Backend Senior Software Engineer - Contractor

Job Summary

Thrive Global, founded by Arianna Huffington in 2016, is a leading behavior change technology company dedicated to ending the stress and burnout epidemic. Our AI-powered platform helps individuals and organizations improve well-being, performance, and mental resilience. Trusted by over 125 organizations across 140 countries, we empower employees from frontline workers to executives with science-backed Microsteps that drive lasting change.

We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer (Contractor) to join our high-impact, lean team. This role offers real ownership from day one: you will own and evolve our enterprise platform end-to-end, balancing sustaining engineering (reliability, scalability, technical debt) with net-new feature development that directly impacts our B2B customers and commercial growth. You will start on our Coaching application, with the flexibility to shift to other platform areas as priorities evolve. This is a perfect opportunity for a pragmatic builder who thrives on ambiguity, ships quickly, and maintains a high quality bar.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the enterprise platform end-to-end, ensuring reliability, scalability, and technical debt management while delivering net-new features that support B2B customers.
• Independently scope and deliver medium-to-large projects: break ambiguous problems into well-sized workstreams, sequence the work, and drive to completion with minimal hand-holding.
• Partner closely with Product and stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical plans, surface trade-offs early, and keep cross-functional partners informed throughout delivery.
• Set a high bar for quality without sacrificing pace: bring a bias to ship and iterate fast, balanced with the craft and judgment to avoid costly shortcuts.
• Support reliability and incident response: provide on-call and incident support during US working hours to keep the platform healthy and customers supported.
• Collaborate with the Ireland-based team, requiring meaningful daily overlap with US Eastern Time business hours and sufficient overlap for communication and collaboration.
• Start immediately and engage as a contractor, bringing a startup-minded approach to move fast and iterate while maintaining a high quality bar.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

• Senior-level software engineering experience with a track record of owning systems or products end-to-end in a production environment.
• Demonstrated ability to scope and deliver medium-to-large projects independently, from ambiguous problem to shipped solution.
• Strong full-stack TypeScript experience, with a balance of sustaining engineering and net-new feature development.
• Experience building and supporting B2B or enterprise-facing software.
• Comfort partnering directly with Product and non-technical stakeholders to translate requirements into technical plans.
• Experience with on-call rotations and incident response.
• Pragmatic, startup-minded approach with a high quality bar.
• Requires meaningful daily overlap with U.S. Eastern Time business hours and sufficient overlap with the Ireland-based team.
• Available to start immediately and engage as a contractor.
• No degree mentioned; skills and experience are prioritized.

Skills Inventory

• Expert-level proficiency in TypeScript and full-stack development.
• Strong experience with platform reliability, scalability, and technical debt management.
• Proven ability to translate ambiguous business requirements into technical plans.
• Excellent communication skills to surface trade-offs and risks early.
• Self-directed with minimal oversight; knows which decisions warrant stakeholder check-ins.
• Experience with incident response and on-call rotations.
• Familiarity with B2B enterprise platforms and customer-facing features.
• Preferred: Experience with coaching or wellness applications, AI-powered platforms, or behavior change technologies.

Salary & Compensation Estimation

Compensation for this contract position is expected to fall within the range of $90 to $125 per hour, depending on experience, expertise, and overall qualifications. As a contractor role, compensation will be provided on an hourly basis, and the selected candidate will not be eligible for employee benefits, bonus programs, equity, or other company-sponsored benefit plans. The final hourly rate will be determined based on the candidate's background, experience, and market considerations. This translates to an annual equivalent of approximately $187,000 to $260,000 for a full-time workload, making it highly competitive for senior engineering talent.