Software Engineer (Next.js, React)

About the Company

Come Near is a nonprofit organization focused on raising public awareness and conversation about Jesus. The organization creates, curates, and connects people with authentic stories and experiences of Jesus. It is widely recognized for its “He Gets Us” campaign, which launched in 2021 and invites people to reconsider Jesus. The campaign has reached millions of Americans.

About the Role

Come Near is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the technical architecture of its highest-priority initiative: a personalized digital engagement platform. This role combines hands-on software engineering, system architecture, infrastructure design, and technical leadership across a modern web platform.

As part of a lean, fully distributed team, the Staff Engineer will define technical standards, guide internal and external engineering teams, and ensure the platform is secure, scalable, reliable, and prepared for high-traffic events. The position also involves close collaboration with AI and data teams to support personalization and data-driven experiences.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and document end-to-end architecture across products, data platforms, and cloud infrastructure.
• Define technical standards, API patterns, and integration contracts for internal and external engineering teams.
• Architect systems for reliability, scalability, observability, and operational resilience, including high-impact events and traffic spikes.
• Review vendor designs, implementations, and code contributions for architectural quality, security, performance, and long-term maintainability.
• Collaborate with AI and data teams on personalization logic, event tracking, and data pipeline architecture.
• Establish practices for collecting, storing, and using personal and sensitive user data securely.
• Set and maintain security and data privacy standards appropriate for handling sensitive information at scale.
• Identify and address architectural, security, operational, and vendor-related risks before they affect delivery or business operations.
• Remain actively involved in development by delivering critical code and prototyping architectural decisions before standardizing them.
• Evaluate build-versus-buy and build-versus-vendor options, considering technical quality, delivery speed, operational complexity, and cost.
• Establish technical documentation standards, including architecture decision records (ADRs), design documents, technical standards, and operational runbooks.
• Advise the Senior Engineering Manager and VP of Engineering and Analytics on architecture strategy, technical risks, platform development, and major technical investments.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant experience at the Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer, Architect, or equivalent level.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field.
• Deep expertise in modern web platform architecture, including Next.js or comparable frameworks, API design, content platforms, and edge/CDN architecture.
• Working knowledge of mobile platform architecture.
• Strong cloud infrastructure expertise, preferably with AWS, including identity and access management, resiliency patterns, autoscaling, observability, and cost optimization.
• Experience owning infrastructure-as-code practices using Terraform or equivalent tools and managing CI/CD systems.
• Experience defining, improving, or scaling testing and quality strategies across unit, integration, and end-to-end testing.
• Experience working with external agencies, vendors, or contractors in shared codebases and architectural environments.
• Ability to review and challenge technical decisions when necessary.
• Experience designing, building, and operating highly scalable distributed systems with demanding reliability and performance requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience architecting or operating large-scale data platforms, analytics infrastructure, or data-intensive systems.
• Experience building, integrating, or delivering AI/ML-powered products and capabilities.
• Familiarity with MLOps practices, including deploying, monitoring, and operating machine learning systems in production.

Technical Skills & Platforms

• Frontend: Next.js and React.
• Backend: Node.js, TypeScript, and Payload CMS.
• Cloud Infrastructure: AWS, Vercel, Neon, and Cloudflare Workers.
• Data & Analytics: BigQuery, Dataform, dbt, and Python.
• AI: Custom TypeScript-based LLM service.
• Infrastructure as Code: Terraform or equivalent tools.
• Testing: Unit, integration, and end-to-end testing.

Key Competencies

• Ability to influence internal engineers and external vendor teams through technical expertise, sound judgment, and credibility.
• Self-directed approach and ability to manage complex, multi-week initiatives with minimal oversight in an asynchronous work environment.
• Strong technical writing skills, including architecture decisions, design documents, implementation guidance, and review feedback.
• Ability to maintain technical standards and address shortcuts that create unacceptable long-term risks.
• Practical decision-making that balances engineering quality with delivery requirements in a lean, mission-driven environment.
• Ability to bring structure and clarity to ambiguous problems and incomplete requirements.
• Strong systems thinking, with an understanding of how technical decisions affect reliability, security, maintainability, cost, scalability, and team effectiveness.

Personal Attributes & Mission Alignment

• A personal relationship with Jesus and a passion for Come Near's mission.
• A service-oriented mindset, humility, and collaborative leadership.
• An initiative-taking and meticulous approach to planning and execution.

Compensation & Benefits

• Starting base salary of $145,000.
• Competitive base salary.
• Annual performance bonus based on organizational performance.
• 80% employer-paid health and wellness coverage.
• 403(b) retirement plan with a 7% employer match.
• Generous paid time off.
• Three annual company rest weeks, around July 4 and between Christmas and New Year's.
• Flourishing Fund stipend.
• Annual education reimbursement stipend.
• Additional benefits.

Work Arrangement & Requirements

• Full-time remote position within the United States.
• Candidates are required to sign the organization's Statement of Faith, which aligns with Come Near's mission of inviting all people one step closer to the authentic Jesus, wherever they are.