Senior Software Engineer, Product

The Role
Most government software was built for compliance, not for the people who use it. Kaizen is changing that, and the engineers who work here are the reason it’s possible. At the senior level, this role carries more than code: you’re shaping how AI-native features get designed, scoped, and shipped across a platform that millions of Americans touch when they need something from their government. You’ll be one of a small number of engineers with direct influence over what gets built and how: setting technical direction, mentoring teammates, and driving decisions that stick.

Location
This is a hybrid role based out of our New York City HQ. Candidates must reside in New York or be able to commute to New York City to work out of our office at least three times a week (Tuesdays – Thursdays).

What You’ll Do
Architect and ship full-stack features end-to-end, from scoping and technical design through build, iteration, and production
Lead the development of AI-powered product surfaces: intelligent intake flows, real-time constituent assistants, automated case routing, agency operator dashboards
Set technical direction and raise the bar on code quality. Your decisions become the patterns the rest of the team builds on
Engage directly with federal agency stakeholders to translate messy real-world requirements into clean, shippable product
Own platform reliability and performance at government scale: real SLAs, real users, no abstraction layer between you and accountability
Mentor earlier-career engineers through code review, pairing, and direct technical feedback

What You’ll Bring
5+ years of professional engineering experience, with a track record of owning complex features and systems, not just executing on them
Deep fluency in React / Next.js and Node.js / TypeScript / Postgres. Fast, not just functional
AI coding tools (Cursor, Copilot, Claude) are already baked into how you work. You’ve shipped with them, and you move measurably faster because of it
You’ve built something real: a product, an open source project, a system you designed and stood behind
Proven ability to operate in ambiguity: you define the problem as often as you solve it, and you don’t stall waiting for the answer to come to you
A genuine orientation toward the end user, the person on the other side of the screen isn’t an abstraction to you