Staff Software Engineer, Contractor Platform

About Us At Leap, we’re on a mission to transform the home improvement industry - and we want you to be part of that journey. We’re proud to be recognized on the Inc. 5000 and Inc. Regionals lists for 5+ consecutive years, reflecting sustained growth driven by innovation, strong execution, and an incredible team. We build technology that helps contractors work smarter, scale faster, and deliver better experiences to their customers. When you join Leap, you’ll work alongside curious minds, bold innovators, and thoughtful risk-takers who care deeply about doing great work - and doing it together. Our culture is transparent, supportive, and grounded in approachable leadership. We actively listen to our employees through semi-annual engagement surveys, maintain a strong eNPS score, and consistently act on feedback to improve what’s working and where we can do better. We believe great work happens when people are supported outside of work, which is why we offer comprehensive benefits and wellness resources for you and your family. Take the Leap today and help shape what’s next. THE OPPORTUNITY We are seeking a Staff Software Engineer to be the engineering anchor of our next-generation platform for home-improvement contractors: the system a contracting business runs on, end to end. This is a hands-on senior role on a greenfield TypeScript monorepo: an Express and PostgreSQL API on MikroORM, a React and Vite frontend, and a set of domain packages. You will own significant components of the platform, own its architecture and technical direction alongside product leadership, and be the engineer the team looks to for how it builds. This is a build-first role with a leadership dimension. You will write production code every day and own the design of the areas you work in, and you will also raise the technical bar for the whole team: owning the architecture of the platform, aligning with the Product Lead on sequencing and delivery, and lifting the engineers around you through review, pairing, and clear standards. It is a technical-leadership track (not a people-management role); the intent is for the right person to grow into the technical lead of the platform’s engineering team as it scales. RESPONSIBILITIES Technical Leadership Serve as the engineering anchor for the platform: the person the team looks to for technical direction, patterns, and quality. Own the architecture and long-range technical strategy for the platform, and align with the Product Lead on scoping, sequencing, and delivery. Set and uphold the engineering standards for the squad: coding standards, testing strategy, review practices, and the definition of done. Grow into the technical lead of the platform’s engineering team as it scales; drive technical planning and unblock the engineers around you Engineering and Architecture Own the design and delivery of significant components and domain areas of the platform. Contribute to the architecture and technical direction of the codebase alongside the team. Help shape and uphold the patterns that govern the codebase: strict typing, factory and dependency-injection patterns, and clean package boundaries. Drive API design for the areas you own, and align on shared contracts across the platform. Author and contribute to design documents and ADRs for significant changes Application Development Contribute production code across the stack in TypeScript: Express and MikroORM on the backend, React and MUI on the frontend. Design data models, migrations, and schema-evolution strategies on PostgreSQL. Architect integration patterns for external platforms and third-party APIs. Design frontend state management and data-intensive UI patterns with TanStack Query and MUI. Optimize application performance across the full stack (queues, caching, background workers) AI-Native Engineering Delegate whole features to autonomous agents, work across several in parallel, and review and direct their output rather than hand-typing most of the code. Build and improve what makes agentic development work here: the skills architecture, MCP integrations, prompts, specs, and guardrails that let agents ship safely. Codify context and patterns so both engineers and agents move faster, and keep raising the ceiling for what can be delegated to AI. Set the standard for where to trust agents, where to keep a human in the loop, and how to hold quality high while moving at agent speed Platform Awareness Collaborate with platform engineering on deployment architecture and containerized services. Understand the CI/CD pipeline well enough to troubleshoot application-layer issues. Participate in infrastructure design reviews (AWS, infrastructure-as-code). Contribute to observability strategy and application-level instrumentation Team and Mentorship Level up the engineers around you through code review, pairing, and design discussions. Raise the technical bar and help build a high-performing engineering team. Translate business requirements into technical plans and well-scoped deliverables. Collaborate closely across product, engineering, and infrastructure REQUIRED SKILLS Minimum of Associate’s Degree, Bachelor’s Degree preferred. 8+ years of professional software engineering experience. Deep expertise in TypeScript across the stack: Node and modern React, not just the API surface. Strong experience with a backend framework and ORM (Express, MikroORM, or comparable), plus relational database design, query optimization, and migration management. Proven track record of designing and evolving well-architected systems and owning complex components end to end. A track record of shipping: merged, working software in front of customers is your unit of progress, and you can point to what you shipped recently. A track record of setting technical direction for a team and mentoring the engineers around you; someone others look to as the technical anchor. Familiarity with RESTful API design, authentication flows, and multi-tenant SaaS patterns. Experience with containerized deployments (Docker, ECS, or Kubernetes). AI is central to how you personally ship, and you already work at a high level of autonomy with it: you hand whole tasks to agents, coordinate several at once, and build the workflows that make them effective. This is a hard requirement, and we will ask you to show us how you work PREFERRED SKILLS Experience as a tech lead or technical anchor on a high-performing engineering team. Experience leading large-scale platform migrations: merging separate applications, consolidating data models, or unifying multiple systems onto one platform. Experience with home-services, field-service, or contractor SaaS domains. Deep PostgreSQL or MikroORM experience. Background with RBAC and permission systems. Experience with observability platforms and distributed tracing. A track record of building developer tooling or AI workflows that made a team measurably faster. Compensation will be determined based on experience, skills, and qualifications. Pay Range $200,000 — $215,000 USD Benefits We believe in supporting our employees holistically - your health, financial well-being, time to recharge, and overall happiness matter to us. Here’s what you can look forward to: Affordable Health & Wellness Coverage – comprehensive and competitive benefits package, starting the first of the month following your hire date. Invest in Your Future – 401(k) company match to help you build financial security. Time to Recharge – We believe time to rest and recharge matters. Leap offers a Flexible Time Off (FTO) policy, 10 paid sick days, and 8 paid company holidays. Comprehensive Employee Assistance Program (EAP) – resources to support your mental health, financial well-being, and everyday challenges. Exclusive Discounts with LifeMart (via ADP) – save on groceries, restaurants, entertainment, pet insurance, cell phones, child care, and more! MoveSpring Wellness App – stay active and engaged with company step challenges, workout content, meditation tools, and wellness blogs for a healthier you! Culture & Team-Building Activities – we love to connect, celebrate, and grow together through team events, fun challenges, and company traditions like our Annual Summit! Join us and experience a company that truly invests in YOU ! Leap is an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer. We are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and teammates without regard to race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment decisions are made based on qualifications, merit, and business needs. Leap, LLC collects personal information from job applicants as part of our recruiting and hiring process. This information is collected directly from you and from third parties such as background check providers and professional references. It is shared only with Greenhouse Software Inc. (our recruiting platform) and others as required by law. We do not sell your personal information. The categories of information we collect, and the purposes for which we use them, include: Identifiers (name, email, phone, address) — to contact you and manage your application Professional information (resume, work history, skills, references) — to evaluate your qualifications Education information (degrees, certifications) — to verify credentials required for the role Background check data (criminal history, employment verification) — to complete pre-employment screening as permitted by law Voluntary demographic information (EEO data) — for legally required reporting only; not used in hiring decisions