Senior Software Engineer, Infrastructure

About Magpie

At Magpie, we envision a world where every child, no matter their background, becomes a confident reader. Our nonprofit team combines research-backed instruction, joyful game design, and innovative technology to tackle America’s reading crisis head-on — with the goal of eradicating illiteracy through a digital-first, student-centered approach.

Role Summary

We’re seeking an experienced Full Stack - Senior Software Engineer to join our small, mission-driven Platform team. You’ll wear many hats, work across boundaries, and help us build a platform that scales impact—not just traffic.

In this role, you’ll work across the full software development lifecycle, building backend services, frontend. You’ll help create experiences that meet every child where they are in their learning journey, while unlocking actionable insights for educators and families.

You’re drawn to missions that matter. You think deeply about how the software you build runs in production and how to contribute to the infrastructure, tooling, and systems that make our applications reliable, scalable, and secure for kids. You balance pragmatism with curiosity and build for the long term. The ideal candidate is comfortable moving between application code and infrastructure, whether that means building a new service, defining its AWS resources in Terraform, or troubleshooting an issue in production, with a strong sense of ownership from development through deployment.

What You’ll Do:

• Design and build platform capabilities that deliver reliable, high-value features with safety, precision, and user focus across the frontend, backend, and supporting infrastructure.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and fellow engineers to create new features and improve existing ones.
• Approach the platform as a product: maintain a clear understanding of customer needs, identify friction points, and take ownership of outcomes with metrics-driven decision making (KPIs, OKRs, and North Star metrics).
• Use data to inform decisions, measure impact, and drive improvements through empirical evidence.
• Own features and services across the full lifecycle, from design and implementation through deployment, monitoring, infrastructure and production support.
• Continuously improve the flow of work from idea to production, using data to identify and remove friction.
• Write clean, efficient, and well-documented code following best practices.
• Build and maintain APIs, and integrate with third-party services.
• Ensure application performance, quality, and responsiveness across platforms.
• Participate in code reviews, testing, and debugging to maintain high-quality deliverables.
• Mentor other engineers and contribute to their growth.
• Participate in architectural decisions and help define technical standards, best practices and address application and infrastructure concerns.
• Stay up to date with emerging technologies and suggest improvements to enhance development processes.

A strong candidate will possess:

✅ 6+ years of full-stack engineering experience, with a track record of building systems, driving engineering standards, and setting technical direction.

✅ Hands-on experience with AWS and cloud infrastructure, with an understanding of how applications are deployed, secured, monitored, and operated in production.

✅ Experience with Terraform or another Infrastructure as Code tool as well as understanding of cloud concepts including IAM, compute, storage and service to service communication.

✅ Experience building for both internal stakeholders and external users, including complex systems such as authentication, onboarding, or enablement features.

✅ Experience writing automated tests (unit, integration, and/or end-to-end) as part of normal delivery workflow, with an understanding of how testing supports confident, frequent deployment.

✅ You’ve led the design or delivery of meaningful systems that improved outcomes for users or teams.

✅ Startup or early-stage company experience, ideally as a founding engineer, with a strong sense of ownership over what you build.

✅ A pragmatic approach to tools and technologies, with the ability to explore alternatives and make recommendations to improve systems and processes.

Tech Stack:

• Infrastructure / Backend: Terraform, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), AWS, SQL/NoSQL (Postgres, Mongo, Timestream), Lambda
• Software / Frontend: TypeScript, JavaScript, CSS, React

Within your first 30 days, you will:

• Pair with teammates across disciplines to learn how we build, ship, and support new features.
• Start contributing to production code and exploring our workflows, tools, and deployment practices.
• Get comfortable in the codebase, understanding our architecture and systems.
• Embrace Magpie’s spirit of curiosity and exploration—ask questions, challenge assumptions, and dig into our models and mission.
• Connect with cross-functional teams to see how engineering supports product and learning goals.

By day 60, you are:

• A fully integrated member of the team, collaborating across product, engineering, and operations.
• Owning smaller features or components end-to-end and delivering user-focused solutions.
• Contributing to technical discussions, code reviews, and team decision-making.
• Identifying opportunities to improve systems, processes, or developer experience.
• Building deeper connections with teammates and understanding how your work drives Magpie’s mission forward.

By day 90, you will:

• Help shape how we build—mentoring teammates, influencing architecture, and evolving the platform for scale.
• Take an active role in design discussions and long-term technical planning.
• Establish and refine patterns, processes, and documentation that strengthen our engineering culture.
• Lead by example in code quality, testing, and collaboration.
• Be recognized for your curiosity, craftsmanship, and ability to lift others up.

What Success Looks Like:

• You consistently drive progress—enhancing our systems, sharing knowledge, and delivering meaningful results.
• You take initiative, spot and solve problems early, and bring creative solutions to the table.
• You elevate those around you through mentorship, collaboration, and communication.
• You directly contribute to Magpie’s mission: making reading joyful, accessible, and transformative for every child.

What You'll Receive:

• Salary range of $145,000 - $160,000 per annum
• Competitive medical, dental, vision benefits
• Opportunity to work remotely for a mission-driven company full of change-makers
• Enjoy the freedom of flexible time off to balance work and personal life, ensuring you stay refreshed and productive.
• 401k with 4% guaranteed match
• Work environment that values balance and harmony with a deep commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion
• Opportunity to travel and meet your team members in-person 2x per year

Join Us

At Magpie, your work will directly unlock the great reader in every child. If you’re ready to lead with purpose, build with urgency, and partner with a mission-driven team to solve one of America’s biggest educational challenges — we want to hear from you.

We’re happy to make reasonable accommodations to support accessibility throughout the interview process. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if there’s anything we can do to make your interview more accessible.