Senior Software Engineer - Performance & Architecture

Founded in 1986, KPA is a leading provider of Workforce Compliance software and consulting services. We succeed if our clients can send their employees home at night, having not experienced a workplace accident or injury. The combination of software, consulting, and training helps clients identify, remedy, and prevent workplace safety and compliance problems so they can focus on what’s important – their core business. 

Help us help keep people safe and businesses working efficiently. Named as one of Built In Colorado’s Best Places to Work for six years in a row, KPA is made up of talented individuals working together for the greater good. We’re here to help our clients build safe, thriving organizations, and we’re looking for people with a common goal to help us do it. 

Position Description:

We’re seeking a Senior Software Engineer, Performance & Architecture who is passionate about building for scale and reliability. This role is ideal for engineers who think in systems, enjoy profiling and optimizing complex applications, and thrive on improving architectural design for speed, scalability, and maintainability. You will not be developing user-facing features — instead, your impact will be measured by how efficiently and reliably the platform performs.

KPA’s Flex platform helps clients build comprehensive EHS programs that foster safe, productive workplaces. The platform powers real-time data collection, audits, incident management, training, and analytics — all delivered through a modern, web-based SaaS solution.

If you’re an experienced software engineer with a deep understanding of distributed systems, performance tuning, and architecture best practices, this is the role for you.

Responsibilities:

• Establish a full local development environment and gain familiarity with KPA Flex’s existing architecture and data flows.
• Review system metrics, profiling tools, and performance benchmarks to identify potential improvements.
• Begin collaborating with technical leaders on architectural priorities and bottlenecks.

• Participate in agile ceremonies with a focus on system performance, scalability, and architecture reviews.
• Document architectural patterns and recommend opportunities for optimization and simplification.
• Partner with cross-functional teams (DevOps, QA, Product) to ensure consistent architectural alignment.

• Lead performance-focused improvements, including refactoring, caching, and load optimization.
• Participate in and influence design discussions with a focus on scalability, reliability, and efficiency.
• Establish performance testing frameworks and help guide engineering best practices.

• Define and evangelize technical standards for performance, reliability, and architectural consistency.
• Support code and design reviews, mentoring other engineers on sustainable, performant patterns.
• Partner with leadership to shape long-term system architecture and technical strategy.

• Become a go-to subject matter expert on KPA Flex’s architecture, performance, and scalability.
• Delivered measurable improvements in platform speed, stability, and maintainability.
• Played a key role in future-proofing the platform’s design for continued growth.

• Ability to think at the system level with optimization and performance as the main drivers.
• Consistently deliver measurable improvements in system performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Actively shape architectural decisions that guide platform direction and technical quality.
• Collaborate across engineering teams to ensure performance-minded design at every layer.
• Provide mentorship on software efficiency, architectural principles, and secure coding practices (OWASP, SDLC).
• Proactively identify and resolve system-level risks before they impact production.

• Ideally 8+ years of software engineering experience, including substantial exposure to distributed system design or SaaS application architecture.
• Deep expertise in NodeJS / JavaScript / TypeScript.
• Strong database skills with SQL / PostgreSQL, MongoDB also preferred.
• Experience analyzing and improving application performance and system scalability.
• Familiarity with modern web frameworks (Vue, React, or WebPack) and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Proficiency in profiling, benchmarking, and debugging tools.

• Experience with mobile architecture (Objective-C, Swift, Java, Kotlin)
• Familiarly with multi-tenant SaaS platforms

• Annual base salary between $130-140k
• Bonus potential of 10% annually
• This is a full-time, exempt position

• Physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Don’t meet every job requirement? At KPA, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply unless they meet every requirement. If you’re excited about the role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification, we still encourage you to apply! You might just be the right candidate for this or other roles.

As a growing company KPA values its employees by supporting them with a full benefits package including Medical, Dental, Vision, Flexible Spending Accounts, PTO, Paid and Floating Holidays, 401k with Company match and immediate vesting, Company-funded Life Insurance, Employee Assistance Programs, and No-cost Mental Health Benefits.

About KPA

Founded in 1986, KPA is a leading provider of Environment, Health & Safety (EHS), and Workforce Compliance software and consulting services. KPA solutions help clients identify, remedy, and prevent workplace safety and compliance problems across their entire enterprise. The combination of KPA's software, consulting services, and award-winning training content helps organizations minimize risk so they can focus on what's important—their core business.  

We are passionate about what we do, how we do and why we do it. Our culture is driven by the KPA core values – Integrity, Helpful, Excellence, Agile, Respectful, and Teamwork. Success will be determined by the capabilities, energy and character of the people we bring into our organization and the performance they achieve.

KPA, with headquarters in Colorado and teammates throughout the United Sates, is recognized as one of Colorado's Best Midsize Places to Work by Built In Colorado for 2024.  

“To be ranked in Built In’s Best Places to Work Awards is a recognition of KPA’s dedication to creating a team of outstanding professionals and our efforts to create a positive and safe workplace culture for everyone,” said Chris Fanning, KPA President and CEO. “I believe we’ve developed a high caliber organization comprised of passionate people who are experts in their respective fields and deliver great value to our customers.”

KPA is committed to providing equal opportunity in all of our employment practices, including selection, hiring, promotion, transfer, and compensation, to all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, religion, religious dress/grooming, color, ethnicity, sex (including sex stereotyping), sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, creed, uniform service member status, military or veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, breast-feeding and/or pregnancy-related conditions, age, protected medical condition, leave status, physical or mental disability, genetic characteristics, or any other legally-protected status in accordance with the requirements of all federal, state and local laws. In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification document form upon hire.

If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at [email protected].