Engineering Lead

Engineering Lead
Location: NYC, hybrid
Reports to: Head of Product
Salary: $150,000-$250,000 DOE
This role is expected to work remotely on a regular basis, with regular on-site meetings. We're seeking candidates located in or near NYC.
About Endless Access
Our vision is simple: the whole world, empowered.
Endless Access is tackling a defining challenge of our time: how do you teach entire nations of young people today's most valuable skills when they lack reliable internet, affordable devices, or quality education? We believe access to digital tools and skills is foundational to individual opportunity and to closing the global digital divide, so we help underserved communities worldwide become creators, not just consumers.
Our strategy centers on community game-making. Our flagship project, Threadbare, is a free, open-source game that's fun to play and approachable to contributors at every skill level. Around it, we've built a learning community where young people progress from player to creator to contributor, developing transferable skills in game development and the broader digital economy through peer mentorship and collaborative work. We've proven the model with thousands of learners across the Global South, and we're ready to scale to millions.
About Endless Studios
Endless Studios is a global, youth game-making studio and learning community on a mission to help learners move from players to creators - building real games, portfolios, and future-ready skills. Creators collaborate with industry mentors and peers around the world, contributing to community-led game projects and gaining the hands-on experience that opens doors to jobs across the broader digital economy. We have operations globally and work with schools, universities, game studios, and strategic partners to make creation through gamemaking accessible to everyone.
About the Role
At the center of our community is a web platform that ties together learning experiences, learner recognition, portfolio publishing, micro-credentials, and the tools contributors need to help build a real game. We're looking for an Engineering Lead to own the technical direction and delivery of that platform.
This is a hands-on role with real ownership. You'll drive the architecture, set the engineering standards, and stay close to the code — while shaping what gets built and how, in close partnership with Product. You'll have a genuine voice in the roadmap and the autonomy to turn it into working software.
You'll work across a small, distributed team spanning both Endless Studios and Endless Access, with an Access tech lead running that group day-to-day. Your focus is the shared delivery: keeping the work coherent, unblocked, and moving toward something thousands of learners use today and that's built to reach millions.
Tech stack: Node.js, Nuxt/Vue, Apollo, GraphQL
What we're looking for
Strong full-stack engineer. At home across frontend, backend, and databases (JavaScript/TypeScript), and comfortable owning complex systems end to end.
Delivery leadership. You can run a small team's delivery - planning, sequencing, triage, unblocking - and keep a distributed group aligned on what matters and why.
Product partnership. You work closely with Product to take features from idea to well-defined work, with enough product instinct to push back constructively and keep the team on the right problems.
Clear communicator. You don't let requests get dropped or questions go unanswered, and you make sure the right information reaches the right people - engineers and partners across the org.
Comfortable in a distributed, multicultural team. You work well across time zones and cultures (our team spans the US, Mexico, the Middle East, and India), and you make smart use of AI tools to help you and your team.
Required
8+ years of software development experience
2+ years leading delivery for a small engineering team
Preferred
Experience improving engineering practices and processes
Technical mentorship experience
Experience contributing to open-source projects or communities
Key Responsibilities
Technical leadership
Own the technical direction and architecture of the platform
Set and uphold engineering standards — code review, QA, monitoring, documentation
Stay hands-on in the codebase, contributing to complex work and keeping delivery moving
Delivery
Own the shared delivery plan: sequence the work, track progress, keep it unblocked
Coordinate across a distributed team spanning Studios and Access, working with the Access tech lead who runs that group day-to-day
Flag risks and trade-offs early, and keep the team aligned on priorities
Product partnership
Work with Product to turn features from idea into well-defined engineering work
Contribute to roadmap planning and prioritization
Keep work validated against product intent as it's built

Employment type
Full Time Employee or Contractor

Work arrangement
No