Software Engineer

Department: Engineering

Location: Washington, D.C., New York, NY

Compensation: $160K – $230K • Offers Equity

Employment Type: FullTime

Government technology has failed citizens, veterans, public servants, and service members for decades.

Kaizen powers America’s application layer. We replace the legacy systems federal agencies run on with modern software, built with craft. The ticketing platform a resident uses to visit a presidential library. The marketplace DoW uses to procure counter-drone systems to protect lives and critical infrastructure. The system a Veteran uses to access benefits. We build systems of record, of national consequence. Our AI-native modules and harness allow us to do so in weeks, not years.

This year, our revenue has grown 35x. Next year, our software will serve over 100 million Americans across dozens of federal agencies.

Founded in 2022 and based in New York City and DC, Kaizen has raised $35 million from NEA, a16z, Accel, 776, and Carpenter Capital.

The Role

This is not a ticket-grinder role. You're not here to implement Figma specs, collect your JIRA points, and wait for the next sprint planning. You're here to move fast, make real calls, and ship things that matter. You'll be one of a small number of engineers working directly on the highest-leverage features on our platform: intelligent intake flows, AI-powered case routing, constituent-facing portals that replace decade-old government interfaces.

You'll pair with design leadership that cares deeply about craft and won't let you ship something half-baked. You'll engage directly with federal agency stakeholders. You'll translate what government users actually need into a product that delivers it.

And you'll be expected to use AI tooling not as a party trick, but as a force multiplier. Cursor, Claude, Copilot: these should already be embedded in how you think and work. The engineers we're hiring here move 3 to 5x faster because of how deeply they've internalized these tools. That's the bar.

Location

This is a hybrid role based out of our New York or DC office. Candidates must reside or be able to commute to New York City or DC to work out of our office at least four times a week (Monday to Thursday).

We’re unable to sponsor visas for this role.

What You'll Own

• Full-stack features from zero to shipped: scoping, architecture, build, iteration

• AI-powered product surfaces: intelligent intake flows, real-time constituent assistants, automated case routing, agency operator dashboards

• Direct engagement with federal agency stakeholders, translating messy real-world requirements into clean, shippable product

• Platform reliability and performance at government scale: real users, real SLAs, no hiding

• Code quality that the next engineer will respect: clean, tested, maintainable

What You'll Bring

• 2 to 4 years of professional engineering experience, or work that makes the years irrelevant

• Deep fluency in React / Next.js and Node.js / TypeScript / Postgres: not just comfortable, but fast

• AI coding tools (Cursor, Copilot, Claude) are already baked into how you work. You're not planning to explore them someday; you've shipped with them

• Something real you've built: a product, an open source project, a thing you couldn't stop working on

• You operate well with ambiguity. You don't wait to be handed the answer.

• You actually care whether the person on the other end of the screen has a good experience

Strong Candidates May Also...

• You've touched federal, state, or local government tech, or you understand the constraints of building for regulated, high-stakes environments

• Hands-on experience with Palantir Foundry or AIP: you've modeled against the ontology or shipped pipelines or AIP agents

• Cloud deployment experience (AWS, Vercel, GitHub Actions, ECS/Fargate)

• Exposure to design systems and component libraries: you know the difference between a component that's functional and one that's right

• You've worked in an early-stage environment where figuring it out was the job

What Kaizen Offers

Health & Insurance

• 100% coverage across the board: medical through Oxford/United (Gold and Platinum PPO plans), dental through Guardian PPO, and vision through Beam — all fully covered for employees, with 100% coverage for dependents.

• $100,000 in fully paid life insurance. FSA and Dependent Care FSA.

• One Medical membership, on us — same-day primary care, 24/7 virtual visits, and offices all over the city.

• Fertility and family-building support through Carrot.

• 401(k) through Guideline, with a 2% company match.

Family & Time Off

• 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave for birthing parents. 10 weeks fully paid for non-birthing parents.

• Unlimited PTO, with a two-week minimum (we mean it when we say take time off!)

• Closed for all federal holidays.

• Company-wide winter break the week of Christmas.

• Company offsites throughout the year.

Office & Remote Setup

• Up to $750 one-time home office or desk setup stipend for NYC-based employees. $500 for remote employees.

• $50/month commuter benefit (company contribution).

• Expensed lunch while in the office.

• Dinner and Uber rides home will be expensed if you choose to work in the office past 7pm.

• Company-provided laptop of your choice.

Wellness

• NYC employees: Fully covered gym membership at Grindhouse — right across the street from our office at 47 W 17th St (and in Williamsburg). A $225/month value, on us.

• Non-NYC employees: $100 per month, dedicated to gym / physical fitness reimbursement.

Stipends

• $100/month utility stipend.

• $250/quarter home cleaning stipend

• $500/year professional development.

• $250/year recreation.

• $300/quarter pet care stipend.