Senior Software Engineer (Full-Stack)

Fully remote · US or Canada (Toronto or LA preferred) · $130–170K USD + 10% bonus + stock options + benefits

About Instil

At Instil, we’re building software to help nonprofits build stronger relationships, move faster, and drive more impact.

Nonprofits do some of the most important work in the world, but too often they’re stuck with outdated, overcomplicated tools. We think they deserve better. Instil is a modern relationship intelligence platform designed to help nonprofit teams work more effectively, understand their communities more deeply, and operate with the sophistication of the best modern software companies.

About this role

We self-organize as one team on both the high-level goals and immediate priorities, and everyone contributes in the best way they can. That means engineers
*mostly*
code and design
*mostly*
designs, but you’ll have the opportunity to assist with any discipline. No one will turn down a helping hand if you think your afternoon would be best spent doing product research, wireframing an upcoming feature, or helping to qualify leads.

We recently shifted from separate backend and UI teams to full-stack ownership. Our current team is weighted towards backend experience, so we're looking for someone who can lend a senior-level voice to UI architecture conversations as we evolve. Ideally, you are as comfortable shaping a complex React component as you are writing a GraphQL resolver.

Our stack

- Frontend:
React, Relay, Next.js, Netlify
- Backend (modular monolith):
Domain-Driven Design, Python/Django, GraphQL (via Strawberry), Postgres, Temporal, Render.com, AWS
- Supporting backend services:
some TypeScript, some Go, a bit of DynamoDB

You'd probably be a good fit if…

• You can follow a full-stack codepath from click event to React hook to GraphQL resolver to SQL query.
• You can take an ambiguous problem, synthesize input from the team, decide what to build, and ship it without a lot of scaffolding around you. This is a senior role—you will own your own work.
• You have deep React experience and can set the bar for UI quality on a full-stack team.
• You care about UI craft: accessibility, performance, responsive design, and the details that users don't notice until they're missing.
• You've worked with Relay or another normalized GraphQL client.
• You're comfortable writing backend code in a typed Python codebase (or similar ecosystem, like TypeScript or Elixir).
• You write things down. We lean on ADRs, RFCs, and written proposals for how we think.
• You're fluent with AI-assisted development and have opinions about when to lean on it and when not to.
• You've built user-facing AI features, or you're excited to. You care about the UX details that make AI experiences actually work—review states, confidence, iteration, fallback behavior.
• You have a collaborative, low-ego working style, and you’re excited to work on a small team where there's no wall between sales, product, design, and engineering.

This role is probably not for you if…

• You want to be a pure frontend specialist—you'll write Django and SQL too.
• You want to move into management soon. We're staying flat for the foreseeable future.
• You prefer a large company or lots of formal process.

Compensation & benefits

- Salary range:
$130,000–$170,000 USD
- Annual bonus:
10% target
- Stock options:
meaningful early-stage equity
- PTO:
unlimited; our policy is "time off for adults"
- Health & benefits:
medical and 401(k)
- Equipment:
company laptop plus a budget for your home setup
- Team time:
periodic in-person gatherings
- Remote:
fully remote in US or Canada. Core hours are roughly
9 AM – 2 PM PT
. Preference goes to Toronto (where Chloe, our eng lead, is based) and LA (where most of the team lives), but it’s not a strict requirement.

How to apply

Please apply at this link: https://instilio.notion.site/163425323ed245dfa398a7c511d7ce71?pvs=105. The form has a few short open-ended questions; it should take 10-20 minutes to fill out.

What to expect in interviews

You'll meet everyone at the company. Our process:

1. Quick phone screen (30 minutes or less)
with our director of engineering
2. Take-home writing assignment:
pick one of three scenarios and write your recommendation in the format of an ADR or RFC (~2 hour timebox). We’ll send you an example to work from.
*(We grade for thinking, not polish. Typos, imperfect grammar, and rough prose are fine as long as your ideas and reasoning are clear.)*
3. Technical interview
with the engineering team discussing your recommendation
4. A culture conversation
with product, design, and sales
5. Final conversation
with our CEO

Typical timeline: 2–3 weeks from phone screen to offer.

Equal opportunity

Instil is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, age, disability, national or ethnic origin, military service status, citizenship, or any other protected characteristic. If you need an accommodation to submit your application, please reach out to careers+accomodation@instil.io.