Senior Full Stack Engineer
College Board – Technology – BigFuture Student
Location: This is a fully remote role that requires working EST hours. Candidates who live near CB offices have the option of being fully remote or hybrid (Tuesday and Wednesday in office).
Type: This is a full-time position
About the Team
BigFuture is committed to empowering all students to take the right first step after high school, reaching over 7 million students each year as the leading free resource for college, scholarship, and career exploration. The BigFuture Student team builds and maintains the full breadth of BigFuture.org including but not limited to College Search, Scholarship Search, Career Search, Career Quiz, “Explore Careers”, "Plan for College”, “Pay for College”, dashboards, checklists, and community features so that students can confidently discover, define, and pursue their unique paths. We work in an agile, collaborative environment that values creativity, curiosity, and problem-solving, delivering clean and sustainable solutions that scale to meet the needs of millions while reducing technical debt. Engineers on our team not only code, but also mentor, document, and partner with product and design to shape solutions and influence the direction of our work. We thrive on learning from each other, raising risks early, and finding simplicity in complexity, all while celebrating shared successes and growth. Together, we are mission-driven technologists who take pride in building products that positively transform the educational and career trajectories of students nationwide.
About the Opportunity
Join us in shaping the big future of BigFuture.org — the nation’s most widely used college and career planning platform empowering millions of students each year. As a Senior Full Stack Engineer, you’ll help design, build, and evolve systems that make college and career exploration more intuitive, useful, and impactful.
You’ll own features end-to-end, working across modern front-end frameworks, secure APIs, and scalable AWS-based services to deliver fast, reliable, and accessible experiences. Beyond coding, you’ll influence architectural decisions, simplify complex systems, and collaborate with leaders across product, design, and engineering to align technology with long-term vision.
We’re looking for someone who thrives on big-picture thinking — connecting user needs, system performance, and product goals to craft elegant, sustainable solutions. You’ll mentor teammates, raise engineering standards, and explore emerging technologies like AI and personalization to push the platform forward.
This is an opportunity to have a lasting impact: on our product, our engineering culture, and the students, parents, and educators who rely on BigFuture every day.
In this role, you will:
Design & Implementation (60%)
Design and deliver high-quality software that is scalable, secure, and reusable—leveraging modern technologies, proven design patterns, and cloud-native practices to power BigFuture’s core tools.
Collaborate with product owners, architects, and stakeholders to uphold the highest engineering standards and translate big ideas into impactful, student-facing solutions.
Break down new product capabilities into actionable, verifiable technical changes that move quickly from concept to reality.
Champion Agile, CI/CD, and DevOps best practices to build resilient systems that serve millions of students seamlessly.
Team Operations & Success (20%)
Participate in, or lead Agile SCRUM ceremonies (Sprint Planning, Grooming, Daily SCRUM, Demo) by contributing to team deliverables and driving alignment, focus, and momentum across sprints.
Elevate team performance by giving and receiving thoughtful code reviews, mentoring peers, and helping solve complex technical challenges.
Assist in resolving production issues with urgency and precision, ensuring a smooth and reliable user experience.
Model discipline in adhering to development standards, security practices, and CI/CD principles while helping the team move fast without compromising quality.
Continuously grow your skills and embrace a poly-skilled environment where everyone contributes beyond their specialty.
Software Solutioning & Design (20%)
Develop and maintain a thorough understanding of the customer’s business processes and operations so that business needs can be translated into elegant, maintainable engineering solutions.
Partner with architects, lead engineers and data leads in evaluating feature requests, providing level-of-effort estimates, contributing to sprint planning, and advising/coaching on full stack best practices that scale across BigFuture’s ecosystem.
Drive technical excellence by leading and participating in design and code reviews that sharpen ideas and strengthen the team’s craft.
About you, you have:
5-8 years of production level software development experience managing the entire lifecycle of features, including design, development, documentation, and deployment, with a focus on clear and accurate interfaces and integrations.
Proficiency in reviewing and improving code structure and architecture for testability, maintainability, and scalability, with hands-on experience in JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Node.js, Next.js, APIs, and AWS Serverless technologies (Lambdas, DynamoDB, S3, CloudWatch, SNS, SQS, OpenSearch, etc.).
Leadership in the end-to-end design and implementation of user interfaces, from architectural planning and component strategy through to polished execution, including accessibility, performance optimization, and mentoring peers on building intuitive, scalable, and user-centric front-end solutions.
Strong problem-solving skills, working collaboratively with team members to identify and resolve issues, and partnering with Product Owners to prioritize backlog.
Proven ability to pitch new ideas and implement improved systems and processes, delivering excellent results.
Effective communicator and team lead, able to provide actionable feedback, mentor team members, and participate in interviews to evaluate engineering talent.
Ability to travel 3-5 times a year to our NYC or Reston, VA office.
Authorization to work in the United States.
All roles at College Board require:
A passion for expanding educational and career opportunities and mission-driven work
Authorization to work in the United States for any employer
Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions and comfort learning and applying new digital tools independently and proactively.
Clear and concise communication skills, written and verbal
A learner's mindset and a commitment to growth: welcoming diverse perspectives, giving and receiving timely, respectful feedback, and continuously improving through iterative learning and user input.
A drive for impact and excellence: solving complex problems, making data-informed decisions, prioritizing what matters most, and continuously improving through learning, user input, and external benchmarking.
A collaborative and empathetic approach: working across differences, fostering trust, and contributing to a culture of shared success.
About Our Process
Application review will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days.
While the hiring process may vary, it generally includes resume and application submission, recruiter phone/video screen, hiring manager interview, performance exercise such as live coding or whiteboarding sessions, a panel interview, a conversation with leadership and reference checks.
What We Offer
At College Board, we offer more than just a paycheck—we provide a meaningful career, a supportive team, and a comprehensive package designed to help you thrive. We’re a self-sustaining nonprofit that believes in fair and competitive compensation, grounded in your qualifications, experience, impact, and the market.
A Thoughtful Approach to Compensation
The hiring range for this role is $150,000 to $163,000.
Your exact salary will depend on your location, experience, and how your background compares to others in similar roles at the College Board.
We aim to make our best offer upfront—rooted in fairness, transparency, and market data.
We adjust salaries by location to ensure fairness, no matter where you live.
You’ll have open, transparent conversations about compensation, benefits, and what it’s like to work at College Board throughout your hiring process. Check out our careers page for more.
About Our Culture:
We are motivated to positively impact the educational and career trajectories of millions of students a year.
We prioritize building a diverse and inclusive team where every employee can thrive, and every voice is heard.
We value learning and growth; we offer formal and informal ways to lead through your superpowers, sharpen your strengths, and meet your development goals.
Our high-performing engineers work with the latest technologies, so you will be constantly learning and sharpening your skills, enabling you to be industry-forward instead of left behind technologically.
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