Senior Software Engineer

Job Title: Senior Software Engineer, Backend
Location: 100% Remote - anywhere in the Continental U.S.
Salary: $155,000/year
Note: All advertised positions are salaried and full-time.

About us

We are Friends From The City, a design and technology company focused on public impact and equity. We believe that inclusive design and accessible technology are essential to a just society. Every person we hire brings a distinct perspective, and we celebrate that.

Our mission is to make digital interactions with the government simple, intuitive, and accessible. That means removing barriers like confusing user flows, inaccessible content, or language limitations that prevent people from getting what they need.

We use human-centered design, thoughtful research, and well-crafted, reliable code to build digital products that work for everyone.

Why this role exists

Somewhere in a state government office right now, a staff member is processing a student's financial-aid application by hand, pulling pieces of that student's record out of a 1970s-era mainframe, a SQL Server database, a Microsoft Access file, and a shared network drive, then re-keying it all into yet another screen. Multiply that by roughly 440,000 applications a year, for about a billion dollars of aid that families are counting on, and you have the problem we're hired to fix.

You'll help build the consolidated, modern portal that replaces that patchwork, work that decides whether a parent finds out about their kid's tuition aid in days instead of weeks. This is public-interest engineering with a real person on the other end of every API call.

The work you'll actually do

The system of record is a DB2 mainframe, with more data spread across Microsoft SQL Server and older stores. We're standing up a cloud-native .NET (C#) application (three-tier, microservices, containers, REST APIs, running in a government cloud tenant) alongside the legacy system, and moving responsibility over to it one slice at a time. The mainframe can't go dark while we do it; staff are using it every day.

So your days look like

Carving a new .NET service off the old monolith and wiring it to data that still lives on the mainframe; designing REST APIs that a front-end team consumes to give staff a single screen instead of five; keeping data consistent between the old world and the new one while both are live; moving events between systems so nothing falls out of sync; making authentication and citizens' financial data airtight against government security standards (the app federates to an agency identity provider over SAML2/OIDC); and proving every change is safe with tests and monitoring before it touches production. You'll do code reviews and help set the bar for the engineers around you.

If you've ever incrementally replaced a legacy system that wasn't allowed to break, and felt the specific anxiety of the first cut-over, this is your kind of problem.

What tells us you can do this

We care less about a keyword list than about whether you've lived this kind of work. The engineers who thrive here tend to have five or so years building server-side systems in C#/.NET, are comfortable in TypeScript on the front-of-backend seam, and have actually integrated relational databases like SQL Server or DB2 behind clean APIs rather than just queried them. You've designed microservices and REST APIs that other teams depend on, moved data between systems with event streaming, and implemented real authentication and authorization (OAuth2 / OIDC / SAML). Most importantly, you can tell the story of a migration you personally carried, including the part that went wrong.

Nice to have (genuinely optional)

• You've done incremental legacy modernization before
• Government, civic-tech, or other regulated/high-stakes environments
• Azure (especially government cloud), containers, CI/CD, infrastructure as code
• A public artifact you're proud of, like a repo, a merged PR, a talk, or a write-up, that you can walk us through in depth

Education & experience

• Bachelor’s degree in any discipline or equivalent experience. 5-7 years of relevant experience preferred. If the mission and the problem excite you and you can do the work, apply even if you don't check every box.

We believe people do their best work when they feel supported, valued, and inspired. At Friends From The City, our benefits are designed to help you thrive at work and in life.

Compensation & Time Off

• Competitive salary based on experience and market benchmarks
• 401(k) with company match to help you invest in your future
• 18 days of PTO, 11 paid federal holidays, and 5 additional sick days to rest, recharge, and take care of yourself
• Flexible remote work with support for coworking memberships if needed

Health & Wellness

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Life insurance and short-term disability coverage
• Wellness-first culture that respects boundaries and encourages balance

Professional Growth

• Annual Professional Development Stipend to invest in courses, conferences, books, or coaching
• Opportunities to lead, mentor, and learn across projects and disciplines
• Regular feedback, growth planning, and clear career pathways

Work Culture & Values

• A collaborative, mission-driven team that values your perspective
• The chance to work on meaningful civic tech projects that directly improve people’s lives
• An environment where creativity, curiosity, and care are part of the job

Our Hiring Process

Visit our Candidate Handbook to learn more about what to expect.