Senior Software Engineer

U.S. Soccer Overview

The U.S. Soccer Federation exists in service to soccer. Our aim is to ignite a national passion for the game. Because we believe that soccer is more than a sport; it is a force for good. We understand the importance and the power of teamwork, on and off the pitch. That is why we work closely with our Federation partners and members, to inspire, support and guide every level of the game: from the grassroots to the National Teams. We want to bring soccer into every home and every community, right across America. Because we believe that soccer can transform lives like no other sport. Soccer can represent the best of U.S. Soccer is in a period of significant growth, with ambitious plans for U.S. Soccer in the near and far future. We are, therefore, looking for dynamic servant leaders to join us on this journey: in service to soccer. Applicants must be able to demonstrate visionary leadership, analytical decision-making, professional flexibility, and an empathic management style that builds bold teams and delivers globally significant results.

Position Description

The Senior Software Engineer will provide hands-on technical leadership for the shared platform capabilities that powers U.S. Soccer's Soccer Services and Learning Center experiences. This engineer will lead the design and delivery of reusable components, services, content models, and workflow patterns that can be composed across public, authenticated, learner, and administrator experiences serving coaches, referees, educators, Organization Members, players, parents, and other participants across the country. Based at U.S. Soccer's National Training Center, this role will be a visible Product & Technology partner for Soccer Services and Learning Center stakeholders. The Senior Software Engineer will participate in planning and working sessions, translate operational and product needs into clear technical direction, communicate tradeoffs and delivery risk, and build trusted relationships across engineering, product, design, content and curriculum, data, and soccer operations. The work spans education, course management, licensing and certification, member and organization services, registration and application workflows, safeguarding and compliance, content delivery, and administrative operations. This engineer will establish and extend proven patterns across clear boundaries between experience, content, identity, and operational systems; guide incremental modernization while protecting current service; and make U.S. Soccer's design, accessibility, security, reliability, and performance standards the default. This is a senior individual-contributor role for a systems-oriented full-stack engineer who combines architecture judgment with a willingness to work directly in the code. Depending on the product area, the engineer may work with technologies such as Go, PHP/Laravel, JavaScript and TypeScript, Sanity, PostgreSQL, Auth0/OIDC, AWS, containers and Kubernetes, messaging platforms, and CDN/edge delivery.

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead the technical design and end-to-end delivery of production capabilities across Soccer.
• Services and the Learning Center—from discovery and architecture through implementation, testing, release, monitoring, and iteration.
• Serve as an in-person Product & Technology partner at the National Training Center; participate in stakeholder meetings, clarify complex requirements, surface dependencies and risks, and translate product and operational goals into practical delivery plans.
• Establish and evolve reusable platform building blocks—including user-interface components, service contracts, content models, templates, and workflow patterns—that solve shared problems and can be adopted consistently across products.
• Deliver learner-, member-, and administrator-facing experiences such as dashboards, course modules, video review, assessment and certification flows, renewals, progress tracking, in person clinic logistics, registration, eligibility, document review, approvals, and administrative tools.
• Provide technical leadership through architecture and code reviews, design facilitation, documentation, mentorship, and constructive feedback; help engineers make sound decisions and raise the quality and consistency of the team's work.
• Design and operate backend services, APIs, data models, event-driven workflows, and integrations across identity, content, learning, member, analytics, and third-party systems, with clear contracts and strong auditability.
• Lead incremental modernization of existing workflows and integrations while maintaining compatibility, data integrity, and reliable service for current users.
• Set and uphold standards for automated testing, continuous delivery, observability, performance, scalability, resilience, accessibility, privacy, role-based access, and security; lead diagnosis and durable resolution of production incidents.
• Partner with engineering and product leadership on roadmaps, technical strategy, sequencing, estimation, staffing dependencies, and measurable outcomes while communicating decisions clearly to technical and nontechnical audiences.

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in software engineering or related field.
• 7+ years of professional software-engineering experience building and operating production applications, including at least 3 years' operating at a senior or technical-lead level.
• Demonstrated success leading the design and delivery of complex full-stack systems across frontend, backend, APIs, data, integrations, and cloud infrastructure.
• Strong HTML, CSS, and modern JavaScript or TypeScript skills, plus deep experience with at least one server-side language and relational data modeling.
• Experience designing maintainable service boundaries, web APIs, distributed or event-driven workflows, and integrations with identity or other enterprise platforms.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, automated testing, version control, code review, continuous integration and delivery, observability, and safe production operations.
• Experience building secure, privacy-aware, responsive, and accessible digital experiences and protecting data integrity during migrations and integrations.
• Demonstrated ability to diagnose issues across application code, infrastructure, logs, metrics, and user-reported behavior; able to lead incident response and carry fixes safely into production.
• Track record of improving engineering practices and mentoring other engineers through clear technical direction, collaborative reviews, and constructive feedback.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, including the ability to build trust with nontechnical partners, facilitate decisions, and explain tradeoffs in an in-person, cross-functional environment.
• Ability to work effectively from the National Training Center in a fast-moving environment, manage competing priorities, and connect implementation details to broader product and organizational goals.
• General knowledge of soccer and its ecosystem, or a demonstrated interest in learning it quickly.
• Must be able to connect "micro" details to the "macro" vision and mission.
• Proficient experience with Microsoft Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook).

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with technologies relevant to the current environment, such as Go, PHP/Laravel, JavaScript/TypeScript, Sanity or another headless CMS, PostgreSQL, Auth0/OIDC, or similar tools.
• Experience designing systems with CQRS and event sourcing, and building APIs that use JSON Patch or comparable standards for partial resource updates.
• Experience with distributed systems, asynchronous processing, and messaging or streaming platforms such as Kafka or RabbitMQ.
• Experience deploying and operating cloud applications using AWS, containers, Kubernetes, CDN/edge services, and modern observability practices.
• Experience building learning-management, education, certification, membership, eligibility, compliance, document-review, or other multi-role workflow products.
• Experience with design systems, WCAG 2.1 AA, media-rich experiences, and products designed for low-bandwidth or older-device contexts.
• Experience integrating identity, content, CRM, analytics, or third-party platforms while maintaining data quality, security, and auditability.
• Background in or passion for soccer, sports, education, or membership-based organizations
• Spanish-language proficiency is a plus.

U.S. Soccer offers a comprehensive compensation package, casual work environment, an inclusive culture, and an atmosphere for professional development. U.S. Soccer is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, citizenship, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, genetic information, military status, political belief, or any other characteristic protected under the law. This policy applies to all our employment practices within our organization. We strongly encourage women, people of color, LGBTQIA, veterans, parents, and persons with disabilities to apply.