Backend Software Engineer

The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation (PJMF) is a philanthropic organization dedicated to advancing artificial intelligence and data science solutions to create a thriving, equitable, and sustainable future for all. PJMF works in partnership with public, private, and social institutions to drive progress on our most pressing challenges, including digital health, climate change, broad digital access, and data maturity in the social sector.

The Patrick J McGovern Foundation (PJMF) is seeking an experienced, multi-faceted, and self-driven Backend Software Engineer (SDE). This role sits within the Products & Services team and will be directly engaged with the development, deployment, and maintenance of data and AI products that will drive positive social impact around the world. The charter of the Products & Services team is to identify, develop, and deploy strategic data and AI solutions focused on unlocking opportunities and addressing broad challenges the social good sector is facing now and in the near future. The Backend SDE is responsible for the backend development of cloud solutions that are based on ML model predictions, using a rapid prototyping development approach. We are a small, high-performance team and, in many ways, function as a startup. As such, the ideal candidate will be someone who can develop an end-to-end solution around which our ML products will be deployed.

How You'll Make an Impact

• Work closely with the Director, Products & Services, along with partners and end-users, to understand their challenges in order to build effective and safe products
• Understand end-user needs to build applications that can solve their challenges
• Prototype, develop, test and deploy highly reliable, safe and scalable solutions
• Ability to develop backend python components and endpoints to support and integrate with our data and AI solutions
• Monitor and maintain application performance, functionality, scalability and security
• Develop secure, modularized, well-documented and reusable code
• Employ rapid prototyping techniques to quickly develop and iterate on product deployment and fast integration of end-user feedback loop
• Integrate necessary data technologies, platforms, tools, and 3rd party tools needed for product deployment and functionality
• Ensure appropriate maintenance, bug fixes, and feature requests are resolved
• Create appropriate system diagrams and documentation

What You'll Need to Succeed

• Experience – Demonstrated 5 years of experience in backend python development and deployment required
• Learning – This role will require an individual with an appetite for (quickly) learning and applying different technologies, programming languages, and techniques needed to build the required solutions
• Communication – Ability to communicate effectively with cross-functional teams, engineers, partners and end-users. Excellent written and verbal communication skills to technical and non-technical audiences. Excellent technical writing and documentation skills
• Teamwork – Effective team player who understands the responsibility every individual brings to the table and how to encourage and drive results from each team member
• High Performance – Ability to go outside your comfort zone to learn new technologies and methodologies to ensure successful and timely completion of product development
• Results-oriented – Highly organized and detail-oriented, self-driven and able to adapt to learning and implementing new technologies, and creative in solving issues as they arise
• Cultural alignment – An advocate for social progress; interest in emerging technologies and their ability to advance societal outcomes

What You'll Need to Succeed (Technology)

• Strong programming experience with Python, or similar languages
• Strong production experience using cloud services and infrastructure (specifically AWS), containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes) tools
• Experience with CI/CD, software bug tracking, version control and feature request management, using tools like Jenkins, Jira, GitHub, etc
• Experience with build systems (make, gradle, etc) and package management (pip, etc)
• Experience with SQL database systems such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc and NoSQL systems such as MongoDB, DynamoDB, HBase, etc
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC), such as Terraform

What We Offer

• Salary – We anticipate the starting salary range for this role to be $128,000 - $156,000.
• Health Coverage – Foundation-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees, spouses/domestic partners, and dependents. HSA/FSA plans, life insurance, and short- and long-term disability coverage
• Long-term Rewards – 401(k) retirement plan with generous matching up to 6% of annual pay, plus an additional discretionary match at the end of year
• Flexible PTO – Unlimited paid time off, which allows team members to take the time they need for vacation or illness so they can return to work able to contribute fully to our mission. The foundation recognizes 11 paid national holidays per year and may also announce closure for local, regional, or state holidays
• Remote Work Environment – Ability to work 100% remotely, but not alone - with mature, socially minded professionals
• Wellness – Employee Assistance Program, Ginger, and SmartSpend Plus, along with financial well-being providers
• Parental Leave – Up to 6 months of gender-neutral paid leave for parents and caregivers when they have a new addition to their families
• Learning Reimbursements – Foundation policy encouraging employees to explore development opportunities such as peer learning, internal trainings, and external activities; savings on student loans (available via insurance provider)
• Philanthropic Gift Matching – opportunity for team members to invest in vulnerable communities, reflecting PJMF’s commitment to social impact