Software Engineer

About the Eames Institute

The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity is a nonprofit public charity dedicated to advancing the dynamic legacy of 20th-century designers Ray and Charles Eames. By sharing the things the Eameses made and loved, along with their joyful and rigorous approach to life and work, we seek to inspire creative problem-solving that positively shapes our world. 

With our vast collections, digital and print offerings, an extensive program of events, and the Eames Ranch, we aim to demonstrate the enduring value of the Eameses’ philosophy and invite people to explore their curiosity, ask questions, and implement creative solutions to the challenges of today.

About the Role

The Software Engineer serves as a senior individual technical contributor, responsible for producing industry-grade features, edifying the developer experience (DX), and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the digital platform.

Reporting to the Digital Engineering Manager, this role partners closely on technical execution while partnering on complex systems design, integration strategy, and platform resilience. The Software Engineer ensures that digital initiatives — come to life reliably, and are executed on a stable, scalable, and thoughtfully designed foundation.

Key Responsibilities

Building Front-Facing Product

• Serve as the primary full-stack contributor on the Institute's web experiences — the pages, features, and flows the public actually touches.
• Write clean, production-grade code across frontend and backend, with particular strength on the front end.
• Translate well-scoped product and design direction into polished, reliable, shippable software.
• Bring craftsmanship to the work — care about the details that make a digital experience feel considered and alive.

Integrations & Systems

• Lead implementation of sophisticated integrations (CMS, CRM, commerce, analytics, experimentation).
• Implement the connective tissue that powers growth campaigns, membership, publishing workflows, and commerce.
• Partner with the Digital Engineering Manager in technical decisions and architectural discussions, bringing strong recommendations and sound judgment around development initiatives.
• Write production-grade code across frontend and backend systems.
• Provide thoughtful code review and elevate engineering quality standards.

Platform Sustainability & Quality (at the right-size)

• Own the day-to-day health of the platform: CI/CD pipelines, deploy safety, error monitoring, and observability — so issues are caught before users feel them.
• Champion performance and Core Web Vitals as a direct extension of the "website as front door" mandate — a fast site is a better front door.
• Advocate for and implement accessibility (WCAG) as a baseline, not an afterthought.
• Manage secrets, dependencies, and the security posture around our CMS, search, and data — appropriate to an institution stewarding significant archival and commercial assets.
• Right-size technical solutions: prefer the simplest thing that works on our managed/serverless stack over unnecessary infrastructure or complexity.
• Strengthen documentation and contribute to incident retrospectives and structural improvements.
• Strengthen documentation and architectural clarity across the codebase.
• Improve developer ergonomics and internal tooling in partnership with the Digital Engineering Manager.
• Contribute to incident retrospectives and structural improvements following technical issues.

Strategic Technical Partnership

• Provide thoughtful, generous code review that raises the team's quality bar.
• Partner with the Digital Engineering Manager to surface feasibility, risk, and effort early, so work is scoped realistically.
• Translate technical tradeoffs into plain language for non-technical collaborators when useful.
• Help cultivate a digital practice with curiosity, rigor, and soul — work that feels like the Eames Institute, not just functions like a website.
• Partner with the Digital Engineering Manager to evaluate feasibility, risk, and sequencing of initiatives.
• Provide architectural input to support marketing growth initiatives without compromising platform stability.

Organizational & Cultural Contribution

• Promote a culture of curiosity, rigor, and thoughtful digital craftsmanship.
• Demonstrate sensitivity to mission, storytelling, and design context in technical decision-making.
• Serve as a technical mentor and resource to the engineering team without formal supervisory responsibility.
• Support knowledge continuity and long-term institutional resilience of digital systems.

Required skills, abilities, competencies

• Advanced full-stack engineering expertise with deep systems thinking.
• Demonstrated experience designing and maintaining scalable web platforms.
• Strong architectural judgment and ability to balance ideal design with practical constraints.
• Deep knowledge of accessibility standards and performance optimization.
• Ability to operate independently on high-complexity technical challenges.
• Clear and collaborative communication style.
• Experience working within cultural institutions, nonprofit organizations, mission-driven environments, or design-forward brands is strongly preferred.

Essential Functions 

• The schedule for this role is 9:00am to 5:00pm, Monday through Friday. This position is expected to be primarily onsite at our Richmond Archives with occasional lite travel to our other properties (Petaluma, Novato and San Francisco) for company events or training. 
• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Frequent use of hands for typing, writing, and handling office equipment.
• Occasional standing, walking, bending, or reaching within the office environment.
• Regular use of vision abilities including close vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus.
• Ability to work in an open office environment. 
• Ability to communicate effectively with others via phone, video conference, and in person.
• May require occasional travel between office locations or for business meetings

What We Offer 

• Salary range for this role is $150,000 - $165,000
• The Eames Institute offers a competitive benefits package, including…
• Medical, Dental, Vision and Life Insurance
• 401k employer match
• Paid Time Off
• Paid Holidays
• Commuting benefits
• Professional development
• Charitable giving match

Benefits are subject to change at the employer’s discretion.

This job description is intended to describe the general requirements for the performance of this job.  It is not a complete statement of duties, responsibilities or requirements. The Eames Institute may change the job duties, including the location and schedule, at its discretion. 

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

The Eames Institute values diversity, inclusion & belonging for all, and is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We strive to create a workplace that empowers people of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences to feel respected, valued, and able to contribute at the highest level.