Senior Software Engineer at Holly in New York, NY

Holly is the HR platform built for city and county government. We help local governments modernize how they hire, classify, and manage their workforce — work that directly shapes public services for millions of people. Our platform is live across 12 states with 60+ jurisdictions representing over 10% of the US population, including major counties like Santa Clara and Contra Costa in the Bay Area, Orange County in LA, and Snohomish County in Washington State. Demand is outpacing our team, and we're building to meet it.

Holly is a seed-stage team of 20+ operators with deep roots in public service, civic tech, and AI. We’ve raised $10M from leading investors in government technology and the future of work and have grown over 100X in the last year. We center public servants and impact in every decision and we bring that same care to how we work here at Holly.

About the role

• We're hiring a Senior Software Engineer to join Holly as we scale the AI-powered platform helping local governments design and manage their workforce. You’ll be the fifth engineer on the team and will own major parts of our product and technical foundation.
• This is a hands-on building role: you’ll design and ship end-to-end features in our Next.js + TypeScript stack, model complex government workforce data in Postgres, and build reliable pipelines that turn messy external inputs into trustworthy, usable product experiences. You’ll make pragmatic architecture decisions, raise the quality bar, and help us move fast without breaking things.
• If you’re a senior engineer who wants real ownership - shipping end-to-end, making architecture calls, and setting the engineering bar as one of the earliest engineers - this role is for you. You’ll work directly with the founders, build core systems that will define the product for years, and have the autonomy to move fast while still building things the “right” way. If you’re excited by ambiguous problems, real-world workflows, and turning messy inputs into a product people rely on, we’d love to talk.

What you'll do

As an early engineer at Holly, you'll own major parts of the product, make high-leverage technical decisions, and ship features customers are actively asking for.

• You'll own and ship core product:
• • Own end-to-end features from idea → production (data model, backend, frontend, rollout)
    • Partner closely with product and customers to scope work, make tradeoffs, and drive delivery
    • Lead high-impact projects that directly unlock customer value and revenue
    • Drive technical direction for major initiatives (tradeoffs, sequencing, quality bar)
• You'll build and maintain production features across the stack:
• • Next.js (App Router, Server Actions, Edge) on Vercel
    • TypeScript
    • Postgres (Supabase) + Drizzle
    • Background jobs / async workflows (Redis + BullMQ)
    • Tailwind + design system
    • Sentry
• You'll raise the engineering bar:
• • Set strong defaults via code review, reliability/monitoring, and CI/CD improvements
    • Establish pragmatic standards that keep us shipping fast without breaking things (testing where it matters, clean interfaces, lightweight docs)

What you'll have

• We’d love to talk if you’re a strong builder with high ownership and solid product judgment. In particular, we’ve seen success with two types of senior engineers:
• • Senior full-stack engineers with deep Next.js/TypeScript experience who can immediately own our web stack end-to-end (server-side React, modern Next patterns, performance-minded UI for large datasets).
    • Senior engineers with strong ownership/architecture/reliability experience who may be lighter on Next.js, but can ramp quickly while bringing senior technical judgment (data modeling, scalable systems, observability, and pragmatic tradeoffs).
• We're looking for:
• • ~4–6+ years building and shipping production software (or equivalent experience)
    • A proven track record owning systems used by real customers (building, operating, and improving them over time)
    • Strength in full-stack fundamentals: backend design + clean APIs, data modeling, and pragmatic architecture decisions
    • Experience shipping modern React/Next.js (or can ramp quickly); care for performance, DX, and maintainability
    • Experience building data-heavy product surfaces before (search/filter/pagination) and comfort working with imperfect real-world data when needed
    • Demonstrated ability to take ownership and move fast - you work independently, ship often, and thrive in early-stage ambiguity
    • A growth mindset - you learn quickly, and raise the bar through code review and collaboration
• BONUS POINTS:
• • Experience in government, public sector, or civic tech
    • Prior early-stage startup experience
    • Interest in being a founder someday - this role is a true “early team” seat: you’ll work directly with founders, own major product/technical decisions, and learn how the startup actually runs from the inside

What you'll get

• Foundational ownership – Architect and build core systems that will define our product and data model for years.
• Real technical influence – Make high-leverage decisions on architecture, standards, and how we scale (not just “tickets”).
• High-impact scope – Ship features that customers urgently need and see them used in production quickly.
• Mission with real stakes – Your work improves how local governments operate, helping millions of Americans access public-service careers.
• Competitive package – $170K - $220K base, 0.25–0.5% equity (depending on experience), comprehensive health benefits (platinum plan, vision, dental), 401(k) benefits

Ready to join us? A few important notes:

• Interview process:
• • Initial screen (20 min)
    • Take-home assignment (~2 hours)
    • Technical interview and product interview (~45 mins each)
    • Onsite at Holly HQ in NYC
• Location: For this role, we have a preference for candidates who can reside in New York or are able to commute to New York City to work out of our office three times a week, or for candidates who reside in SF or are able to commute to SF on a regular basis for collaboration with other engineers located in the Bay Area.
• Work Philosophy: We’re an early-stage startup serving government clients with real deadlines. There may be occasional off-hours work around launches or critical issues. We value flexibility and trust you to manage your schedule while maintaining a high bar for responsiveness and customer outcomes.
• Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without requiring sponsorship.

Holly is committed to building a diverse company and working with the broadest talent pool possible. We encourage applications from all races, religions, national origins, genders, sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, and ages, as well as veterans and individuals with disabilities.