Engineering Lead, Software Engineer, Full Stack Developer

Hello, we’re Instrumentl.

We’re a mission-driven startup helping the nonprofit sector to drive impact, and we’re well on our way to becoming the #1 most-loved grant discovery and management tool. To help us get there, we’re hiring an Engineering Lead to provide both technical leadership and people management for one of our product engineering teams. If you’re excited by the idea of building great software, mentoring a strong team, and applying AI in practical, user-facing ways, we’d love to hear from you.

Instrumentl is a hypergrowth YC-backed startup with over 5,000 nonprofit clients, from local homeless shelters to larger organizations like the San Diego Zoo and the University of Alaska. We are building the future of fundraising automation, helping nonprofits to discover, track, and manage grants efficiently through our SaaS platform. Since 2015, our customers have used Instrumentl to find, win, and manage over $6.7 billion in grant funding.

Our charts are dramatically up-and-to-the-right 📈 — we’re cash flow positive and doubling year-over-year, with customers who love us (NPS is 65+ and Ellis PMF survey is 60+). Join us on this rocket ship!

As an Engineering Lead at Instrumentl, you’ll help shape technical direction, support engineers in their growth, and ensure we’re delivering scalable, high-impact product experiences, especially through the use of modern AI tools and features.

Instrumentl’s engineers are organized into five teams:

• Growth/GTM
  : go-to-market tooling
• Discover
  : grant discovery features
• Apply
  : grant application/proposal development and submission features
• Manage
  : grant award tracking and reporting features
• Data, Tools, and Infrastructure (DTI): platform and internal tooling

You will embed with one of the above groups in a hands‑on leadership role, actively balancing team management with individual technical contribution. Get to know us at !

The Instrumentl team is fully distributed (though if you’d like to work from our Oakland office, we would love to see you there). For this position, we are looking for someone who has significant overlap with Pacific Time Zone working hours.

• Lead and mentor a team of engineers, balancing hands‑on technical work with coaching and execution.
• Drive technical planning and team execution, from early discovery to final delivery.
• Partner on AI‑backed product features, bringing practical experience in integrating models or AI services into production systems.
• Work side by side with Product and Design teams, connecting technical feasibility to customer outcomes.
• Transform product development by applying cutting‑edge AI tools, driving impact in both what we build and how we build it.
• Raise the bar on technical standards, from pull request quality to incident response, ensuring that we leave things better than we found them.
• Foster a team culture where engineers take ownership of results, challenge each other constructively, and continuously level up.

• Software engineering background
  : you’ve been a software engineer for 6+ years, including at least 2 years leading a team or function. Startup experience and comfort operating in fast, scrappy environments is a huge plus!
• Hands‑on leadership
  : you’ve demonstrated your ability to guide system design, drive execution, and develop talent on growing Engineering teams.
• Experience with AI integration
  : you have practical experience shipping AI‑powered product features or integrating third‑party AI services into production systems.
• Technical adaptability
  : you’re familiar with Ruby on Rails or similar web frameworks (our core platform is built in Rails). You’re also open to learning new tools or frameworks to move faster and build better.
• Collaborative approach
  : you thrive in a cross‑functional environment involving product managers, designers, marketers, and data analysts, and you value the unique perspective each person brings to the table.
• Results‑driven
  : you’ve shown a bias for action and ownership in fast‑paced, high‑autonomy environments. You have strong instincts for balancing speed, quality, and simplicity in technical decision‑making.
• Player/coach mindset
  : your team…