Senior Full-Stack Engineer

Govra; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Meaningful equity

Health, dental, vision coverage

401(k) plan

Job summary

Govra, based in San Francisco, CA, seeks a Senior Software Engineer to help build Govra's intelligent operating system for governments. You will work closely with the founders, customers, and product design teams to ship vital real systems in a fast-moving, high-impact environment.

This role is ideal for someone who can go deep technically, think from first principles about product and UX, and move quickly from customer workflows to production code.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Full-stack engineer capable of end-to-end ownership across architecture, data models, frontend, and deployment.
• Experience with functional programming or willingness to learn (Elixir/Phoenix).
• Comfortable making pragmatic architecture decisions balancing speed and reliability.
• Experience in early-stage high-growth environments.

Responsibilities

• Build core product systems: research, design, architect, implement features across the platform.
• Design and improve government workflows: automate complex processes into intuitive software.
• Move fast while maintaining quality: ship production code quickly with reliability and maintainability.
• Evolve engineering infrastructure: improve AWS, Terraform, CI/CD, observability, deployment automation.
• Improve coding workflows: develop Claude Code setup, AGENTS.md, and internal tooling to boost productivity.
• Drive clear, accountable execution: scope work, estimate effort, communicate tradeoffs, and follow through.

Skills

Full-stack

AWS

CI/CD

Observability

AI tools

Elixir/Phoenix

Communication

Tools

AWS

Terraform

CI/CD

Observability

Job description

San Francisco, CA Full-time Competitive salary + meaningful equity

AI has changed the balance of power. Noncompliance and fraud are scaling faster than governments can respond, and nearly $2 trillion is lost in the U.S. each year. Governments must do more with less. Govra is building the intelligent execution layer for accountable government to meet this systemic shift. We turn complex laws and rules into executable workflows that help agencies make faster, more accurate, and more consistent decisions at scale. We started with tax, where better decisions mean more revenue, stronger public services, and greater trust.

About the role

We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to help build and scale Govra's intelligent operating system for governments. You will work closely with the founders, customers, and product design teams to ship vital real systems in a fast-moving, high-impact environment. This role is ideal for someone who can go deep technically, think from first principles about product and UX, and move quickly from customer workflows to production code.

What you'll do

• Build core product systems: Research, design, architect, and implement features and improvements across our platform
• Design and improve government workflows: Develop intelligent systems that help agencies automate complex processes and turn operational work into intuitive software
• Move fast while maintaining quality: Ship production code quickly while balancing reliability, maintainability, observability, and long-term technical decisions
• Evolve our engineering infrastructure: Improve AWS, Terraform, CI/CD, observability, deployment automation, and the systems that help us ship reliably
• Improve our agentic coding workflows: Develop and refine Claude Code setup, AGENTS.md, custom skills, and internal tooling that increase developer productivity
• Drive clear, accountable execution: Scope work, estimate effort, communicate tradeoffs and progress clearly, and consistently follow through on the systems you own

Experience & Requirements

• Must have 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 2+ in a senior role
• Strong full-stack engineer who can own features end-to-end, from architecture and data models through frontend and production deployment
• Comfortable making pragmatic architecture decisions that balance speed, reliability, and long-term maintainability
• Have early stage high growth experience and are comfortable scaling early products from MVP to production
• Can design and build intuitive UXs independently, while partnering with design on complex flows
• Use AI coding tools extensively to increase development speed and quality
• Mission oriented / excited about making government work better
• Thrive in fast-paced environments and can navigate ambiguity to deliver high-quality products
• Have experience with functional programming, Elixir/Phoenix, or are excited to learn it quickly

What we offer

• Meaningful equity in an early-stage company
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) plan
• Direct collaboration with senior leaders across public and private sectors

Govra is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.