Job Opportunities API

About Understood Understood is a nonprofit focused on shaping the world for difference. We raise awareness of the challenges and strengths of people who learn and think differently. Our resources help people navigate challenges, gain confidence, and find support and community so they can thrive.  Having a shared commitment to our values is a key factor in any hire we make. We have five core values:  Continuously learn. Act with intention. Champion difference. Inspire change. Grow together.  Come be part of an organization with an entrepreneurial spirit that’s helping to shape the world for difference. Together, we can build a world where everyone can reach their full potential.  To learn more about Understood, please visit: www.understood.org . Who you are  To advance Understood’s mission and further our impact, we’re hiring a Senior Full-Stack Engineer, reporting to an Engineering Manager, to work across our frontend, backend, and AI systems. You’ll join a cross-functional team and collaborate closely with product, design, data, and content teams to build and evolve the platforms that power Understood.org and our AI-assisted experiences. The ideal candidate is comfortable working across the stack—from React and Next.js on the frontend to Python and Django on the backend—and brings demonstrated experience with LLM-powered products. You’ll contribute to a growing portfolio of AI tools, including our conversational assistant and emerging multimodal experiences, while helping millions of families navigate learning and thinking differences. This is a hybrid role that requires a minimum of three (3) days a week in our NYC office, with a focus on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. We are a Mac-based environment, and team members are provided a Mac laptop for their work.  What you’ll do Collaborate with cross-functional teams (product, design, data, content) to design, develop, and maintain features across the full stack Build high-quality, accessible frontend experiences in Next.js, React, and TypeScript, including the stateful, streaming chat and multimodal (voice, text-to-speech, speech-to-text) interfaces that power our AI assistants. Architect and ship the backend services and APIs (Python, Django, SQL) behind them, including integrations with PostgreSQL, Redis, Pinecone, and Contentful. Monitor and improve AI performance KPIs, including system latency and time-to-first-token (TTFT) You know how to build accessible and localized products Own your work across the entire software development lifecycle, from architecture and planning through development, deployment, and monitoring Ship early and often. Break big problems into small, releasable increments and get them in front of users using feature flags, A/B tests, and progressive rollouts rather than big-bang launches. Stay close to the people we serve. Dig into user feedback, support tickets, and product analytics to find the real problem, then ship the smallest change that solves it. Leverage tools such as DataDog, Sentry, and Langsmith for monitoring, alerting, and analytics to proactively identify and resolve issues; own your services’ health Collaborate effectively with both internal teams and external development partners to co-design solutions, troubleshoot integrations, and review code Participate in code reviews, mentor junior engineers, and contribute to continuously improving development processes and best practices Stay current with emerging technologies and industry trends, advocating for tools and practices that enhance our development process and product offerings Must-haves  7+ years of professional experience delivering production software, with meaningful depth in both frontend and backend development Strong expertise in TypeScript, React, and Next.js, including experience building stateful, streaming interfaces Demonstrated  experience wi