Senior Software Engineer II, AAA

WHO WE ARE:

ActBlue is a nonprofit that builds tech and infrastructure for Democratic campaigns, progressive-aligned causes, and people trying to make an impact in order to fuel long-term, people-powered change. If you’ve ever given online to a Democrat or progressive organization, chances are you’ve used our powerful online fundraising platform.

We put power in the hands of small-dollar donors and help thousands of groups — from presidential candidates to environmental organizations — build grassroots movements. We envision a democracy where everyone looking to make progressive people-powered change can easily and effectively deploy their resources, energy, and creativity to shape our country and futures. Each and every one of us, from the political activists to the tech innovators to the customer service pros, is fully committed to our mission.

 THE OPPORTUNITY:

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer, II to join ActBlue and be an integral part of our Authentication, Authorization, and Access Controls (AAA) team. In this role, you’ll focus on strengthening and advancing the core security infrastructure that ensures the safety and privacy of our users. From user authentication to intricate access permissions, you’ll help meet the challenge of protecting our most valuable information in a considered and holistic way, all while maintaining and expanding the systems fundamental to the trust our users place in ActBlue. AAA combines a product engineering approach with defensive engineering sense to build everything from beautiful user account management features to reusable code and UX patterns for solving common authentication and authorization problems across our codebases. Collaborating closely with design, product, and other technical teams, you'll be at the forefront of developing and refining secure, accessible, and scalable solutions. The work you do will not only safeguard our platform but also instill confidence among millions of users across the country.

Our engineering and product organization is made up of about 100 empathetic and passionate people. We’re organized into cross-functional teams that operate independently in alignment with the broader organizational goals. 

 WHAT YOU WILL DO:

• Help set the standard for software quality on our team and the organization by writing maintainable code adaptable to future design and roadmap decisions.
• Demonstrate profound knowledge & experience in designing and implementing Identity and Access Management solutions, ensuring our users' data is guarded while facilitating business functions.
• Lead initiatives aimed at enhancing the resilience, security, and availability of our Identity & Access Management application portfolio, which includes automating procedures, introducing innovative patterns, minimizing bespoke solutions, and fortifying the robustness and reliability of our systems
• Combine product and defensive engineering techniques to develop intuitive account management features and establish reusable code patterns to make security implementation straightforward and second nature for all engineers within our organization.
• Guide the design and execution of technical solutions, prioritizing the highest impact opportunities while balancing effort, scope, and other trade-offs.
• Partner with engineering managers to find sponsorship and growth opportunities for your colleagues.
• Demonstrate technical leadership by writing documentation, establishing effective monitoring, and fostering clear, audience-oriented communication.
• Coach and mentor other engineers on your team and create spaces for individuals to be engaged, valued, and heard.
• Receive support from your manager to grow as an individual and increase your impact on the success of your team and the progressive movement.

 WHAT YOU’LL BE WORKING WITH:

• Frontend Development: JavaScript with React.
• Backend Development: Ruby on Rails, with SQL via PostgreSQL for database management, Node.js.
• Data Management: GraphQL for API queries, Sidekiq for background job processing.

Development Tools: TypeScript for static type checking, Yarn + Webpack for managing dependencies and builds, ESLint/Prettier for code quality control.

• Infrastructure and Monitoring:

Application Hosting: Heroku for deploying, Kubernetes for container orchestration.

• Monitoring and Error Tracking: Datadog for system monitoring, Bugsnag for error detection.
• Data Analytics and Reporting: Mixpanel for tracking user interactions, Looker for data analysis powered by SQL/PSQL for in-depth PostgreSQL querying.

 WHAT YOU BRING:

• 6+ years experience in development, expertise in Ruby on Rails as well as significant experience developing and maintaining server-side web applications.
• The ability to leverage your technical expertise not just to tackle the most challenging problem in sight but to empower, teach, and build systems of support that allow others to succeed.
• The experience of recommending system-level improvements related to security, scalability, and reliability –  and comfort acting as a go-to consultant for other team engineers.
• Fluency moving between and across technical systems and stacks – or at least a willingness to try.  Our team focuses primarily on the back end, but a candidate for this role would ideally have experience with and an understanding of the entire technological ecosystem. 
• Excitement for your own and your teammates’ learning and growth.
• A track record of effective collaboration with other engineers to develop abstractions and patterns that make it easy to build reliable software.
• Experience working closely with product and design teams to iterate on and refine product requirements, and the ability to take a long-term view when it comes to inevitable tradeoffs.
• Eagerness to explore and refactor legacy code – we’ve been doing this for a while now. We could use an engineer who brings an empathetic but forward-thinking approach to working in an older codebase.
• An understanding of and a desire to co-create systems that help build psychological safety on the team: sharing learning with others, using peer review as an opportunity to celebrate and build others up, and a willingness to practice the duality of listening and leadership.

 OUR ENGINEERING VALUES:

• We believe that ideas are more important than technologies.
• We understand that the tools we build have real-world consequences for millions of people and take that responsibility seriously.
• We know that code isn’t just a set of instructions for machines but communication with other humans; style, elegance, and respect are important.
• We believe that an ability to balance paying off technical debt and rapidly completing a project contributes to the health of the codebase, engineering team, and organization.
• We believe that being correct isn’t enough; respect for your colleagues and users is fundamental.

Follow us on Twitter @ActBlue and our blog

 LOCATION AND COMPENSATION:

This posting is for a full-time, remote, salaried position. ActBlue is currently authorized to support remote work employees in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin.

Salary Range: $173,676 - $192,209 

 BENEFITS:

• Flexible work schedules and an unlimited time-off policy
• Fully paid and trans-inclusive health, dental, and vision insurance for employees and their families
• Automatic 2% 401K contribution, plus up to 6% match
• Three months paid parental leave for all new parents, adoptions included; 4 weeks of a fully paid flexible work schedule; plus an additional one week of paid leave and an additional one week of flexible work schedule for every full year the employee has worked for ActBlue
• Commuter or home-office benefits, including a $1,000 home-office setup allowance for all new full-time remote employees
• Additional perks include monthly snack deliveries and digital subscriptions to the Boston Globe & New York Times
• Prof dev budget

ActBlue is unable to sponsor work visas at this time.

 INCLUSION STATEMENT:

ActBlue is deeply committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity. We commit to retaining, developing, recruiting, and hiring a diverse staff community. We honor the dignity of all and celebrate each person’s unique qualities. We recognize the wide range of human differences, backgrounds, and intersectional identities that enrich the workspace and help us better meet our mission. If you feel a connection to our mission and see your interests reflected in this job description, we encourage you to apply – even if you don’t meet every requirement. 

ActBlue is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities throughout the interview and employment process, including using our online system to apply for a position.

*ActBlue will never ask candidates to buy equipment, nor will we email from anything other than an actblue.com or actbluetech.com email address.