Staff Software Engineer – Full Stack (San Francisco)

About the role

We’re looking for a talented staff software engineer who’s passionate about what we’re building and ready to do the best work of their career. You thrive on ownership, drive results, and care deeply about both technical excellence and customer impact.

Key responsibilities

• Lead major initiatives and own a large area of Shepherd’s product experience while driving technical decisions for your domain.
• Work across the stack and across disciplines such as underwriting, design, and product management.
• Mentor other engineers and help build the company culture as the team scales.
• Balance innovation with pragmatic delivery, staying current with emerging tech while shipping quality products.
• Contribute to product strategy and architectural decisions, not just implementation.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, the CTO, and the insurance team (underwriters, actuaries, etc.).

Required profile

• Comfortable with ambiguity and excited by it.
• Enjoy shipping product daily while maintaining high quality standards.
• Willing to wear multiple hats – engineer, product manager, designer.
• Take end‑to‑end ownership of features from conception through release.
• Passionate about improving construction safety and productivity.
• Committed to mentoring and growing other engineers.
• Strong opinions, weakly held – advocate ideas but adapt to better solutions.
• Clear communicator of technical concepts to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Some experience with insurance or actuarial domains.
• 8+ years of full‑stack engineering experience delivering high‑impact products.

Required skills

• JavaScript
• TypeScript
• React
• Next.js
• GraphQL (Apollo)
• Node.js
• PostgreSQL
• Redis

What we offer

• Premium healthcare with 100% contribution to top‑tier health, dental, and vision plans.
• Fertility benefits and family‑building support.
• Unlimited PTO and flexible time off.
• Daily lunches, dinners, and snacks.
• Offices in SF, NYC, Dallas‑Fort Worth, Chicago, and LA.
• Professional development with premium coaching and leadership programs.
• Competitive 401(k) plan.
• Dog‑friendly office environment.