Senior Backend Software Engineer - Contractor - Thrive Global

Thrive is a leading behavior change technology company founded by Arianna Huffington in 2016 with the mission to end the stress and burnout epidemic. Thrive helps individuals and organizations improve well-being, performance and mental resilience with its AI-powered behavior change technology platform. Thrive’s Microsteps – small, science-backed steps to improve health and productivity – have been adopted by employees at more than 125 organizations in over 140 countries, from frontline and call center workers to executives at multinational companies.

If you’re not sure that you’re 100% qualified, but this sounds like a role you would Thrive in – we want you to apply! We believe skills are transferable and passion for our mission goes a long way.

This is a high-impact role for a senior engineer who wants real ownership from day one. As a Senior Software Engineer (Contractor) at Thrive Global , you will own and evolve our enterprise platform end-to-end — responsible for both sustaining engineering (reliability, scalability, technical debt) and net-new feature development that directly supports our B2B customers and commercial growth.

You will start by working on our Coaching application, with the flexibility to move to other parts of the platform as priorities evolve. This is a fast-moving, lean environment, so we are looking for someone who brings the pragmatism of a startup — a bias to ship and iterate quickly — paired with the craft of an engineer who has seen the long-term cost of shortcuts. You will take ambiguous problems, break them into well-sized workstreams, and drive them to completion with minimal hand-holding.

How You’ll Contribute

• Own and evolve the enterprise platform end-to-end — responsible for both sustaining engineering (reliability, scalability, technical debt) and net-new feature development that directly supports B2B customers and commercial growth. You will start on our Coaching app and may shift to other areas of the platform as needs arise.
• Independently scope and deliver medium-to-large projects — take an ambiguous problem, break it into well-sized workstreams, sequence the work, and drive it to completion with minimal hand-holding.
• Partner closely with Product and stakeholders — translate business requirements into technical plans, surface trade-offs early, and keep cross-functional partners informed throughout delivery.
• Set a high bar for quality without sacrificing pace — bring a bias to ship and iterate fast, balanced with the craft and judgment to avoid costly shortcuts.
• Support reliability and incident response — provide on-call and incident support during US working hours to keep the platform healthy and customers supported.

Qualifications & Skills

• Senior-level software engineering experience, with a track record of owning systems or products end-to-end in a production environment.
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