{"id":857121,"url":"https://alion.io/job/instead-software-engineer","title":"Software Engineer","company":{"id":678991,"name":"Instead","domain":"instead.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/instead-2","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":3,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-11-02T06:13:15Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"middle","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":126000,"max_usd":249000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":1539},"experience_years_min":3,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"Claude Code","optional":false},{"name":"Copilot","optional":false},{"name":"Cursor","optional":false},{"name":"Prompt Engineering","optional":false},{"name":"Amazon ECS","optional":true},{"name":"AWS","optional":true},{"name":"AWS Fargate","optional":true},{"name":"Docker","optional":true},{"name":"Go","optional":true},{"name":"Helicone","optional":true},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":true},{"name":"OpenAI","optional":true},{"name":"PostgreSQL","optional":true},{"name":"Tailwind CSS","optional":true},{"name":"TypeScript","optional":true},{"name":"Vue.js","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-13T07:14:16Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-06-17","last_verified_at":"2026-11-02T17:30:24Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":50,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":50},"description":"About Instead\nInstead is where tax work gets done. Our AI agent orchestrates the entirety of how work gets done in tax, from preparation and compliance to filing and advisory. It's a fundamentally new way of doing tax work, and it's why top 500 firms, Big Four teams, and enterprise corporate tax departments are choosing Instead.\nWhat makes us unique: we hold full government approvals with the IRS, 48 states, and all cities to e-file 1040, 1041, 1120, 1120S, and 1065, with 706, 709, 990, 5500, 2290, and PPT coming for tax year 2026. Instead is a full replacement for CCH Axcess, GoSystem, UltraTax, OneSource, CorpTax, Lacerte, ProConnect, Drake, and more. No other tax startup will be able to offer these capabilities for years as we are two to three years ahead of everyone else in government approvals. This lets us build product experiences that are simply unmatched in the market.\nInstead is backed by Conviction, IRIS (the largest tax software provider in the UK), Skylark, Aprio, and many of our partners and customers. Our team includes leaders from Intuit, Gusto, Zenefits, Thomson Reuters, Wolters Kluwer, PwC, BDO, RSM, and KPMG.\nThe Role\nYou'll build the AI-powered tax platform that hundreds of accounting firms use every day. You'll work across the full stack, shipping features on our customer-facing product and building internal tooling that powers our engineering team. This is production AI work, not research. You'll be writing code that handles real tax returns, real deadlines, and real customer data.\nOur stack: Vue, Nuxt, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS on the frontend. Go, Docker on AWS ECS/Fargate, and PostgreSQL on AWS RDS on the backend. For AI, we use Cursor, Claude Code, Helicone, Gemini, and OpenAI, and we're constantly evaluating new tools.\nWhat You'll Do\nShip full-stack product features end to end for our live customer platform\nBuild and integrate AI-powered components including production-level inference and prompt engineering\nMake key product improvements based on customer feedback and usage analytics\nSolve critical product bugs across the full stack with high urgency during tax season\nCreate tools and internal platforms that enhance the productivity of Instead's engineering and product teams\nPartner with US-based product teams to translate customer needs into technical solutions\nContribute to architecture decisions as the team scales\nWhat You Bring\n3+ years of software development experience\nProficiency in full-stack development with a strong understanding of web frameworks, backend systems, and cloud infrastructure\nExperience building and shipping production software that real customers depend on\nHigh attention to detail. Tax work has consequences, and our code needs to be right\nFast learner who thrives in a fast-paced environment where priorities shift quickly\nExperience with AI/ML frameworks, prompt engineering, or AI coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) is a strong plus\nExperience with our stack (Vue/Nuxt, Go, AWS, PostgreSQL) is a plus but not required\nWhat Makes Someone Exceptional\nYou ship fast without sacrificing quality. You know when to cut corners and when the details matter\nYou've built customer-facing products at scale and understand what it means when real users depend on your code\nYou actively use AI tools in your development workflow. You see AI as a force multiplier, not a novelty\nYou can work across the full stack and context-switch between frontend polish and backend infrastructure\nYou care about the product, not just the code. You understand why a feature matters to customers, not just how to build it\nLocation\nSan Francisco (on-site)\nInstead is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate candidates based on capability, judgment, ownership, and fit for the role's responsibilities. 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