Staff Software Engineer, Decision Makers

Change.org is searching for a Staff Software Engineer to provide technical leadership on our Decision Makers team, a product-focused team building tools that help petition starters reach and influence elected officials, enabling meaningful civic engagement and policy impact.

We’re a social impact business (a public benefit company), and the world's largest social change platform with 100 million users, 40,000+ campaigns launched on the site every month, and a 100% user-generated revenue model. Our users win campaigns for change once every hour. We’re working for a world where no one is powerless, and where creating change is a part of everyday life. We’re just getting started and hope you’ll join us!

From mobilizing over 5 million people to investigate the fires in the Amazon, to mobilizing nearly 3 million against war and famine in Yemen, to large-scale mobilizations for the people of Iran and against the war in Ukraine, and calling for Racial Justice in the US, many movements were born on Change.org. Dozens of local, national, and international victories are happening every day thanks to the strength of our members who are changing the lives of people around the world. We want to help them go even further and we need your help!

Key Outcomes:

• Architect and scale core systems that power outreach and engagement with journalists, influencers, or elected officials.

• Drive technical strategy and architectural decisions, ensuring systems are performant, scalable, and maintainable.

• Lead cross-functional initiatives with Product, Design, and other partners to deliver impactful, data-informed solutions.

• Mentor engineers across levels, providing design feedback, coaching, and raising the technical bar across the org.
  Establish and uphold engineering best practices that support adaptability in a fast-evolving civic, media, and AI landscape.

• This job is expected to participate in our on call rotation.

The most important core competencies for the role are:

• Technical Leadership & Architecture – Sets and communicates architectural vision; designs robust, distributed systems with attention to scalability, observability, and long-term maintainability. Balances strategic design with timely execution.

• Full Stack Engineering – Expertise in React, Node.js, and Ruby on Rails. Strong understanding of modern web application patterns, REST/GraphQL APIs, and relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL).

• AI/ML Integration – Comfortable leveraging LLMs or similar technologies to improve workflows (e.g., message generation or personalization), though deep AI experience is not required.

• Planning & Execution – Defines technical strategy, evaluation criteria, and execution plans for complex projects. Anticipates risks, ensures resilience, and aligns deliverables with team and company goals.

• Mentorship & Coaching – Guides engineers through design, implementation, and long-term growth. Fosters a culture of quality, inclusion, and continuous learning.

• Communication & Collaboration – Communicates complex technical concepts clearly across disciplines. Partners effectively with PMs, designers, and data leads to align priorities and make trade-offs transparent.

Target experience:

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with 2–3 years operating at a Staff or equivalent level.

• Proven success architecting and scaling distributed systems and production-grade APIs.

• Deep experience with frontend frameworks (React, TypeScript) and backend stacks (Node.js, Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL).

• Track record of leading complex, cross-functional initiatives and influencing technical direction beyond their immediate team.

• Demonstrated ability to balance product impact, reliability, and technical debt in a fast-moving environment.

Interested? Great! Here's what you should know:

This is a full time role based in the United States. We’re currently able to hire staff based in the following US locations: Alaska (AK), Arizona (AZ), California (CA), Connecticut (CT), District of Columbia (DC), Florida (FL), Georgia (GA), Illinois (IL), Iowa (IA), Kansas (KS), Maryland (MD), Massachusetts (MA), Minnesota (MN), Missouri (MO), New Jersey (NJ), New York (NY), North Carolina (NC), Oregon (OR), Pennsylvania (PA), Rhode Island (RI), Texas (TX), Vermont (VT), Virginia (VA), Washington (WA), Wisconsin (WI). 

Our compensation philosophy is based on pay equity. All of our salaries are determined before we launch a role – they are based on a predetermined salary scale, the level on that scale and the cost of labor for that location. The annual salary of a Staff Software Engineer is $230,000 USD in SF/NYC, $218,500 USD in Austin/Boston/Chicago/DC/LA/Seattle and $195,500 USD in all other cities.

Benefits and perks also vary based on location. 

Our evaluation process is as follows:

• 30 min Recruiter Screen

• 60 min Hiring Manager Interview and 30 min Product Manager Interview

• 4 hour take home assignment

• 30 min take home review with the Hiring Manager

• 30 min executive interview with our CTO

We know the confidence gap and imposter syndrome can get in the way of meeting amazing candidates like you, so please don’t hesitate to apply—we’d love to meet you. We also know it’s rare for someone to meet 100% of the qualifications. Please apply anyway!

We actively encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds and perspectives to apply. At Change.org, we are dedicated to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. We invest in programs to support our diverse workforce, offer inclusive onboarding experiences and affinity groups, celebrate the heritage of our staff, provide training on working across differences, and maintain fair and transparent salary scales. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, or culture.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process for candidates with disabilities. If you need assistance, or an accommodation, please let your recruiter know once you are contacted about a role.

We're committed to protecting your data. To learn more, please review our Change.org Job Applicant Privacy Policy.

We are legally required to conduct EEOC reporting. While this is required by the federal government, we recognize that it does not include all genders and ethnicities. We want you to know that Change.org celebrates all identities and we thank you for your participation.

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