Staff Software Engineer

The Role We're looking for a talented software engineer who's passionate about what we're building and ready to do the best work of their career. You thrive on ownership, drive results, and care deeply about both technical excellence and customer impact. You will be the first Engineering team member in NYC, sitting and working closely with our underwriters and actuaries already in NYC. You would be our dream candidate if... You aren't afraid of ambiguity, and it may even excite you You enjoy shipping product every day (maybe multiple times a day) while maintaining high quality standards You enjoy wearing multiple hats while solving problems; as an engineer, product manager, and designer You take end-to-end ownership of features and systems, from conception through release You care about the built-world and how to improve construction safety and productivity You care about others' growth and welcome mentoring other engineers — you've led or been a major contributor on significant projects You have strong opinions, weakly held — you advocate for your ideas but adapt when presented with better solutions You communicate technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders You have some experience with insurance – either from a prior InsurTech role or actuarial role You have experience working with Javascript/Typescript (backend and/or frontend) You have at least 8+ years of working experience (preferably as a full-stack engineer) with a track record of delivering high-impact products About the Role Shepherd's platform consists of three primary elements: data collection, automated underwriting, and policy administration. You will lead major initiatives and own a large area of Shepherd's product experience, in each vertical while driving technical decisions for your domain You will work across the stack, even across different disciplines (e.g. underwriting, design, product management) You will play an integral role in building our culture as the company grows and mentor other engineers as we scale the team You will balance innovation with pragmatic delivery — staying current with emerging tech while shipping quality products You will contribute to product strategy and architectural decisions, not just implementation You will collaborate closely with PM, Mo (CTO) and the insurance team (underwriters, actuaries and more!) Our Tech Stack Frontend React & Next.js Typescript GraphQL w/ Apollo Backend Node.js Postgres & Redis Typescript GraphQL APIs Shepherd