Senior Software Engineer (San Francisco)

Swiftly is on a mission to help cities move more efficiently. We are the leading transit data platform for agencies to share real-time passenger information, manage day-to-day operations, and improve service performance. Today, over 180 transit agencies in 12 countries – including LA Metro, MARTA, SEPTA, and MBTA – rely on Swiftly to improve on-time performance by up to 40% and increase passenger information accuracy by up to 50%. The result is better service reliability, increased ridership, and more efficient transit operations.

Even though Swiftly’s HQ office is located in San Francisco, CA, we are open to candidates in most locations across the U.S. as well as Ontario and British Columbia, Canada. At this time we are unable to provide Visa sponsorship.

Engineering at Swiftly

Engineering at Swiftly is not only about writing code – we believe in creating empowered product teams that work together to conceptualize new features and bring them to life. Each team aims to strike a balance between delivering incremental improvements, creating prototypes to test new ideas and mitigate risks, and building scalable software using industry best practices. We’re guided by a mission to positively impact transit riders, and we embrace humility and intentionality in how we make technical decisions so that we best meet our customers’ needs.

The Role

Swiftly is looking for a Senior Software Engineer with experience building scalable cloud-based services. You’ll collaborate seamlessly with Product Managers, Designers and teammates to discover the right solutions. You will work across the stack — contributing to backend services as well as modern frontend applications — to deliver seamless, end-to-end experiences for our customers. Our backend environment includes Java, Node.js , and Python; our MV* framework of choice is Vue.js , but we welcome applicants who are excited to work across languages and have strong experience with any major MV* framework.

We encourage you to apply if the above is exciting to you and if you meet half or more of the below requirements. Above all else, we value candidates who angle toward growth, leveraging a positive attitude and the aptitude to relentlessly seek and solve problems to deliver impact. We know the tech landscape is ever-changing and strongly support individual growth. If this is exciting to you, then we’d love to talk!

What you’ll do

• Design, build, maintain and extend products, features, and functionality that solve real customer problems
• Partner with Product, Design, and Engineering to discover and validate customer needs and technical approaches
• Prototype quickly, and as necessary, to de-risk projects, test assumptions, and iterate ideas into production-ready solutions
• Consistently deliver incremental value by anticipating dependencies, breaking down work, and regularly demoing progress
• Communicate technical trade-offs, present system design proposals clearly, and document architectural decisions
• Apply modern software engineering practices to deliver robust, maintainable, and extensible systems
• Uplevel teammates through code reviews, pairing, and strong collaboration
• Take ownership of your code and product domain, engaging in retrospectives and continuously improving how the team works

What will set you up for success

• Motivated by mission-driven work and excited to improve public transit
• 5+ years of relevant software engineering experience
• Comfort applying modern AI tools to accelerate development and improve quality
• Experience building and consuming APIs; proficiency with SQL and non-relational databases, including making informed schema and data-modeling decisions
• Experience with cloud-native architectures and services (AWS preferred)
• Strong product mindset — you use technology pragmatically to solve meaningful customer problems
• Continuous learner who embraces emerging technologies and helps others grow
• Collaborative team player who contributes wherever needed to support team goals
• Open to feedback (a core Swiftly value!), humble in technical debate, and committed to blameless learning and improvement

Pay Range

In accordance with pay transparency laws, please see the approximate salary ranges below. These ranges represents the anticipated low and high end of the salary for this position. Actual salaries will vary and are based on a multitude of non-discriminatory factors including final role leveling decisions, a candidate’s relevant work experiences/skills, and geographic location. Salary is one component of Swiftly’s total compensation package, which also includes stock options, competitive benefits, 401(k)/ RRSP matching, a fantastic team and culture, opportunity to have a huge impact, emphasis on professional growth and holistic wellness, and other perks.

US Salary Range: $130,000 – $210,000

Canadian Salary Range: $140,000-200,000

Beyond the Skills

We are looking for candidates who are passionate about mobility, sustainability, or mission-oriented projects that have a significant real-world impact. Ideal candidates encompass the core values of our company:

Team. Together, we are more effective and better supported

Impact. Drive impact for our customers, our company, and all of our teams

Diversity. See differing perspectives as ways to address our weaknesses and find new strengths

Communication. Assume others internally and externally have good intentions

Feedback. We share feedback because we want each other to grow professionally and personally

Growth. Foster personal, professional, and company growth

• Equity compensation (company ownership) for every employee
• Medical, Dental and Vision
• Retirement with Employer Match
• Home office setup reimbursement
• Monthly cell/internet reimbursement
• Flexible PTO with a recommended minimum
• Flexible work environment
• 16 paid holidays – including months without US national holidays
• 8 fully paid weeks of leave for childbirth/adoption

Travel note

Swiftly employees can generally expect to travel 1–2 times a year for in-person company or team offsites. As a fully distributed company, we consider these offsites important for cultivating strong relationships across our teams! Attending these in-person is expected and encouraged, although we understand everyone has different personal circumstances and we will consider requests for exceptions. Customer-facing team members and other specific roles may be expected to travel more frequently.

We are an equal opportunity employer

We are committed to a workplace that is as dynamic, diverse, and passionate as the communities we serve.