Staff Software Engineer

Staff Software Engineer

Location: Austin, Texas (Hybrid)

Esper upholds the ethic of government policymaking. Founded in 2018 by Maleka Momand, Joe Lonsdale (Palantir, OpenGov, 8VC), and Lilli O’Hara (GoFundMe), Esper empowers thousands of government employees each day to make decisions that best serve the public interest. In a world sown with divisiveness, our mission is to be a north star for principled, accountable, and trustworthy government.

Esper is looking for an experienced Staff Software Engineer to help drive this mission forward.

As a Staff Software Engineer, you will be responsible for building and maintaining features and business logic for our applications.

In this role, you will collaborate closely with designers, product managers, and frontend engineers to deliver high-quality and well-designed user experiences. You should be comfortable working in a fast-paced and dynamic environment, and able to quickly adapt to changing requirements and priorities.

What you’ll do:

- Design, build, and maintain features for our applications

- Write clean, maintainable, and well-documented code

- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality products

- Work closely with frontend developers to develop clean API contracts

- Continuously improve the performance, reliability, and security of our applications

- Stay up-to-date with the latest backend technologies and best practices

What technologies we use:

- Backend applications built using Micronaut with Java 21

- Distributed systems technologies including Kafka, gRPC, Temporal.io, Redis

- Docker and Kubernetes for orchestration

- Build tooling including Gradle, GitHub, and CircleCI

What we’re looking for:

- 8+ years of experience

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent work experience

- Excellent communication and collaboration skills

- Ability to work independently and as part of a team

- Strong attention to detail and ability to deliver high-quality work under tight deadlines

- If you are a self-starter with a passion for building great experiences, we would love to hear from you.

Perks and Benefits:

- Being a part of an innovative and collaborative team that will both support and challenge you

- Significant opportunity for growth and ownership

- Ability to shape Esper for the long-term

- Paid holidays & unlimited PTO

- Medical, dental, and vision insurance

- Generous parental & sick leave

- 401(k) retirement plan with employer match

- Short/Long term disability & life insurance

- Flexible spending account (FSA)

- Work anniversary equity grants

- Monthly stipend to offset remote work expenses

- Office equipment allowance

- Paid Time Off to participate in volunteer/community events

Annual salary: $170,000 - $200,000