Engineer IV

Engineer IV

College Board - Technology - BigFuture HED

Location: This is a fully remote role. Candidates who live near CB offices have the option of being fully remote or hybrid (Tuesday and Wednesday in office).

Type: This is a full-time position

About the Team

BigFuture is committed to empowering all students to take the right first step after high school, reaching over 7 million students each year as the leading free resource for college, scholarship, and career exploration. The BigFuture HED teams build and maintain the full breadth of BigFuture products like BigFuture College Profile, Connections, Search, Intel, Wellspring and Aquifer that support the outcomes for the strategic HED and BigFuture. We work in an agile, collaborative environment that values creativity, curiosity, and problem-solving, delivering clean and sustainable solutions that scale to meet the needs of millions while reducing technical debt. Engineers on our team not only code, but also mentor, document, and partner with product and design to shape solutions and influence the direction of our work. We thrive on learning from each other, raising risks early, and finding simplicity in complexity, all while celebrating shared successes and growth. Together, we are mission-driven technologists who take pride in building products that positively transform the educational and career trajectories of students nationwide.

About the Opportunity

As an Engineer IV, you will contribute across the full stack with a primary focus on backend systems (60%) while still engaging meaningfully in frontend development (40%) to deliver high-impact, student-facing features. You bring deep experience in backend engineering-designing APIs, working with distributed systems, building serverless services, and ensuring performance and reliability at scale-while also demonstrating proficiency in modern frontend frameworks. You can navigate complex integrations, troubleshoot across service boundaries, and collaborate with UI engineers and designers to ensure cohesive, high-quality experiences.

You'll work closely with product owners, architects, and other engineers to translate requirements into scalable technical solutions while raising the bar on code quality, documentation, and sustainable engineering practices. This role also offers opportunities to mentor teammates, influence system architecture, and explore emerging technologies like AI.

In this role, you will:

Design & Implementation (60% Backend, 40% Frontend)

• Lead backend design and development (primary focus), building scalable, secure, and reliable services, APIs, and data integrations using modern cloud-native and serverless patterns.
• Develop backend components that support BigFuture's core capabilities, ensuring performance and resiliency for millions of users.
• Contribute to frontend implementation using React/Next.js-translating UX designs into performant, accessible, and modular interfaces.
• Break down product capabilities into verifiable technical work, ensuring backend and frontend systems integrate seamlessly.
• Champion Agile, CI/CD, DevOps, and instrumentation best practices to improve system health and developer velocity.

Team Operations & Success (20%)

• Participate in or lead Agile ceremonies, promoting alignment, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Provide thoughtful code reviews across backend and frontend work, strengthening reliability and maintainability.
• Troubleshoot production issues across the stack with urgency and attention to root cause.
• Model engineering excellence-security, documentation, testing, and code quality.

Software Solutioning & Design (20%)

• Develop an expert understanding of the business domain to design backend systems that reflect real user needs.
• Partner with architects and leads to shape technical direction, contributing backend-oriented insights that improve scalability and resilience.
• Participate in design and code reviews, offering guidance on backend architecture and API design while supporting frontend best practices.

About You - You Have:

• 4-6 years of production software engineering experience, owning the full lifecycle of features from design through deployment with a strong emphasis on backend architecture and API design.
• Deep expertise in Node.js, TypeScript, backend application architecture, distributed systems, API development, and AWS serverless technologies (Lambda, DynamoDB, S3, CloudWatch, etc.).
• Proficiency in modern frontend development (React, Next.js) with experience ensuring accessibility, performance, intuitive UX, and component-driven design.
• Strong problem-solving skills, able to drive clarity in ambiguous backend requirements and collaborate with product to guide prioritization.
• The ability to mentor peers, influence technical decisions, and lead conversations around backend scalability, data flows, and system integrations.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to evaluate engineering talent.
• Ability to travel 3-5 times per year to our NYC or Reston, VA office.
• Authorization to work in the United States.

All roles at College Board require:

• A passion for expanding educational and career opportunities and mission-driven work

• Authorization to work in the United States for any employer

• Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions and a comfort learning and applying new digital tools independently and proactively.

• Clear and concise communication skills, written and verbal

• A learner's mindset and a commitment to growth: welcoming diverse perspectives, giving and receiving timely, respectful feedback, and continuously improving through iterative learning and user input.

• A drive for impact and excellence: solving complex problems, making data-informed decisions, prioritizing what matters most, and continuously improving through learning, user input, and external benchmarking.

• A collaborative and empathetic approach: working across differences, fostering trust, and contributing to a culture of shared success.

About Our Process

• Application review will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days.

• While the hiring process may vary, it generally includes resume and application submission, recruiter phone/video screen, hiring manager interview, performance exercise such as live coding or whiteboarding sessions, a panel interview, a conversation with leadership and reference checks.

What We Offer

At College Board, we offer more than just a paycheck-we provide a meaningful career, a supportive team, and a comprehensive package designed to help you thrive. We're a self-sustaining nonprofit that believes in fair and competitive compensation, grounded in your qualifications, experience, impact, and the market.

A Thoughtful Approach to Compensation

• The hiring range for this role is $137,000 to 148,000

• Your exact salary will depend on your location, experience, and how your background compares to others in similar roles at the College Board.

• We aim to make our best offer upfront-rooted in fairness, transparency, and market data.

• We adjust salaries by location to ensure fairness, no matter where you live.

You'll have open, transparent conversations about compensation, benefits, and what it's like to work at College Board throughout your hiring process. Check out our careers page for more.

About Our Culture:

• We are motivated to positively impact the educational and career trajectories of millions of students a year.

• We prioritize building a diverse and inclusive team where every employee can thrive, and every voice is heard.

• We value learning and growth; we offer formal and informal ways to lead through your superpowers, sharpen your strengths, and meet your development goals.

• Our high-performing engineers work with the latest technologies, so you will be constantly learning and sharpening your skills, enabling you to be industry-forward instead of left behind technologically.

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