Staff Engineer

At Thorn, our cause is our code. We are a nonprofit whose mission of defending children from sexual exploitation and abuse is deeply embedded within our core—a shared code that drives us to do challenging work with resilience and determination.

Here, you’ll work and grow among the best hearts and the best minds in tech, data, and business alongside our network of independent partners, NGOs, and law enforcement agencies. Together, we’re focused on building technology that protects children’s futures. We are looking for dynamic problem solvers with the desire to help address some of today’s toughest issues. You'll collaborate with a diverse group of peers in a remote environment centered on wellness, care, and compassion.

In 2019, we took the stage at TED and shared our audacious goal of eliminating child sexual abuse material from the internet. Come join us to help make this goal a reality and build a world where every child can be safe, curious, and happy.

About the Role

Safer’s Staff Software Engineers are responsible for delivering scalable systems to facilitate the detection, removal, and reporting of child sexual abuse material. They also work to strengthen our team by organizing and leading discussions, proactively identifying opportunities for improvement, and elevating others, especially less senior engineers. This combination of technical expertise and team guidance is critical for guiding the Safer team towards innovative solutions to hard problems. 

What You’ll Do

• Build and sustain complex systems. Collaborate with engineers across multiple domains to design and deliver scalable backend systems and client applications. Some Staff Software Engineers will have a stronger focus on frontend or backend, while others will work across the stack. 
• Own large, high-impact projects. Tackle ambitious initiatives from greenfield builds to projects with many unknowns. You’ll gather team input, break down problems, and communicate progress/status to stakeholders, technical or otherwise.
• Collaborate with product and other engineers. Work closely with the product team and engineers to define product requirements and lead discussions on optimal engineering solutions, in collaboration with the team.
• Drive technical problem-solving for our partners. Formulate and articulate clear, pragmatic solutions to problems faced by our industry partners. You’ll explain your decisions transparently and iterate based on feedback.
• Lead through code and collaboration. Write and review production-quality code, ensuring robustness and maintainability. You’ll play a critical role in debugging, troubleshooting, and improving system reliability.
• Mentor and elevate others. Support and guide engineers across the team, sharing expertise, pairing on problems, and stepping in wherever you can help. You model curiosity and clarity, even in areas where you are less familiar.
• Drive technical innovation. Champion best practices, introduce new technologies thoughtfully, and ensure the long-term health of our systems. You’ll play a key role in defining technical direction and scaling our platform for impact.

What We’re Looking For

• Technical excellence and ownership. You have strong software development skills and experience building, scaling, and maintaining complex systems. You are able to own multiple domains within a product and can consider the impact of your changes within Safer and Thorn as a whole.
• Project leadership. You have experience prototyping, implementing, testing, and deploying code to production. You have led major initiatives from concept to production, navigating ambiguity and aligning stakeholders to deliver reliable, elegant solutions.
• Clear, collaborative communication. You communicate thoughtfully in code reviews, documentation, and async channels, adapting for technical and non-technical audiences alike. We’re a highly-distributed team, so effective written communication is crucial. 
• Product-minded engineering. You care about usability, design, and real-world impact, balancing user needs, technical constraints, and business goals.
• Mentorship and teamwork. You are enthusiastic about teaching and eager to learn.  You are able to use your expertise to elevate your teammates’ understanding while maintaining the humility required to learn from those same teammates, even those les