Engineering Lead

Job Description

Job Description

Engineering Lead

Location: NYC, hybrid
Reports to: Head of Product
Salary: $150,000-$250,000 DOE

This role is expected to work remotely on a regular basis, with regular on-site meetings. We're seeking candidates located in or near NYC.  

About Endless Access

Our vision is simple: the whole world, empowered.

Endless Access is tackling a defining challenge of our time: how do you teach entire nations of young people today's most valuable skills when they lack reliable internet, affordable devices, or quality education? We believe access to digital tools and skills is foundational to individual opportunity and to closing the global digital divide, so we help underserved communities worldwide become creators, not just consumers.

Our strategy centers on community game-making. Our flagship project, Threadbare, is a free, open-source game that's fun to play and approachable to contributors at every skill level. Around it, we've built a learning community where young people progress from player to creator to contributor, developing transferable skills in game development and the broader digital economy through peer mentorship and collaborative work. We've proven the model with thousands of learners across the Global South, and we're ready to scale to millions. 

About Endless Studios

Endless Studios is a global, youth game-making studio and learning community on a mission to help learners move from players to creators - building real games, portfolios, and future-ready skills. Creators collaborate with industry mentors and peers around the world, contributing to community-led game projects and gaining the hands-on experience that opens doors to jobs across the broader digital economy. We have operations globally and work with schools, universities, game studios, and strategic partners to make creation through gamemaking accessible to everyone.

About the Role

At the center of our community is a web platform that ties together learning experiences, learner recognition, portfolio publishing, micro-credentials, and the tools contributors need to help build a real game. We're looking for an Engineering Lead to own the technical direction and delivery of that platform.

This is a hands-on role with real ownership. You'll drive the architecture, set the engineering standards, and stay close to the code — while shaping what gets built and how, in close partnership with Product. You'll have a genuine voice in the roadmap and the autonomy to turn it into working software.

You'll work across a small, distributed team spanning both Endless Studios and Endless Access, with an Access tech lead running that group day-to-day. Your focus is the shared delivery: keeping the work coherent, unblocked, and moving toward something thousands of learners use today and that's built to reach millions.

Tech stack: Node.js, Nuxt/Vue, Apollo, GraphQL

What we're looking for

• Strong full-stack engineer. At home across frontend, backend, and databases (JavaScript/TypeScript), and comfortable owning complex systems end to end.
• Delivery leadership. You can run a small team's delivery - planning, sequencing, triage, unblocking - and keep a distributed group aligned on what matters and why.
• Product partnership. You work closely with Product to take features from idea to well-defined work, with enough product instinct to push back constructively and keep the team on the right problems.
• Clear communicator. You don't let requests get dropped or questions go unanswered, and you make sure the right information reaches the right people - engineers and partners across the org.
• Comfortable in a distributed, multicultural team. You work well across time zones and cultures (our team spans the US, Mexico, the Middle East, and India), and you make smart use of AI tools to help you and your team.

Required

• 8+ years of software development experience
• 2+ years leading delivery for a small engineering team

Preferred

• Experience improving engineering practices and processes
• Technical mentorship experience
• Experience contributing to open-source projects or communities

Key Responsibilities

Technical leadership

• Own the technical direction and architecture of the platform
• Set and uphold engineering standards — code review, QA, monitoring, documentation
• Stay hands-on in the codebase, contributing to complex work and keeping delivery moving

Delivery

• Own the shared delivery plan: sequence the work, track progress, keep it unblocked
• Coordinate across a distributed team spanning Studios and Access, working with the Access tech lead who runs that group day-to-day
• Flag risks and trade-offs early, and keep the team aligned on priorities

Product partnership

• Work with Product to turn features from idea into well-defined engineering work
• Contribute to roadmap planning and prioritization
• Keep work validated against product intent as it's built

Not Sure You Meet 100% of Requirements?

Studies show that women and people from underrepresented backgrounds often hesitate to apply unless they meet every listed qualification. At Endless, we know that building a truly inclusive digital future means bringing together diverse perspectives and experiences. If you're excited about this role and our mission to expand access to technology, we strongly encourage you to apply—even if you don't check every box. Your unique perspective could be exactly what we need.

Endless is an Equal Opportunity Employer

We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds who share our passion for games, education, and creating opportunities for underserved learners. Endless provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

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