Senior Full Stack Engineer

About this role

ABOUT US Propel builds technology that strengthens the social safety net in America. We envision a future where every American has the tools and resources they need to thrive. The safety net’s strength depends not just on funding, but delivery. Propel exists to dramatically improve how government benefits are delivered. Managing SNAP benefits, picking a D-SNP plan, or protecting against EBT theft should feel as seamless as Apple Pay or Netflix. Governments struggle to build modern, scalable user experiences. We don’t. Over 5.5 million Americans trust Propel today. We’ve grown revenue 35% YoY and are reinventing entire benefit categories, including Medicare, around the real needs of low-income Americans. We’re building a high-growth, high-ceiling, sustainable for-profit company where impact drives revenue. ABOUT THE ROLE We’re hiring a Senior Fullstack Engineer who wants to build consumer products at meaningful scale with real ownership. This is not a ticket-taking role. You’ll work across mobile apps, backend systems, internal tools, and new product lines. You’ll help identify problems, shape solutions, and ship iteratively in a space shaped by policy changes, evolving technology, and real-world constraints. The technology landscape is evolving quickly, including the growing role of AI in how products are built and how users interact with technology. We don’t adopt trends blindly, but we do expect engineers to stay curious, experiment thoughtfully, and continuously evolve their craft as the world changes. We are not meeting-heavy. Engineers have meaningful heads-down time. Product, Design, and Engineering operate with shared values, curious, empathetic, user-first, which reduces friction and accelerates execution. Comfort with ambiguity, strong product instincts, and a bias toward action are essential. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Build and ship features across our mobile apps (Vue + TypeScript + Capacitor) - Develop scalable backend systems (Python, Flask, Postgres, Redis, AWS) - Contribute to architecture and technical direction - Partner closely with Product and Design to scope and execute solutions - Break ambiguous problems into iterative, shippable components - Balance speed with long-term maintainability - Participate in on-call rotation - Contribute through design reviews, code reviews, and mentorship You will build systems used daily by millions of Americans to access food, healthcare, and financial stability. WHAT YOU HAVE Experience - 5+ years building and maintaining complex full-stack systems - Experience in startup or high-ambiguity environments - Strong system design and product engineering fundamentals - Fluency in Python and JavaScript (or willingness to ramp quickly) - Clear written and verbal communication skills Mindset - Ownership: You take responsibility for outcomes - Product Sense: You focus on solving the right problems - Grit: You persist through ambiguity and setbacks - Curiosity: You think from first principles - Urgency & Accountability: You ask “why not now?” - Low Ego: You step in where needed - Strong Judgment: You prioritize effectively - Iterative Mindset: You ship, learn, and improve Nice to have: - Experience building consumer-scale applications - Familiarity with safety net programs (SNAP, WIC, TANF, SSI, SSDI, Medicaid, Section 8) WHAT WE OFFER - $170,000 – $240,000 salary + meaningful equity (Location-independent compensation) - 20 Days PTO - 4% 401K match - $10k lifetime Carrot Fertility benefit - Excellent Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage - Remote-first culture (NYC HQ) - Monthly co-working stipend outside NYC We benchmark compensation around the 75th percentile and want your equity stake to matter long-term. MORE ABOUT PROPEL AND OUR ENGINEERING TEAM Technology is not a support function at Propel - it is the company. We believe great tech companies: - Solve user problems first - Build for scale and iteration - Invest in quality and infrastructure - Stay curious about new technologies while exercising strong judgment We operate lean and transparently. You’ll understand our revenue drivers and big bets. Millions of users trust us and that responsibility is earned through consistently strong judgment. We’ve backed our mission with action: - Seeded emergency funds during government shutdowns - Committed 1% of company equity into a user trust - Partnered carefully when sunsetting products to protect users WHY THIS ROLE MIGHT NOT BE FOR YOU We’re building in the complex intersection of people, policy, and government systems. That work requires strong partnerships and comes with unique challenges. - We operate lean, and priorities can shift as policy, partners, or user needs evolve. Our environment isn’t highly structured with rigid swimlanes or long, predictable planning cycles. - Engineers move across product surfaces and problem spaces. This isn’t a narrowly scoped role focused on a single technical domain. - We’re building in an era where AI is reshaping team boundaries. Engineers here are comfortable contributing to product and design conversations, not just writing code. - We ship quickly while holding a high bar for quality and user trust. Balancing speed with thoughtful tradeoffs is part of the job. - Our roadmap is influenced by legislation, regulatory changes, and evolving government systems. A certain level of external uncertainty is inherent to the space. - Career growth tends to come through ownership, impact, and stepping into stretch work rather than predefined ladders or timelines. - Technology evolves quickly, including AI. Staying cu