Director of Engineering

Summary

Join GoodParty.org as their Director of Engineering and help reinvent civic leadership in America. Lead and grow a mission-driven engineering team, build ambitious new products, and integrate AI into all development. Partner with the founding CTO, operate autonomously, and shape a product and engineering culture that values velocity, innovation, and impact. This is a high-growth, fully funded startup tackling a critical issue. The role involves leading a team, recruiting top engineers, fostering a collaborative culture, and deeply embedding AI into the platform. You will balance speed with thoughtful decision-making, collaborate with other teams, and champion best practices. Approximately 25% of your time will be dedicated to hands-on coding and architecture decisions.

Requirements

• You have 10+ years of engineering experience, with at least 5 years in a leadership role, including managing both frontend and backend focused engineers and owning product delivery
• You’ve built and scaled products in a startup or early-stage environment, and know how to work through ambiguity
• You’re comfortable doing 0 to 1 work, leading greenfield builds, launching MVPs, and making pragmatic decisions with limited data
• You’re confident developing across our tech stack — React, Next.js, Node.js, Python, Postgres — and excited to lead in an AI-native environment
• You’ve worked with and are a champion of AI-native workflows for coding, including Cursor, OpenAI/Anthropic, Gemini/Perplexity, MCPs, and other similar tools
• You bring strong opinions loosely held and advocate for engineering excellence, but are open to evolving with new ideas and team input
• You have a track record of creating inclusive team cultures, mentoring engineers, and building feedback loops
• You thrive in a remote, fast-paced environment, balancing strategic thinking with a bias toward action
• You communicate clearly, directly, respectfully, and you’re open to delivering and receiving candid feedback that helps the team grow

Responsibilities

• Lead and empower a mission-critical engineering team, balancing strategic scaling of core systems with ground-up innovation to tackle new challenges
• Recruit, lead, and develop top-tier Frontend, Backend, and QA engineers, fostering individual growth, overseeing performance, and continuously advancing AI fluency in an ever-changing technological landscape
• Foster a fast-paced and collaborative culture where engineers feel empowered, supported, and see the impact of their work on democracy
• Collaborate on embedding AI deeply across our platform — from campaign tools to voter engagement features — in an empowering and responsible way
• Drive clarity and momentum by balancing speed with thoughtful decision-making — you know when to ship fast and when to invest in long-term scalability
• Partner closely with Product, Design, and Data teams to ideate, prototype, and ship user-facing features and internal tools quickly and iteratively
• Guide the team through ambiguity, building MVPs to test hypotheses, and continuously improving based on feedback and data
• Remove blockers, resolve technical challenges quickly, and keep teams focused on progress and outcomes. Leverage cutting-edge AI tools to accelerate development cycles, automate tasks, and support team productivity
• Champion best practices that enable speed and quality, including clean architecture, code reviews, and scalable patterns
• Balance leadership with technical contribution by dedicating approximately 25% of time to hands-on coding and architecture decisions
• Report directly to the founding CTO and play a critical role in shaping the engineering culture and roadmap at a high-growth stage

Preferred Qualifications

• You have experience working or volunteering in civic tech, democracy reform, campaigns, or social impact
• You’ve contributed to open-source projects or developer communities
• You’re sick of sitting on the sidelines watching our democracy fail to meet its potential

Benefits

• Innovative Bitcoin denominated deferred bonus plan, allowing you to have the amazing upside of being in a startup while working on a truly meaningful mission
• Work where and how you like, on a fully remote team spread across the country
• 100% coverage of health, dental, and vision benefits for you and your dependents
• We encourage you to take time off to recharge and have an unlimited PTO (sick and vacation) policy. This is a marathon, not a sprint. We believe a work-life balance is needed to get there
• 401(k) program available so you can contribute toward retirement savings (no employer match)
• Individual learning & development budget to fund your growth
• We’ll make sure you’ve got what you need to work remotely through our workspace setup stipend
• If you work from home, we give $50/month to help with your internet and other expenses. If you prefer co-working, that’s an option we can discuss too
• Fully funded for our mission. No stressing over whether the next round of funding will come through. Focus on making an impact. That’s what matters here