Principal Full Stack Engineer

Your Impact

The engineering decisions you make will determine whether millions of Americans can access college. You’ll help rebuild the system that serves 17M+ applicants annually, distributes $120 billion in federal aid each year, and manages $1.6T in student loans.

The Technical Challenge

You’ll architect and ship StudentAid.gov, taking on:

• Massive traffic spikes, with 10M+ applications hitting the system in a short window
• Complex eligibility logic, with thousands of rules across federal, state, and school programs
• Real-time data exchanges with the IRS, SSA, and other federal agencies
• Accessibility requirements that directly impact students with disabilities
• Always-on availability during peak deadlines when uptime is critical
• High-stakes releases with no soft rollouts — changes go live for everyone at once

What You’ll Do

This is a hands-on technical leadership role — you won’t code every day, but when it matters, you’ll dive in to unblock teams and de-risk critical changes. The specific tech stack doesn’t matter — we need engineers who can work with and improve whatever technology serves the mission. Tasks may include:

• Transform legacy systems into modern services while keeping critical systems online
• Set technical standards across federal and contractor teams
• Make architectural decisions that will shape FAFSA systems for the next decade
• Review PRs across multiple codebases, spotting failure modes and simplifying changes
• Debug complex production issues and guide teams through root-cause analysis
• Unblock teams by writing code when the mission demands it

Who Succeeds Here

We’re looking for engineers who’ve built at scale in complex environments — typically Staff+ at a strong engineering organization, with experience in most of the following:

• Built or operated systems serving millions of users in production
• Led cross-team technical initiatives over multiple quarters
• Migrated or decomposed legacy systems while keeping critical workflows available
• Stayed hands-on with code — you can still read a diff, trace a request, and ship a fix
• Prioritized outcomes over process — you know when to push back on bureaucracy that slows delivery without adding value

Reality Check

Compensation: This is a GS-15 technical position — the highest rung on the standard government pay scale and roughly equivalent to a Principal Engineer at a top technology company. Full federal benefits included.

The Environment: You’ll face legacy systems, federal compliance, and change-resistant stakeholders. However, you own your technical decisions — shaping architecture, influencing requirements, and driving change through consensus rather than permission.

The Impact: Your code will impact more families than most consumer apps ever reach at one of the most consequential financial moments of their lives. Once you’re in, you have technical autonomy rarely seen in government.

Interview Process

Our interview process is fully remote, consisting of 3-5 conversations that assess work experience, fit, and technical skills.