About the Company

Come Near is a mission-driven, fully distributed nonprofit focused on raising public awareness and conversation about Jesus. The organization creates, curates, and connects people with authentic stories and experiences of Jesus. Its best-known initiative, the “He Gets Us” campaign, launched in 2021 and has reached millions of Americans while engaging audiences during major media moments worldwide. Come Near combines a lean operating model with a focus on technology, digital engagement, and its faith-based mission.

About the Role

Come Near is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the technical architecture of its highest-priority initiative: a personalized digital engagement platform. This role combines hands-on software development with architectural leadership across web products, data platforms, AI capabilities, and cloud infrastructure. You will establish technical standards, guide internal and external engineering teams, and ensure systems are secure, scalable, reliable, and maintainable. Working closely with AI and data teams, engineering leadership, and external vendors, you will make architectural decisions that balance technical quality, delivery speed, operational complexity, and cost. The role also requires active development work, including prototyping, implementing critical code, and reviewing contributions across shared codebases.

Key Responsibilities

Design and document end-to-end architecture spanning products, data platforms, and cloud infrastructure. Define technical standards, API patterns, and integration contracts for internal and vendor engineering teams. Architect systems for reliability, scalability, observability, and operational resilience, including high-traffic events and sudden traffic spikes. Review vendor designs, implementations, and code contributions for architectural quality, security, performance, and long-term maintainability. Collaborate with AI and data teams on personalization logic, event tracking, and pipeline architecture, with particular attention to how sensitive personal data is collected, stored, and used. Establish and enforce practical security and data privacy standards appropriate for handling sensitive personal data at scale. Identify and mitigate architectural, security, operational, and vendor-related risks before they affect delivery or business operations. Contribute directly to development by shipping critical code and prototyping architectural decisions before standardizing them. Evaluate build-versus-buy and build-versus-vendor options, balancing technical quality, delivery speed, operational complexity, and cost. Establish documentation standards for architecture decision records (ADRs), design documents, technical standards, and operational runbooks. Advise the Senior Engineering Manager and VP of Engineering and Analytics on architecture strategy, technical risks, platform evolution, and major technical investments.

Required Qualifications

At least 10 years of professional software engineering experience, including substantial experience at the Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer, Architect, or equivalent level. Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field. Deep expertise in modern web platform architecture, including Next.js or comparable frameworks, API design, content platforms, and edge/CDN architecture. Working knowledge of mobile platform architecture. Strong cloud infrastructure expertise, preferably AWS, including identity and access management, resiliency patterns, autoscaling, observability, and cost optimization. Experience owning infrastructure-as-code practices using Terraform or an equivalent tool, along with CI/CD systems. Experience defining or improving testing and quality strategies across unit, integration, and end-to-end testing. Experience working with external agencies, vendors, or contractors in shared codebases and architectural environments, including evaluating and challenging technical decisions. Experience designing, building, and operating highly scalable distributed systems with demanding reliability and performance requirements. Strong technical writing, systems thinking, and communication skills. Ability to lead distributed teams, manage complex initiatives independently, and make sound technical decisions amid ambiguity and changing priorities.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience architecting or operating large-scale data platforms, analytics infrastructure, or data-intensive systems. Experience building, integrating, or delivering AI/ML-powered products and capabilities. Familiarity with MLOps practices, including deploying, monitoring, and operating machine learning systems in production. Relevant Technologies and Platforms Frontend: Next.js, React. Backend: Node.js, TypeScript, Payload CMS. Cloud infrastructure: AWS, Vercel, Neon, Cloudflare Workers. Data and analytics: BigQuery, Dataform, dbt, Python. AI: Custom TypeScript LLM service. Additional relevant technologies and practices include APIs, edge/CDN architecture, Terraform or equivalent infrastructure-as-code tools, CI/CD, and automated testing. Salary & Benefits The starting annual base salary is $145,000. Annual performance bonus based on organizational performance. 80% employer-paid health and wellness coverage. 403(b) retirement plan with a 7% employer match. Generous paid time off. Three annual company rest weeks, around July 4 and between Christmas and New Year’s. Flourishing Fund stipend. Annual education reimbursement stipend. Additional benefits and perks are available. Location and Work Arrangement This is a fully remote position open to candidates based in the United States. Come Near operates as a lean, fully distributed nonprofit. Mission and Organizational Fit Candidates are required to sign Come Near’s Statement of Faith, which aligns with the organization’s mission of inviting all people one step closer to the authentic Jesus, wherever they are. The organization also seeks someone with a personal relationship with Jesus, a passion for its mission, a service-oriented mindset, humility, collaborative leadership, and a proactive, detail-oriented approach to planning and execution.