Principal Product Engineer
Coforma · Remote - USA (select states)
Software Engineering
Partners & Advocates
Public Service & Civic Engagement
Human Rights & Equality
$174,400 -
$187,007
Per Year
Posted 2 hours ago
Featured Job
We are looking for an experienced, product-focused Principal Product Engineer with a strong frontend orientation to join our internal innovation lab at Coforma.
The innovation lab is a small, autonomous team building a new product from scratch. We operate with the speed of a startup but the stability of an established company, with the goal of creating a new digital service that may grow into its own offering.
As a Principal Product Engineer, you’ll be a deeply hands-on technical leader shaping how we design, build, and ship modern applications in a fast-moving R&D environment. Reporting to our Chief Innovation Officer (CINO), you’ll bring strong, opinionated, experience-backed judgment around frontend architecture, particularly in modern React and Next.js ecosystems, and make pragmatic decisions that balance speed of learning with long-term maintainability. You’ll mentor other engineers, model a strong product-engineering culture, and help the team navigate the ambiguity that comes with early-stage product development and experimentation.
This is a full-stack role with a frontend center of gravity: candidates are expected to lead from the frontend, setting patterns for React and Next.js applications, data-fetching strategies, UI and state architecture, and overall product experience, while also being comfortable owning backend services and APIs as needed. You’ll help build the foundational frontend and application platform for our innovation lab from the ground up, often operating as the primary builder and working in close collaboration with a small set of product, design, and leadership partners to quickly test, iterate, and ship new modular products. This role is intentionally scoped for early-stage execution before a dedicated team is hired.
We’re looking for engineers who enjoy building quickly with modern web frameworks and who can also design and build systems that hold up as products grow and mature. If you’re passionate about improving lives through digital products and services, Coforma is a great company for you.
$174,399 to $187,006 Annual Salary + Benefits + Growth Potential
Placement within this range will be based on the competency level of the candidate. An offer will be made at one of the following tiers:
- Tier 1 - $174,399.60: Meets minimum qualification/experience requirements. Beyond onboarding, will need additional guidance and training to perform key responsibilities of the role.
- Tier 2 - $181,543.68: Experienced and fully competent. Will be able to independently perform key responsibilities of the role once onboarding is completed.
- Tier 3 - $187,006.80: Highly experienced and can perform all responsibilities of the role at a higher level than expected once onboarding is completed.
To honor our company-wide equitable pay system, the posted salary range and corresponding tier salaries are non-negotiable.
This is a US-based remote position open to applicants in the states listed below. Some travel may be required.
To ensure we remain compliant with all state, county, and local employment and tax regulations, applicants must currently reside in one of the following states to be considered for employment with Coforma. This list will be updated periodically as our People team works to open up hiring in additional states.
- Arizona
- California
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Montana
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New York
- North Carolina
- Oregon
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Virginia
- Washington
- Wisconsin
What You’ll Do (Key Responsibilities)
Your responsibilities in this role will be broad and will evolve over time, but initially they'll be centered on a few key areas such as:
Team & Leadership Responsibilities:
- Serve as technical lead for early-stage innovation lab projects, working closely with the CINO and our Product, Design, and Delivery teams to shape technical direction for prototypes and new products and guiding design and implementation decisions
- Mentor engineers and collaborators, sharing best practices and fostering a culture of collaboration, psychological safety, and continuous learning in an agile, experiment-friendly environment
- Enable modern DevSecOps practices such as automated testing, CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, and secure-by-default engineering
- Participate in business development and strategy efforts (proposals, presentations, etc.), when needed
Projects & Programs:
- Rapidly prototype, validate, and iterate on new product ideas, balancing speed of learning with scalable, maintainable code
- Select and implement modern frameworks (React/TypeScript, Node, Python, etc.) and cloud services (containerized APIs, event-driven services, etc.) that enable fast experimentation
- Identify and mitigate technical risks early; clearly communicate trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders
- Support experimentation with AI-driven capabilities (LLMs, data pipelines, agentic tools) where appropriate
- Contribute reusable libraries, documentation, and internal tools that accelerate future innovation lab projects
- Partner with IT and Security teams to ensure prototypes run in sandboxed, compliant environments suitable for R&D
In your first 30 days, you will:
- Complete new hire orientation training and familiarize yourself with the vision for the innovation lab
- Define the initial platform architecture including portal entry point, identity/auth approach, multi-tenant strategy, API gateway, and service boundaries
- Select foundational technologies (frameworks, languages, hosting environment, auth provider or build approach, database pattern)
- Create architecture diagrams and engineering decision records to align with leadership and product direction
- Stand up the initial repo structure, monorepo or polyrepo approach, and foundational CI/CD pipeline skeleton
- Begin coding the Platform Shell / Portal (even if just a Hello World + placeholder UI)
- Implement a basic working authentication flow (prototype only) to validate feasibility
- Review existing ideas in Linear and select one to implement as the first platform module and collaborate with the existing engineer to break down and begin implementation
- Partner with the Product Operations Manager to define agile development workflows and engineering rituals
- Begin documenting platform principles such as modularity, API-first, secure-by-default, and observability-ready
After 60 days:
- Deliver a functional login experience connected to cloud infrastructure
- Implement the first platform module from Linear using the new architecture
- Establish patterns/templates for reusable services or modules
- Deploy the platform scaffold into a development environment with automated deploys
- Refine sprint practices, backlog structure, and definition of done with the Product Operations Manager
- Begin mentoring engineers on using the platform architecture and process
After 90 days:
- Produce a platform roadmap and demonstrate the platform to leadership, articulating how additional features/products will plug into the foundation
- Deliver a working platform with authentication, portal access, and at least one production-ready module
- Establish guidelines for engineers joining the platform effort (documentation, contribution models, code conventions, etc.)
- Enable rapid module creation through established templates and tooling
- Establish early success metrics for delivery velocity, platform adoption, and code quality
Who You Are and What You Know (Knowledge and Experience Requirements)
- Minimum of 8 years of professional software engineering experience in product-oriented environments, with a strong frontend focus
- Deep hands-on experience building production applications in Next.js, including modern React patterns, App Router, and TypeScript
- Strong backend experience in Node.js, with preference for NestJS, and comfort owning API design end-to-end
- 5+ years of experience designing, building, and consuming APIs including GraphQL and REST, and deploying to modern cloud environments (preferably GCP)
- Proven track record of shipping full-stack web applications from prototype to production, with particular strength in frontend architecture, performance, and developer experience
- 4+ years of experience leading technical direction or serving as tech lead/architect on complex products
- Deep experience with React/TypeScript and at least one modern back-end stack (Node, Python, Go, etc.)
- Proven track record of shipping full-stack web apps from prototype to production
- Comfortable operating in startup-style ambiguity, designing experiments, measuring outcomes, and iterating quickly based on real user feedback
- Full-time resident of the contiguous United States (must be legally authorized to work in the US now and in the future without sponsorship)
What You Know:
- Strong grasp of the building blocks of the web (HTTP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript/TypeScript, JSON, TLS/SSL), with particular depth in modern frontend application architecture
- Deep experience with React and Next.js, including routing, data fetching patterns, performance optimization, and building resilient, user-centric UIs that interact cleanly with APIs
- Solid backend engineering fundamentals, with hands-on experience building cloud-native Node.js services (preferably NestJS), including API design (GraphQL preferred), data modeling, and service boundaries
- Practical experience implementing secure authentication and authorization flows (OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML), and designing APIs that are safe to consume from browser-based clients
- Familiarity with event-driven and asynchronous processing, distributed caching, observability and logging, and modern persistence patterns that support frontend-driven product experiences
- Capable of delivering application architectures and code that are highly scalable, available, and performant
- Understanding of security and compliance implications (SOC 2, HIPAA, FedRAMP) for SaaS-style products and ability to design with them in mind
- Skilled at tailoring technical communication for executive leadership and non-technical stakeholders and able to explain complex trade-offs in plain language to influence decisions and align teams
Other
- Internet: Will prioritize and maintain access to strong, reliable internet for the remote nature of our work, except when on vacation or holiday.
- Security: Will keep the highest security practices to ensure privacy and security of Coforma and client information, given the nature of our work, even when on vacation.
- Travel Flexibility: On request and with advanced notice, will attend in-person events such as meetings, workshops, and trainings as assigned for projects that require it.
- Brand Representation: Will represent Coforma professionally and sincerely, modeling our Company Values in all interactions.
About Coforma
We believe ethical technology begins with responsible innovation.
We’re a remote-first company that values collaboration, inclusivity, transparency, autonomy with accountability, and ethical design processes to facilitate responsible innovation and collaboration.
Our cross-functional team works closely with each other and with our government, nonprofit, and commercial partners to research, design, and build better products and services. From empowering patients navigating surprise medical bills to streamlining the digital claims process for Veterans, we’re dedicated to improving people’s lives through thoughtful technology products and services. Together.
Equal Opportunity & Inclusive Workplace
Coforma is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer. It's our policy to provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, religion, sex, gender, age, disability, military or veteran status, or any other factors protected under federal, state, or local law.
We're committed to ensuring accessibility and equal opportunity and offering reasonable accommodations to those with disabilities. We adhere to the guidelines set forth by the Americans with Disabilities Act and all relevant federal, state, and local laws concerning disability discrimination and accommodation. To request a reasonable accommodation for the application or interview process, please email [email protected].
About Public Trust and Other Background Investigations
Due to the nature of our client and project work, most roles may require a National Agency Check and Inquiries (NACI), Moderate Background Investigation (MBI), Background Investigation (BI) or other relevant investigations as needed. Additional information regarding background evaluations or investigations can be found on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management website (opm.gov).
