All-in-one re-entry & workforce development training platform

Founding Design Engineer

$120K - $200K•0.25% - 1.00%•New York, NY, US

Job type

Full-time

Role

Engineering, Full stack

Experience

1+ years

Visa

Will sponsor

Connect directly with founders of the best YC-funded startups.

Apply to role ›

About the role

Who We Are:

Emerge Career’s mission is to break the cycle of poverty and incarceration. We’re not just building software; we’re creating pathways to real second chances. Through an all-in-one platform deeply embedded within the criminal justice system, we recruit, train, and place justice-impacted individuals into life-changing careers.

Our vision is to become the country’s unified workforce development system, replacing disconnected brick-and-mortar job centers with one integrated, tech-powered solution that meets low-income individuals exactly where they are. Today, the federal government spends billions annually on education and training programs, yet only about 70% of participants graduate, just 38.6% secure training-related employment, and average first-year earnings hover around $34,708.

By contrast, our seven-person team has already outperformed the job centers in two entire states (Vermont and South Dakota) in just the past year. With an 89% graduation rate and 92% of graduates securing training-related employment, our alumni aren’t just getting jobs—they’re launching new lives with average first-year earnings of $77,352. The results speak for themselves, and we’re just getting started.

Before Emerge, our founders Zo and Gabe co-founded Ameelio, an award-winning tech nonprofit that is dismantling the prison communication duopoly. Backed by tech luminaries like Reid Hoffman, Vinod Khosla, and Jack Dorsey, and by major criminal-justice philanthropies such as Arnold Ventures and the Mellon Foundation, Ameelio became a recognized leader in the space. Because of this experience both Zo and Gabe understood what it took to create change from within the system. After serving over 1M people impacted by incarceration, they witnessed firsthand the gap in second-chance opportunities and the chronic unemployment plaguing those impacted by the justice system. Emerge Career is committed to solving this issue.

Our students are at the heart of our work. Their journeys have captured national attention on CBS, NBC, and in The Boston Globe, and our programs now serve entire states and cities. And we’re not doing it alone: our vision has attracted support from Alexis Ohanian (776), Michael Seibel, Y Combinator, the Opportunity Fund, and public figures like Diana Taurasi, Deandre Ayton, and Marshawn Lynch. All of us believe that, with the right mix of technology and hands-on practice, we can redefine workforce development and deliver true second chances at scale.

Why We Do This:

Emerge Career was designed to tackle two systemic issues: recidivism, fueled by post-incarceration unemployment and poverty, and labor shortages in key industries. Over 60% of formerly incarcerated people remain unemployed a year after incarceration, seeking work but not finding it. The reality is shocking, workforce development programs are severely limited inside prison, with only one-third of incarcerated people ever participating. To worsen, the available prison jobs offer meager wages, often less than $1 per hour, and often do not equip individuals with the skills for long-term stable employment.

About the Role

We call this a Founding Design Engineer role—even three years in and with multiple contracts under our belt—for two reasons. First, you’ll be our very first engineer, joining our co-founder, who’s built the entire platform solo to date. Second, our growth is now outpacing our systems, and we can’t keep up on maintenance alone. We’re at a critical juncture: we can either hire someone to simply care for what exists, or we can bring on a talent who believes that, with the right blend of technology and hands-on practice, we can unify the workforce-development system and deliver second chances at true scale. We hope that can be you.

This is not a traditional engineering job. You’ll do high-impact technical work, but just as often you’ll be on the phone with a student, writing documentation, debugging support issues, or figuring out how to turn a one-off solution into a repeatable system. You’ll ship features, talk to users, and fix what’s broken, whether that’s in the product or in the process. You’ll build things that matter, not just things that are asked for.

This role blends engineering, product, support, and program operations. We’re looking for someone who is energized by ownership, obsessed with user outcomes, and excited to work across domains to make things better. If you’re the kind of person who wants to be hands-on with everything—students, code, strategy, and execution—you’ll thrive here.

Who You Are:

1. You love supporting other people’s growth. This role will feel like case work at times, and you’re drawn to that. You’ve dedicated your life volunteering, working in social impact, or finding ways to make the playing field more fair. You find joy in helping others rise. You don’t hesitate to call, text, or meet with a student who needs you. You show up consistently, personally, and with heart.
2. You believe everyone deserves a second chance. You treat everyone with dignity. You know how to meet people exactly where they are—with empathy and compassion—helping create a space where everyone feels seen and valued, regardless of their background..
3. You identify yourself as a cracked engineer. You love finding a way or making one. You take extreme ownership of ideas, driving them to completion even when others need convincing. Every time you hit a wall, you think of three new ways to solve the issue.
4. You are tech-forward, but not tech-first. You look for ways to automate and scale, but you know not everything should be automated. You believe that with the right builder mindset, one coach can support hundreds of individuals—but you also understand that in a program like ours, many moments require a human touch. You know when to hand it to a system, and when to pick up the phone.
5. You are entrepreneurial. You’re scrappy, resourceful, autonomous, and low-maintenance. You know process matters—but at this stage, speed and iteration matter more. You’re comfortable building quickly and changing procedures often to get to the right solution. You roll up your sleeves and solve problems. No job is too small.
6. You play to win. You stay optimistic when things get tough and keep moving when others slow down. You’re not rattled by change or new ideas. You don’t need to agree with everything, but you bring a “yes, and” mindset that helps ideas grow instead of shutting them down.
7. You work hard. You show up early, stay late, and do what needs to get done—no ego, no excuses. You don’t wait around or ask for permission. This isn’t a 9-to-5. The team puts in 10+ hour days because we care about the mission and each other. If that sounds miserable, this isn’t for you. If it sounds exciting, you’ll fit right in.
8. You are a straight shooter. You don’t shy away from hard conversations—internally or externally. You bring clarity, care, and accountability to every interaction.
9. You love learning. You understand that recent advancements in AI have shifted the way we work and what it means to be a high performer. You tinker with new tools. You enjoy being an early adopter. You’re always rethinking and optimizing how you work so you can keep leveling up. Nobody needs to tell you to keep upping your game.
10. You have an eye for operational detail. This doesn’t mean you’re simply organized. At Emerge, operational excellence isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about protecting the real lives and futures of the people in our programs. You have an almost paranoid attention to detail, because you understand that even small oversights have real, human consequences.
11. You are a clear writer. This doesn’t mean you need to craft the next great novel, but you must communicate ideas simply and clearly. You value precision, clarity, and brevity. You understand that good writing reduces confusion, accelerates decisions, and ensures everyone stays aligned, especially in high-stakes environments like ours.
12. You are a strong prompter. You’ve seen firsthand how a few thoughtful prompts can transform messy tasks into scalable, repeatable AI workflows. You love tinkering with prompts, contexts, and configurations to get exactly the right outputs, and you take pride in turning cutting-edge AI into practical processes that anyone can use.

Requirements

• Willing to relocate and work in-person in New York City
• Experience taking a project from 0 to 1. You might have led a project, been a founder previously, built an impressive side project, or been one of the first 10 employees at an early stage startup
• You love working with React and Typescript
• Experience with Figma
• Experience collaborating with operations or support teams

Bonus Points

• Experience in ed-tech
• Experience with UX research

What you will be doing

• Coaching students. You’ll support students throughout their training journey—not just by building tools, but by directly engaging with them. This means texting, calling, and helping students one-on-one when needed. At the same time, you’ll take what you learn from those interactions and turn it into scalable systems and smart automations. You’ll be doing both engineering and non-engineering work to make sure students succeed and the product keeps improving.
• Talking to students. Good founding engineers read feedback and iterate quickly. Great founding engineers have users they’re friendly with, talk with them frequently, bounce ideas off them, and iterate with them when they ship new things.
• Doing support. This is an engineering role with key program management responsibilities. You’ll work directly with students every day. That requires patience, empathy, and a willingness to meet people where they are. You’ll help investigate and resolve product issues, and you’ll take ownership of making the product better through what you learn.
• Documenting your work and its impact. Our work is complex, spans months, and involves multiple teams. Clear documentation and communication are critical. You’ll be responsible for creating awareness when a change impacts operations, and for helping others understand how features affect different parts of training and service delivery. Precision matters.
• Owning products and features end to end. You won’t just take tickets. You’ll originate ideas based on user conversations, your own instincts, and our larger strategy. You’ll test MVPs in production, iterate based on real feedback, and stay accountable to the long-term success of your work. We build in React and TypeScript. If you like shipping for the sake of it, this role isn’t for you. If you like shipping with purpose and ownership, you’ll love it here.
• Implementing AI features and operational workflows. This is last for a reason. We don’t jump to automation. We do things manually first to fully understand the problem—then we build. If you care about applying AI meaningfully, not just for hype, this is the right place.

Benefits You’ll Receive: link

Start Date: ASAP

About the interview

1. Application
2. Cultural fit conversation & technical screen (60 min)
3. Getting to know you interview (60 min): A more in-depth discussion about your background, experiences, and goals.
4. Reference checks. We will select 3–4 people you’ve worked with and request introductions. We will request these when the time comes. We’re looking for honest and raw references, not flawless ones.
5. Paid Work Trial (2-5 days). You’ll come onsite to work on a real project, with access to internal tools and team collaboration. You’ll be paid $500 per day. All travel expenses will be covered.

About Emerge Career

Founded:2022

Batch:S22

Team Size:3

Status:Active

Founders