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Lead Software Engineer - Full Stack

Stand TogetherArlington, Virginia

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Overview

Schedule
Full-time
Career level
Director
Benefits
Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Flexible/Unlimited PTO

Job Description

Stand Together is a philanthropic community that helps America’s boldest changemakers tackle the root causes of our country’s biggest problems, from education to the economy, broken communities, and toxic division, among dozens of other pressing issues. We provide our partners with access to resources including funding, thought leadership, a network of peers, and a playbook for applying proven principles to transform lives and society. 

Stand Together is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to provide technical leadership on our high-visibility, consumer-facing web applications. This role is responsible for the architecture, design, and delivery of scalable single-page applications built on AWS. 

The Lead Software Engineer will combine hands-on development with architectural oversight and supervisory responsibility, ensuring the reliability, performance, and long-term scalability of our digital ecosystem while mentoring engineers and partnering cross-functionally to deliver high-impact solutions.

How You Will Contribute

  • Lead architecture, design, and technical decision-making across the full application stack, including React and Next.js frontends, Node.js backend services, Contentful CMS integrations, and AWS cloud infrastructure.

  • Design, build, and maintain scalable, secure, and high-performing APIs.

  • Oversee CMS content modeling and editorial workflow optimization within Contentful CMS.

  • Improve CI/CD pipelines, deployment processes, monitoring, observability, and system reliability.

  • Ensure compliance with security, governance, and cloud infrastructure best practices within AWS.

  • Establish and enforce engineering standards, best practices, and scalable design patterns.

  • Provide technical mentorship, supervision, and performance guidance to engineers.

  • Partner with product, design, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into technical solutions.

  • Support sprint planning, technical estimation, roadmap development, and hiring efforts.

What You Will Bring

  • Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, engineering, or related field.

  • 10+ years of full stack software engineering experience including architecture.

  • Experience leading and mentoring software engineers.

  • Excellent collaboration, communication, and cross-functional partnership skills.

  • Strong Node.js backend experience—preferably NestJS.

  • Experience designing and consuming APIs and distributed or microservices-based architectures.

  • Experience with JWT / OIDC authentication (Auth0 or equivalent), passport-jwt / JWKS patterns.

  • Proven experience with both relational (SQL) and NoSQL databases — able to design schemas, optimize queries, manage multi-environment deployments/backups/scaling, and with hands-on operational MongoDB experience (replication, sharding, performance tuning) preferred.

  • Docker and container orchestration on AWS ECS (task definitions, logging, ECR).

  • AWS core services: Amplify, API GatewayALB/NLBS3EFSCloudWatchX-RayIAMVPC/VPC endpoints.

  • Experience building and maintaining automation within cloud-native environments using IaC frameworks (Terraform + Terragrunt).

  • CI/CD with GitHub Actions and GitHub OIDC for secure AWS deployments.

  • Observability and ops experience with logs/metrics/alarms, distributed tracing, and production troubleshooting.

  • Experience with security best practices, including IAM least-privilege, private S3 patterns, and secrets management.

  • Testing and quality experience, including unit/integration (Jest), e2e, linting/formatting.

  • Experience integrating headless CMS platforms with modern front-end frameworks.

Standout Candidates Will Bring

  • Experience supervising, coaching, and developing engineers, including performance feedback, goal-setting, and day-to-day work prioritization.

  • Experience using Contentful CMS, Drupal and WordPress platforms.

  • Familiarity with Turborepo, pnpm, monorepo patterns, Storybook and design systems.

  • Zod / schema-first validation and OpenAPI generation tooling experience.

  • Hands-on with CloudPosse Terraform modules and terragrunt layout patterns.

  • Performance tuning for Node.js apps and MongoDB, plus caching strategies.

  • Experience with EFS for stateful containers and mounting/permission management.

  • Knowledge of Checkov / Terraform security scanning and Terraform CI checks.

  • Enthusiasm to contribute to Stand Together's vision and principled approach to solving problems, and a commitment to stewarding our culture, which champions values including transformation and innovation, entrepreneurialism, humility, and respect.

What We Offer

  • Competitive benefits: Enjoy a 6% 401(k) match with immediate vesting, flexible time off, comprehensive health and dental plans, plus wellness and mental health support through Peloton and Talkspace.
  • A meaningful career: Join a passionate community of over 1,300 employees dedicated to improving lives and driving innovative solutions to complex social challenges.
  • Commitment to growth: Thrive in a non-hierarchical environment that empowers employees to discover, develop and apply their unique talents.
  • Competitive compensation: Our approach rewards the value you create through competitive salaries and bonus opportunities, allowing you to share in the success you help drive.
Our Values: Working for an organization within the Stand Together philanthropic community is different from many other places. The culture is deeply rooted in Principle Based Management® (PBM®), a framework guided by the principles that drive human progress, such as dignity, openness, and bottom-up empowerment. PBM® empowers employees to be entrepreneurial, to innovate, and to continually drive transformation.   
We believe diversity fuels creativity, broadens knowledge, and helps drive success.  That is why we’re proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and strive to treat all employees and applicants with honesty, dignity, and respect.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.

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FAQs About Lead Software Engineer - Full Stack Jobs at Stand Together

What is the work location for this position at Stand Together?
This job at Stand Together is located in Arlington, Virginia, according to the details provided by the employer. Some roles may also include multiple work locations depending on the requirement.
What pay range can candidates expect for this role at Stand Together?
Employer has not shared pay details for this role.
What employment applies to this position at Stand Together?
Stand Together lists this role as a Full-time position.
What experience level is required for this role at Stand Together?
Stand Together is looking for a candidate with "Director" experience level.
What benefits are offered by Stand Together for this role?
Stand Together offers following benefits: Health Insurance, Dental Insurance, Flexible/Unlimited PTO, 401k Matching/Retirement Savings, and Health & Wellness Programs for this position. Actual benefits may vary depending on the employer's policies and employment terms.
What is the process to apply for this position at Stand Together?
You can apply for this role at Stand Together either through Sonara's automated application system, which helps you submit applications 10X faster with minimal effort, or by applying manually using the direct link on the job page.