HHiring Reality
← Thorn

Staff Engineer

Thorn
Location
Remote (US-Based)
Posted
1 month ago
Department
Engineering
Salary
$150,000-$207,000
What they actually want (must-haves)
  • Commitment to putting the children served at the center of everything you do
  • Substantial experience building and operating backend services in production, including experience with Python
  • Hands-on experience deploying or supporting production applications in Kubernetes
  • Experience building and operating services in a production cloud environment
  • Ability to contribute across unfamiliar parts of a codebase or technical domain
  • Strong architectural judgment and consideration of broader system impact
Nice to have
  • Experience building, scaling, and monitoring high-volume systems or data-processing pipelines
  • Experience building software, platforms, APIs, or tooling for other developers
  • Experience with AWS, Terraform, PostgreSQL, or Elasticsearch
What the job really is

As a Staff Engineer at Thorn, you will lead the development and operation of backend services and data-processing pipelines aimed at detecting child sexual abuse material. Your role involves collaborating with cross-functional teams to design scalable systems, making architectural decisions, and mentoring fellow engineers. You will also engage in coding, code reviews, and troubleshooting while ensuring the reliability and sustainability of the systems you help build.

Benefits
  • Compensation range of $150,000-$207,000/year
  • Remote-first work model with occasional travel for company gatherings and meetings
  • Broad range of employee benefits
Things to weigh
  • No specific details on the technologies beyond Python and Kubernetes
  • Role involves on-call rotations for system reliability and incident response
  • The mission-driven nature of the organization may require emotional resilience
Job score4/5
Benefits2/5
Freshness4/5
Career value4/5
Role clarity5/5
Pay transparency5/5

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