Forward Deployed Software Engineer

We the people — and the taxpayers — deserve good government. Yet today, interacting with government services is often frustrating and inefficient. GovWell is building the AI operating system transforming how governments serve communities, starting with local agencies.

GovWell replaces legacy software for municipalities and counties, empowering public servants to radically streamline public services and cut internal processing time for permits and licenses by up to 95%.

Founded in 2023, GovWell powers 5,000+ mission-critical processes for agencies in 35+ states serving millions of residents. The company has raised $35M in funding from Insight Partners, Work-Bench, and Bienville Capital, and the team works in person at GovWell HQ in New York City. Read more about our founding story in TechCrunch.

GovWell is hiring Forward Deployed Software Engineers to sit inside our most complex enterprise deals — the ones where a county's 20-year-old permitting system, a workflow no vendor has handled before, or a migration off legacy systems is standing between a signed contract and a working deployment.

This role exists because our biggest municipalities don't fit a template. You'll go on-site, diagnose what's actually blocking the launch, build the targeted fix when one is needed, and then decide what part of that fix should become a permanent, reusable piece of the platform rather than a one-off. Get this right and you turn a complex deal into a referenceable customer. Get it wrong and you either miss the deal or bury the core product in bespoke debt.

This is a hands-on, high-ownership engineering role based in NYC (3+ days per week in office), with travel as needed for key customers.

• A mission that matters: Building AI-powered products to fix outdated government systems isn’t just a technical challenge—it’s a historic opportunity to improve our foundational relationship with government and ensure trillions of tax dollars result in high quality services. WATCH: Mission & Vision with CEO & Co-Founder Troy LeCaire

• Real-world impact: GovWell’s product is the system of record for government services that affect millions of Americans. From streamlining permitting for small businesses to accelerating affordable housing development, your work will make an immediate difference.

• Join a startup in hyper-growth: We’ve found product-market fit and are scaling the business very quickly (4X ARR growth in the last year). As an early team member, you’ll learn what it takes to build a successful startup. You’ll work closely with the founders while enjoying exceptional autonomy and ownership over your work.

• Unblock complex enterprise deployments by diagnosing and resolving technical and workflow blockers during high-stakes launches — including migrations off legacy systems

• Partner with Sales and Deployment on late-stage deals, providing technical feasibility judgment and credibility with senior municipal stakeholders.

• Travel to complex or high-value municipalities to understand constraints firsthand and accelerate execution.

• Build targeted code or configuration when necessary — but treat every bespoke fix as a candidate for productization, not a permanent one-off.

• Translate recurring enterprise requirements into scalable abstractions, and escalate the durable ones back to core teams to shape roadmap decisions.

• Know when to build, when to configure, and when to push back — your judgment directly protects the core platform from fragmenting under enterprise pressure.

• 5+ years of experience as a full-stack or forward deployed engineer in a production SaaS environment.

• Strong product judgment with a track record of deciding when to build, abstract, configure, or push back.

• Experience working on customer-facing deployments, integrations, or migration-heavy environments.

• Effective communicator with executive-facing credibility — you can hold your own in a room with a municipal CIO or department head.

• Comfortable operating under ambiguity and owning high-impact, revenue-sensitive problems.

• Strong coding ability in TypeScript/Node or similar.

• Startup-oriented operator who moves quickly without over-engineering.

• You align closely with our Core Values.
  

• React

• TypeScript

• Node.js

• GraphQL

• PostgreSQL

• RedwoodJS

• AWS

• OpenAI API

Compensation within the posted salary band will be commensurate with experience. All offers will include:

• Competitive base salary.

• Equity / stock options.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.

• 401(k) program.

• Flexible PTO.

Below: a picture of the entire GovWell team celebrating our Series A with a boat cruise on the Hudson!