Senior Software Engineer

Senior Software Engineer

Location: NYC Metro Area (Williamsburg Office, 3+ days/week)

Reports to: CTO

Company Mission

Photon gives patients ownership of prescriptions. Our platform enables clinicians to send prescriptions to patients via text, which saves them time by allowing their patients to shop between pharmacies. The vision is to help consumers save money by increasing transparency.

Who We're Looking For

We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer to help build and scale the core systems powering Photon. As an early engineer, you'll work across the full stack—from APIs and backend systems to user-facing applications used by patients, providers, pharmacists, and internal teams. You'll own features end-to-end, contribute to product direction, and help shape the technical foundation of the company. This is a high-impact role for someone who enjoys solving complex problems, moving quickly, and building products that directly improve real-world experiences in healthcare.

Core Responsibilities

• Design, build, and scale the systems that power Photon's platform, including APIs, services, and data models
• Develop user-facing experiences across our web applications for patients, providers, and partners
• Own features from conception to launch, including design, implementation, and iteration
• Collaborate closely with Product and Ops to deeply understand user needs and translate them into thoughtful solutions
• Make pragmatic technical decisions, balancing speed, scalability, and long-term maintainability
• Improve engineering tooling, processes, and standards to increase team velocity and quality
• Mentor other engineers and contribute to building a strong, collaborative engineering culture

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building and shipping full-stack applications
• Strong foundation across backend systems, APIs, and frontend development
• Experience designing systems and evaluating tradeoffs across scalability, reliability, and performance
• Track record of owning projects and delivering high-impact features in a collaborative environment
• Ability to operate in ambiguity and take ownership in a fast-moving, early-stage setting
• Passion for building high-quality user experiences and working closely with customers
• Strong communication and collaboration skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in healthcare, fintech, or other complex / regulated industries
• Familiarity with API design and distributed systems
• Experience working in early- or growth-stage startups
• Interest in improving developer tooling and internal systems
• Experience leveraging AI in workflows

Why Join Us

Photon is reimagining how prescriptions move through the healthcare system—making it simpler, faster, and more transparent for patients, providers, and pharmacies alike. You'll:

• Build across the full product surface with meaningful ownership and impact
• Help define the technical and product direction of an early-stage company
• Work closely with a small, high-performing team across engineering, product, and design
• Work on a problem almost everyone you know has experienced, and help fix a system that's broken in ways most people just accept
• Be pushed—these are hard problems, and we expect a lot—but the growth and impact that come with it are real
• Join a team that gives a shit—about the work, about each other, and about doing things the right way. High trust, high standards, and we actually like spending time together

Our Values

Be a Pizza Rat – We're ambitious subway dwellers. It's our slice and we're not letting go.

Make Rice – We don't prepare fish until we've mastered rice. Quality is in details.

Put it in Orbit – We know success happens well after lift-off. The rocket isn't our mission.

Seek Buried Treasure – We're digging in unexpected places. Our adventure has meaning.

Grow in Darkness – We're thriving amidst forest decay. Our day in the sun will come.

Pay Transparency

The estimated base salary for this role is $180,000 – $220,000 USD annually. Actual compensation will depend on skills, qualifications, and experience, and includes equity and benefits. At our stage, we place significant value on equity as part of total compensation.