Staff Software Engineer (Payer)

Our Stack

• Languages: TypeScript, Python 3
• Frontend: React, Remix, Next.js
• Backend & Storage: FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, Postgres, Redis, Snowflake
• Infrastructure: AWS, Temporal, Kafka
• Ops: Datadog, Sentry, PagerDuty
• AI Tools: Cursor, Claude, Gemini, Eddy (our in-house cloud agent harness)

Who You Are

• End-to-End Product Builder: You care just as much about the API architecture as you do the user experience. You seamlessly context-switch between backend logic and frontend state management.
• Owns Outcomes, Not Tasks: You've been handed ambiguous problems and turned them into shipped software. You know how to define the solution, pull in the right people across teams, and keep things moving when priorities shift.
• Sets the Technical Standard: You make technical decisions that optimize for maintainability and scale, not just shipping speed. You proactively improve your team's engineering velocity - whether that's refining tooling, improving automation, or establishing patterns that prevent entire categories of bugs.
• Mentor by Default: You pull engineers into design discussions without being asked. Your code reviews teach, not just gatekeep. You make sure knowledge gets shared across the team, not siloed in one person's head.
• Ships Fast, Iterates Faster: You can move from problem statement to working solution quickly. You'd rather ship a good v1 this week than a perfect v1 next month. Real feedback from therapists and patients is worth more than another round of design review.
• Quick Study in Complex Domains: Healthcare is a maze of payers, regulations, and exceptions. You don't need prior healthcare experience, but you need to be someone who dives into unfamiliar domains and builds a working mental model fast.
• Motivated by Impact: You want your engineering skills applied to problems that matter. Mental healthcare access is broken in America, and you want to be part of fixing it.
• Communicates with Precision: Whether it's a Slack thread, a design doc, or a cross-team meeting, you communicate clearly and concisely. You know that great engineering is wasted if you can't bring people along.
• AI Frontier Tinkerer: You don't just use AI tools - you push their limits. You've experimented with applying LLMs to real workflows, whether that's code generation, operational automation, or developer tooling. You bring a builder's mindset: what can we automate, what should stay human, and how do we ship it responsibly in healthcare?

Our Interview Process

After you apply to Headway, here are some details of what to expect during the interview process.

• Initial screen: You’ll connect with someone in recruiting so you can learn more about the team, Headway’s mission and exciting growth, and we can get a better idea of your background. 
• First round: You'll do a live coding interview with Karat, our technical interviewing partner. It's a great opportunity to showcase your problem-solving skills and learn more about what our engineering team is building.
• Final rounds: You’ll meet several team members for technical and non-technical interviews and leave with a fuller picture of what it’s like to work at Headway.
• References and the Offer: Our favorite part of the process! We'll send over all of the details, including specifics on employee equity, and congratulatory messages from excited future team members!

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: $264,000 - $330,000 base salary plus a competitive equity package.
• Comprehensive Benefits: Medical, dental, vision, HSA/FSA, 401(k), Carrot Fertility reimbursement, and 16-week parental leave.
• The Mission: We reimburse your therapy and provide a professional development budget. We believe in what we’re building.
• Time Off: 13 holidays, a full week off in December, and flexible PTO.