Lead Engineer

Reports to: Vice President of Product

To apply, please send a cover letter and resume to jobs@jcainc.com. Applications without cover letters will not be considered. No phone calls or messages please. Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. PST on October 31, 2026.

Summary

The Lead Engineer is responsible for the successful scaling of Vivian as a product and platform. This role bridges product strategy and technical execution, enabling JCA to continuously evolve the Vivian platform while maintaining the quality, stability, and performance our clients depend on. This is achieved by providing technical leadership to a small engineering team, completing hands-on engineering assignments, and demonstrating the operational discipline necessary to deliver a secure, reliable, and scalable SaaS platform that supports client growth and business objectives.

Responsibilities

Leadership, Management, and Accountability

1. Lead, manage, and develop software engineers, providing performance feedback, coaching, career development, and accountability for successful delivery.
2. Establish clear performance expectations and foster a culture of accountability, ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
3. Effectively onboard engineers, promote consistent development practices, and reduce dependency on individual team members.
4. Partner with Vice President of Product and stakeholders to make sure the engineering team is delivering on business and client needs.

Technical Strategy and Architecture

1. Own the definition and evolution of system and platform architecture, collaborating with the Vice President of Product and engineers to establish technical standards, design principles, and architectural roadmaps that promote consistency, scalability, and long-term health across the Vivian platform.
2. Own the product technical vision and architecture direction, ensuring engineering decisions support approved product strategy, business priorities, and growth objectives.
3. Evaluate and make architectural decisions for new initiatives that appropriately balance platform scalability, reliability, cost, performance, and long-term maintainability.
4. Define and enforce security architecture, standards, and risk management practices that protect data integrity, compliance, and platform reliability.
5. Balance long-term architectural improvements with near-term delivery needs to maintain execution velocity.

Engineering Operations

1. Ensure engineering work is coordinated with stakeholders, and dependencies are managed, so product commitments are delivered successfully.
2. Own engineering execution from requirements through delivery, including technical documentation, estimation, sprint planning, implementation, testing, debugging, and release support.
3. Implement automated testing, QA practices, third-party integrations, and continuous improvement of development standards for high-quality software.
4. Establish and drive engineering practices that reduce technical debt and improve the long-term maintainability, scalability, and reliability of the platform.
5. Lead secure software development by conducting security reviews, identifying and mitigating technical risks, and ensuring platform stability, performance, and client experience.

Software Delivery

1. Produce clear, actionable engineering tasks by creating, refining, and maintaining development tickets with precise technical details and dependencies.
2. Create and maintain engineering documentation, standards, and knowledge-sharing practices.
3. Implement scalability and performance strategies to support growth in users, data, and platform complexity.
4. Implement and maintain continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) pipelines, deployment processes, and engineering tooling that improve delivery speed and reliability.

Platform Operations

1. Lead investigation and resolution of complex technical issues through root cause analysis, preventive design, and continuous improvement of architecture and engineering practices.
2. Strategy and management of cloud engineering and infrastructure management of resources for stable platform and cost management.

Skills

You are successful as the Lead Product Engineer because you:

1. lead technical teams, develop engineers and hold team members accountable for outcomes;
2. analyze complex situations, manage competing priorities, and make data-driven decisions to optimize features and functionality;
3. translate business requirements into clear, actionable technical requirements for engineers;
4. develop, test, deploy, and support software solutions that deliver value to customers while maintaining quality, reliability, and performance;
5. influence technical decisions and build alignment among engineers, product managers, and stakeholders;
6. define architecture and operate distributed systems, including web application development, API design and integration patterns;
7. design and implement scalable data engineering solutions, including complex data pipelines;
8. identify technical, security, and operational risks and implement practical mitigation strategies;
9. are a strong problem-solver and troubleshooter; and
10. quickly learn and apply industry, business, and client-specific knowledge to technical solutions.

Qualifications

You are qualified for the position because you:

1. have a minimum of three years’ experience leading, coaching and developing engineering teams and establishing engineering standards;
2. have a minimum of five years’ experience as a full stack software developer designing, deploying, and supporting cloud-based SaaS applications, including CI/CD pipelines, operational monitoring, troubleshooting, and production support;
3. have a minimum of two years’ experience leading software delivery through estimation, planning, dependency management, and successful release of product features and enhancements using Agile and delivery software;
4. have a minimum of three years’ experience with React, Python and SQL programming;
5. have a minimum of two years’ experience developing scalable data solutions, including data pipelines, data modeling, and data processing workflows;
6. have a minimum of five years’ experience implementing software solutions that comply with security, privacy, and compliance requirements, including secure SDLC practices;
7. have a minimum of one year’s experience with observability and reliability practices, including monitoring, logging, tracing, SLO/SLA ownership, and incident response; and
8. have a minimum of three years’ experience with Microsoft Azure or other computing services.

You have an advantage in the position if you:

1. have experience building machine learning models and data products;
2. have experience using AI to deliver software solutions;
3. have experience using the Atlassian suite with for product delivery;
4. have Microsoft Developer, AI, Data Engineer, DevOps Engineer or Solution Architect certification(s);
5. have experience working with the nonprofit Tessitura CRM; and
6. have experience working with or developing solutions for nonprofit organizations.

Requirements

You may be required to:

1. work remotely from a home office or other remote space;
2. work at least 40 hours per week, as this is a full-time position;
3. maintain standard North American business hours with some flexibility;
4. travel up to 10% of business days with easy access to airport; and
5. remain in a stationary position for the majority of an eight-hour workday.

You are required to:

1. adhere to the company’s policies and procedures; and
2. embrace JCA’s core values.

Benefits

1. Salary range of $100,750 to $111,400, commensurate with experience and performance
2. Paid holidays, vacation, personal, sick, and volunteer time
3. 401(k) retirement plan
4. Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)
5. Health, dental, and vision insurance
6. Life insurance and long-term disability insurance
7. Paid parental leave
8. Employee Assistance Program
9. Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
10. Dependent Care Account (DCA)

About JCA

JCA is the first and foremost independent consulting firm dedicated to addressing the technology and operational needs of nonprofits. We collaborate with nonprofits and partners to promote a positive global impact. Since 1988, we’ve helped thousands of nonprofits in North America and around the world leverage their CRM technology, processes, and data, to help make the world better.

We contribute to our clients’ success each day by embracing these core values:

1. Curiosity – We engage, ask questions, and seek out learning to spark growth and progress.
2. Collaboration – We work as one team—with each other and with our clients—to create lasting success.
3. Ingenuity – We think deeply, connect the dots, and craft smart, practical solutions that matter.
4. Candor – We speak the truth with clarity and respect, creating space for trust and openness.
5. Passion – We bring energy, commitment, and high standards to everything we do.

JCA is a distributed company with offices in New York City and Chicago. The majority of our team works from home offices located across the United States and Canada. We collaborate with, and contribute to the success of, multiple internal teams, all to better serve our clients.

Equal Employment Opportunity

JCA provides equal employment opportunities in all employment-related matters, including hiring, training, promotion, compensation, benefits, transfers and other personnel actions. JCA prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type based on the following protected characteristics: race, creed, citizenship, religion, color, sex, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, disability, marital status, domestic partner status, veteran or military status, sexual orientation, medical condition, ancestry, pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, AIDS/HIV status, uniformed services status, genetic information, height, weight or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.

JCA supports and encourages open communication to address each employee’s concerns and expectations. We strive to create a safe and healthy work environment where all employees can be their whole selves and recognize the need for constructive and timely feedback. JCA provides reasonable accommodation for religious beliefs or practices and persons with disabilities.