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Software Engineer, DevOps

Washington, DC

State Affairs is the nation’s leading news and policy intelligence platform focused on state governments. We combine nonpartisan coverage of Statehouses across the country alongside state government data and AI-native tools into a singular platform. 

We inform and empower decision makers, policy professionals and citizens through our award-winning journalism and data – delivering profound insights to help our customers decode and act on state politics and  policy. We’re building a category-defining business that will reshape America as we strengthen visibility into what’s happening and why at the state level.

As the Software Engineer, DevOps, you will:

  • Lay the foundation for the platform on which State Affairs will run operate
  • Design and build distributed services (Node and TypeScript, Prisma, Postgres, Mongo) that ingest, enrich, and serve millions of documents
  • Build large-scale distributed systems to handle petabyte content scale
  • Raise expectations for code quality, reliability and product velocity. Collaboratively, you will challenge yourself and peers to develop technically and professionally. 
  • Lead by example on code quality via pair‑reviewing, writing generative tests, and mentoring teammates in modern TypeScript patterns
  • Ship secure and compliant code by implementing security concepts to develop software dealing with sensitive data
  • Operate by utilizing AI tools like Cursor, Claude‑Code, Copilot/Codex, or whatever comes next into your daily flow to increase iteration loops.

Essential Qualifications for this position include:

  • Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or related field
  • 5+ years of professional work experience as an DevOps Engineer 
  • Professional work experience building production back‑ends in Node/TypeScript or a similar typed language
  • Professional work experience shipping secure, audited systems such as SOC‑2, FedRAMP, or ISO 27001
  • Knowledge of at least one SQL store, such as Postgres and a schema‑first mindset
  • Ability to automate operational tasks such as deployment, testing, and monitoring (Ansible, Chef, Puppet, and K8s)

Preferred Qualifications for this position include: 

  • Ability to build data pipelines (Kafka, Kinesis, or equivalent) and event‑driven architectures.
  • Ability to program using coding workflows by leveraging AI tools such as Cursor, Windsurf and/or Claude Code
  • Professional work experience with document AI, search indexes (Elastic/Lucene), or knowledge graphs (e.g., Neo4j)
  • Knowledge of Terraform
  • Prior professional work experience in a start-up organization

This is an onsite work opportunity and our teams operate from the Washington, DC office (located at L and 15th St. NW). State Affairs offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package to employees.

The annual salary range for this role as it is posted is $120,000 - $180,000 for candidates working from the State Affairs office in Washington, DC. The final job level and annual salary will be determined based on the education, qualification, knowledge, skills, ability, and experience of the final candidate(s), and calibrated against relevant market data and internal team equity.  Benefits listed in this posting may vary depending on the nature of your employment with State Affairs.

Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future company sponsorship.

State Affairs is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions on the basis of merit and business needs.  State Affairs does not discriminate against applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability, or any other protected characteristic in accordance with federal, state, and local law.

State Affairs is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as they go through our job application and interview process. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at jobs@stateaffairs.com

By submitting your application, you affirm the content contained therein is true and accurate in all respects. Please note that prior to employment, State Affairs will obtain background checks for employment purposes that may include, where permitted by law, the following: identify verification, prior employment verification, personal and professional references, educational verification, and criminal history. For certain roles, further background checks covering additional information and activities may be initiated.

"By clicking "Submit Application" you are consenting to the use and retention of the information you have provided as set forth in the State Affairs Privacy Policy. 

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