Staff Software Engineer - Core

At GoGuardian, we’re helping build a future where all learners are ready and inspired to solve the world’s greatest challenges. Our award-winning system of learning solutions is purpose-built for K-12 and trusted by school leaders to promote effective teaching and equitable engagement while helping empower educators to keep students safe.

We are an outcomes-focused learning company with a steadfast focus on improving learning environments, one classroom at a time. Working with us means joining a remote team of diverse, committed, mission-driven employees who are inspired by our vision, dedicated to our customers, and ready to roll up their sleeves. Guardians put their heads together to solve problems, learn together from experiments that fail, and stand together by their work with full accountability. We balance our diligence with an inclusive culture that invites everyone to bring their whole self to work. Join us and learn why “I love the people here” is one of the most frequent comments we hear from Guardians.

We’re looking for a Staff Software Engineer to build new and maintain existing products in GoGuardian’s Safety product suite. This position sits on the Core team, which owns the GG App -- the client application that brings GoGuardian’s filtering and safety capabilities to macOS, Windows, and iOS devices. The Core team is responsible for the full lifecycle of the app on customer devices: packaging and code signing, silent and at-scale deployment through the tools school IT departments already use (Intune, GPO, SCCM, PDQ, Jamf, and MDM), auto-update infrastructure, and the health and reporting systems that tell us and our customers that every install is working. In this role, you’ll contribute to the full software development lifecycle -- from conception, research, definition, scoping, planning, implementation, and testing, to documentation, delivery, and maintenance. The ideal candidate is curious, able to manage risk, and driven to deliver quality software that runs reliably on hundreds of thousands of school-managed devices.

• Design, build, and maintain the GG App across Windows, macOS, and iOS, including installers, background services, and update mechanisms.
• Own Windows installer engineering: MSI/EXE packages built with the WiX Toolset, silent install and uninstall flows (/quiet, /norestart), upgrade paths, and code signing that keeps us clear of SmartScreen and Defender blocks.
• Build and maintain deployment paths for the tools our customers actually use -- Microsoft Intune (Win32 app packaging, assignments, version detection), Active Directory / Group Policy, SCCM, PDQ Deploy, and Apple MDM solutions -- so districts can roll out the app however their environment requires.
• Design and operate the auto-update system: a lightweight background updater service, differential/patch-based updates, signed update packages delivered via CDN, and scheduled update checks via Windows services, Task Scheduler, or platform equivalents.
• Write PowerShell and platform scripting to automate installation, uninstallation, registry and service management, logging, and diagnostics.
• Navigate customer infosec constraints -- UAC and elevation, certificate-based trust, endpoint-protection interactions, restricted-egress and offline environments -- and design the app to work within them.
• Build or integrate install/upgrade health reporting so we and our customers can see per-machine install status, surface errors, and collect diagnostic logs; contribute to the backend/API work this requires.
• Write IT-friendly documentation, deployment scripts, and onboarding materials covering the deployment profiles our customers use (manual, GPO, Intune, PDQ, MDM).
• Lead the application architecture decision-making process for the Core team.
• Collaborate with a cross-functional team toward feature delivery, working both independently and in pairs/groups with others of varying skill levels; work closely with Product Management and Support to turn customer deployment pain into product improvements.
• Understand, implement, and contribute to GoGuardian’s best practices, including style guides, standards, code reviews, documentation management, and operational workflows.
• Champion AI adoption across engineering by defining best practices and driving effective use of AI in development workflows to improve velocity, quality, and customer impact; continuously experiment with and operationalize AI tools, mentor teams on AI usage, and help shape the company’s AI engineering culture and strategy.
• Monitor and track performance and reliability of our services and software to meet promised SLAs; participate in an on-call rotation for production application support and be generally available during standard working hours.
• Build and operate supporting AWS infrastructure (update delivery, telemetry ingestion, reporting).
• Take part in short- and long-term planning, and mentor other developers to increase the overall performance of the team.

• 8+ years of experience as a software engineer, with significant time spent on desktop/client applications or endpoint software deployed to customer-managed devices.
• Deep Windows platform expertise: installer engineering (MSI/EXE, WiX Toolset, silent install options), Windows services, the registry, UAC/elevation, and code signing and trust chains.
• Strong PowerShell and scripting skills for install/uninstall automation, service and registry management, and logging/reporting.
• Hands-on experience deploying software at scale through enterprise systems-management tools -- Intune, Group Policy, SCCM, and/or PDQ Deploy -- and familiarity with their packaging, assignment, and version-detection models.
• Experience building or integrating auto-update systems: background updaters, differential updates, signed packages, CDN delivery, and scheduled update triggers.
• Working knowledge of endpoint security and compliance realities: certificate-based trust, endpoint-protection tool behavior, and customer environments with no outbound connectivity or offline installation requirements.
• Familiarity with macOS and iOS deployment (PKG installers, MDM, Jamf, Apple Business Manager) or a demonstrated ability to come up to speed quickly on Apple platforms.
• Direct involvement in shipping at least one production application/product to end users.
• Competency in one or more languages; experience with Go, C#/.NET, Swift, or C++ preferred, plus enough full-stack fluency (JavaScript/React, MySQL) to contribute to reporting dashboards and backend APIs.
• Experience with monitoring, performance optimization, technical documentation, and unit/integration testing.
• Have deployed software utilizing AWS, Terraform, Kubernetes, Docker, and/or other similar technology.
• Can drive automation adoption and enhancement in areas such as test automation, GitHub runners, CI/CD platforms, and other automation platforms.
• Confident in making technical decisions and explaining the reasoning behind them; can drive change beyond the scope of the team.
• Writes production-grade code for well-scoped features, integrating feedback from code reviewers; learns quickly and applies existing knowledge to new challenges.

• Experience with Kafka or other event-sourcing systems.
• Experience shipping software into K-12 or other highly managed IT environments.
• An interest in Machine Learning and AI technology.

The typical base salary range for this position is $190,000 - $220,000 per year. The range displayed on this job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire base pay for this position and your pay will be determined by a variety of factors, including your primary work location, skills, qualifications and experience. Additional benefits information is listed on our careers page.