Senior Software Engineer

The Company

At Edovo, our mission is to help everyone connected to incarceration build better lives. We’ve created a secure digital platform to expand education behind bars that supports the vocational, rehabilitation and communication needs of the 2.2 million people in jails and prisons. We currently serve close to 2 million users annually with access to thousands of hours of self-guided learning materials. Edovo offers courses in subjects ranging from basic literacy and GED to career exploration and cognitive behavioral therapy. We’re also building tools to keep people in touch with jobs, social services, friends, and family. Our team is committed to supporting opportunities for justice-involved people.

Don’t take it just from us. Awards, publications, grants, and partnerships all around the country have recognized the momentum and impact of Edovo. A select few: Global EdTech Startup Champion in London out of 1,000+ competitors; GIIRS Platinum Rating for social impact; MacArthur Foundation Grant Award Winner; Forbes article feature; Chicago Community Trust grant award winner; SXSW Civic Tech Innovation Pitch Competition runner-up; Chicago Innovation "Up and Comer" Award winner; and so much more.

Check out a brief picture of our program from the perspective of the people who use it. Visit Edovo on Vimeo for more.

The Team

At Edovo we’re a tight-knit bunch of engineers and product owners with a passion for solving hard problems for the greater good.  We’re involved in every step of the product development process with deep ownership from first ideas through to delivery.  We’re agile- but we adopt and adapt the many individual practices and tools that support our culture and values rather than follow “one true way”.  We’re unafraid of new technology and happily evaluate each on its merits to the organization and our team.  That said, we prefer simple solutions and tried-and-true technologies over immature bleeding edge tech.  

We work across many different technologies and team members own projects end-to-end. Our stack includes Java, JavaScript, MySQL, and other technologies all operating on AWS services. We are heavily involved in the planning process and work closely with our stakeholders. We happily pull in a peer when we need a pair to get through a tough problem or just for a second pair of eyes. We carefully balance new development with investments in quality of life and efficiency for ourselves.

We believe that diversity of background and experience is key and work hard to build teams that reflect this. 

The Role

The Senior Software Engineer at Edovo has the ability to take a project from inception to completion — scoping, planning, and delivering solutions of the highest quality across our technology stack. You'll sit within one of our engineering streams (“Tech” or “Feature”) and act as a technical owner that Product and Engineering Managers can trust to work through unknowns independently, pulling in the right people when needed rather than working in isolation.

This is a senior individual-contributor role- not a people-management one- but it requires leadership skills: mentoring other engineers, guiding architectural decisions, and representing engineering directly to stakeholders outside the team.

What You'll Do

Ownership & Delivery

• Take projects from inception to completion, including scoping, planning, and delivery of high-quality solutions
• Have a proven record of delivering across multiple technologies and parts of the stack
• Appropriately estimate work to set expectations with teammates and stakeholders — and deliver on them
• Drive the discussion on process or SDLC adjustments when work comes back due to a bug, missed requirement, or performance issue
• Participate in and contribute to the on-call rotation

Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Work

• Work directly with stakeholders (Product, Support, Finance, and others) to set expectations, scope work, and establish timelines
• Provide high-level updates to stakeholders outside of engineering
• Interface with internal teams on applicable work, e.g. partnering with Product on a new feature, or Support on updates to user-facing functionality

Technical & Architectural Leadership

• Have a thorough understanding of the Edovo software stack and contribute to any part of it
• Facilitate design choices that are scalable, extendable, maintainable, and testable
• Balance the needs of the platform with the needs of the business
• Guide strategic investments in improvements and upgrades to our platform, tooling, and infrastructure
• Stay technically relevant and help keep the broader organization technically relevant — we won't often be early adopters, but we stay current with proven industry advances, including AI-assisted development practices

Mentorship

• Use your expertise to provide guidance and mentorship to fellow engineers through code review, architecture discussions, and pairing
• Help less-experienced engineers develop project plans and estimate work effectively

What We're Looking For

Required:

• 5+ years of experience in modern full-stack web-application development
• Experience with backend systems serving tens of millions of requests per day (we use Java/Spring Boot)
• Experience building rich client web applications in JavaScript (we use React)
• Experience with sustainable engineering practices: automated testing, continuous deployment, monitoring/alerting
• Experience with AI-assisted development tools and workflows. You have enough hands-on experience with AI tools to have well-informed opinions, but also recognize things are changing so quickly that it’s important to remain pragmatic.
• Experience with AWS infrastructure and/or comparable cloud-native architecture
• A track record of owning a project end-to-end — from scoping through delivery — with minimal oversight
• Experience mentoring other engineers or leading technical projects
• Clear, structured written and verbal communication skills
• Detail-oriented

Nice to Have:

• Experience in a startup or mission-driven organization
• Familiarity with edtech, healthtech, or similarly regulated/complex product environments
• Exposure to compliance or data privacy requirements (SOC2, CJIS, HIPAA, etc.)
• Experience with MySQL/Aurora or other relational database systems at scale

Application Requirements

All applications must include a current resume and a cover letter sharing why you're interested in working with Edovo. Applications lacking a cover letter will not be reviewed.

Other Details

• Work Authorization: Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. This position is not eligible for employment-based visa sponsorship, now or in the future.
• Location: Remote; however, candidates must currently reside in the United States.
• Salary: Commensurate with experience
• Department: Role reports to a Software Engineering Manager
• Travel Requirements: Up to 15%, including bi-annual company retreats in the Spring and Fall
• Physical Demands: No excessive physical demands required

Edovo is an impact-driven nonprofit organization. We offer our employees a collaborative culture in a remote working environment, unlimited PTO, and paid benefits for team members and their families. We hire tenacious, innovative, and passionate people and give them opportunities to grow and succeed.

Teams with bold missions need diverse ideas to generate the most impact. For that reason, Edovo is committed to building diverse and inclusive work spaces. We don’t discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. And yes, we believe in second chances.