/CD, DevOps, and instrumentation best practices to improve system health and developer velocity.
• Participate in or lead Agile ceremonies, promoting alignment, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Provide thoughtful code reviews across backend and frontend work, strengthening reliability and maintainability.
• Troubleshoot production issues across the stack with urgency and attention to root cause.
• Model engineering excellence-security, documentation, testing, and code quality.
• Develop an expert understanding of the business domain to design backend systems that reflect real user needs.
• Partner with architects and leads to shape technical direction, contributing backend-oriented insights that improve scalability and resilience.
• Participate in design and code reviews, offering guidance on backend architecture and API design while supporting frontend best practices.

About You - You Have:

• 4-6 years of production software engineering experience, owning the full lifecycle of features from design through deployment with a strong emphasis on backend architecture and API design.
• Deep expertise in Node.js, TypeScript, backend application architecture, distributed systems, API development, and AWS serverless technologies (Lambda, DynamoDB, S3, CloudWatch, etc.).
• Proficiency in modern frontend development (React, Next.js) with experience ensuring accessibility, performance, intuitive UX, and component-driven design.
• Strong problem-solving skills, able to drive clarity in ambiguous backend requirements and collaborate with product to guide prioritization.
• The ability to