Software Engineer – Back End at Submittable

At Submittable, we are transforming how organizations create social impact. Our platform empowers thousands of mission-driven organizations, from nonprofits to government entities, to make a difference in their communities and beyond. In 2024, our innovative software helped organizations worldwide run 30,000 programs, welcomed 1.2 million applicants, and facilitated the distribution of more than $10billion in funding through our products on behalf of our clients.

Submittable is committed to accelerating impact across sectors such as Equity & Social Justice, Children & Education, Creative & Arts, Health & Wellness, Economic Justice & Opportunity, and Environment & Climate. We value purpose-driven technology and invite engineers to contribute to meaningful change.

The Back‑End Software Engineer will contribute to the ongoing scale of Submittable’s high‑impact grantmaking solutions. In this role, you will collaborate cross‑functionally with front‑end engineers, product managers, designers, and QA engineers to design and deliver scalable, well‑tested solutions. You’ll help evolve our platform and join a team that values clarity, iteration, and thoughtful development practices.

Delivering seamless and scalable back‑end solutions that elevate user engagement and contribute to the success of our grants management platform.

• Quickly get up to speed on our product architecture and infrastructure.
• Implement and enhance scalable back‑end features and APIs.
• Refactor legacy code and services for improved maintainability and performance.
• Identify and advocate for architectural improvements and best practices.
• Collaborate with a cross‑functional team of engineers, designers, and product managers to define and ship new features.
• Drive architectural improvements and champion engineering best practices.
• Participate actively in Agile ceremonies, including sprint planning, estimation, and retrospectives, and bring a solutions‑oriented mindset.
• Write clean, testable code and participate in regular code reviews.
• Meet regularly with global team members between 9‑12
  
  AMEST.

• 4+ years of experience in software engineering.
• Proficiency in at least one modern back‑end language or framework.
• Familiarity with modern development patterns, system design, and API architecture.
• Understanding of software engineering and Agile principles.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, with a preference for written clarity and the ability to explain technical concepts clearly.
• Experience working with version control systems and CI/CD pipelines; experience with cloud‑native infrastructure and containerization.
• Familiarity with event‑driven or distributed systems.
• A collaborative nature and desire to build inclusive, high‑trust teams.
• A continuous improvement mindset and a desire to elevate team practices.
• Enthusiasm for problem‑solving, learning, and mentoring.

• Backend Architecture & Design:
  Design scalable, performant, and maintainable services using modern development patterns.
• Code Quality & Testing:
  Write clean, testable code and participate in peer reviews to raise team quality.
• Technical Decision‑Making:
  Make thoughtful trade‑offs between speed, scale, and simplicity and articulate the rationale of recommendations.
• Cross‑Functional
  
  Collaboration:
  
  Work effectively with Product, Design, QA, and other stakeholders to deliver value incrementally and iteratively.
• Mentorship:
  Guide early‑career engineers through code reviews, pair programming, and knowledge sharing.
• Documentation & Communication:
  Strengthen written communication through design docs, planning notes, and pull request descriptions.
• System Ownership:
  Own small to medium‑sized services, including monitoring, on‑call participation, and driving incremental improvements.

• Take ownership of complex, high‑impact projects from design through delivery with minimal oversight.
• Drive architectural conversations and improve foundational systems.
• Proactively identify and address areas of technical debt or risk.
• Act as a force multiplier by mentoring others and influencing engineering best…