Thatch→
Software Engineer: Backend at Thatch in San Francisco, CA
Skills
Job Description
About the role
Thatch is building a healthcare system people actually love. We give companies a smarter, more personal way to offer health benefits and give employees real choice over how they use them.
As a Backend Software Engineer, you will design and build the core systems that power Thatch. This includes data models, funds flows, automations, and integrations that make healthcare benefits work reliably at scale. Your work ensures that money moves correctly, benefits stay compliant, and complex processes feel simple to users.
This is a fintech meets healthcare problem. The challenge is building durable, correct systems that handle real money, regulatory constraints, and high operational stakes.
We organize engineering around the people we serve members, employers, and partners so backend engineers work closely with product, operations, and full-stack peers to deliver complete, end-to-end experiences.
What you'll do
- Design, build, and evolve backend systems that support enrollments, payments, payroll, and benefits management.
- Architect and maintain robust data models and funds flows that handle millions of dollars in transactions.
- Build integrations with payroll providers, banks, insurance carriers, and other external partners.
- Improve operational rigor through automation, tooling, monitoring, and observability.
- Partner closely with product, operations, and other engineers to solve complex business problems.
- Take ownership of production systems, including reliability, debugging, and long-term maintainability
What we are looking for
- Experience building and maintaining backend systems in a production environment.
- A track record of shipping systems with complex business and operational implications.
- Strong ability to reason about data models, workflows, and edge cases.
- Comfort operating in ambiguous problem spaces with cross-functional tradeoffs.
- Experience mentoring other engineers or setting technical direction.
Tools and tech stack
Our stack is intentionally simple. The complexity comes from the domain.
- Ruby on Rails for backend systems
- React and TailwindCSS for the frontend
- Small amounts of Python and backend JavaScript where appropriate
Prior Ruby experience is helpful but not required. We value engineers who can learn quickly and think clearly about systems.
Experience that stands out
- Work in healthcare, finance, or other complex or regulated domains.
- Experience with HR, payroll, payments, or partner-facing systems.
- Ownership of systems with real operational or financial impact.
How we work
- We move quickly and bias toward action.
- We ship early, learn from real usage, and iterate.
- We operate with trust, ownership, and high empathy.
- We value clarity over ceremony and quality over shortcuts.
What to expect
We aim to move quickly, and most candidates complete the process within two weeks. The interview process typically includes:
- A virtual recruiter conversation to discuss your background and interest in Thatch
- A pair programming session focused on collaborative problem solving
- A system design conversation
- A virtual meeting with members of the engineering team
- A final conversation with engineering and company leadership
About Thatch
We’re a fully distributed early stage company using technology to change the way America does healthcare. We’re a happy, friendly, high-velocity team. You can read more on Thatch here.