Senior Software Engineer, Product

The posting, as Holly wrote it

Holly is the HR platform built for city and county government. We help local governments modernize how they hire, classify, and manage their workforce — work that directly shapes public services for millions of people. Our platform is live across 12 states with 60+ jurisdictions representing over 10% of the US population, including major counties like Santa Clara and Contra Costa in the Bay Area, Orange County in LA, and Snohomish County in Washington State. Demand is outpacing our team, and we're building to meet it.
Holly is a seed-stage team of 20+ operators with deep roots in public service, civic tech, and AI. We’ve raised $10M from leading investors in government technology and the future of work and have grown over 100X in the last year. We center public servants and impact in every decision and we bring that same care to how we work here at Holly.

About the Role
We're hiring a Senior Software Engineer, Product to build the product Holly runs on. As one of our earliest engineers, you'll own major parts of the application end-to-end data model, backend, and frontend and ship the features local governments use every day to hire and manage their workforce.
This is a hands-on, full-stack building role in a modern TypeScript stack: React with TanStack Start and Next.js across the frontend and backend (we prefer TanStack and are moving that way) Postgres for the data model, and the pipelines that turn messy government inputs into product experiences people can rely on. AI is central to the product: you'll build agentic and LLM-powered features with the Vercel AI SDK, VoltAgent, and similar frameworks/tools. You'll make the architecture calls, set the quality bar, and move fast without breaking the things customers depend on.
You'll work directly with the founders, own systems that will define the product for years, and have the autonomy to build it end to end. If you're a senior product engineer who wants to own what you build shipping end-to-end, making the big decisions, and setting the engineering bar as one of the first on the team we'd love to talk.
What You'll Do
You'll be one of our earliest engineers and a core partner to the founding team owning major parts of the product, making high-leverage technical decisions, and shipping features customers are actively asking for.
Own and Ship Core Product

• Own features end-to-end, from idea to production data model, backend, frontend, and rollout
• Partner with the founders to scope work, make tradeoffs, and drive delivery
• Lead high-impact projects that directly unlock customer value and revenue
• Set technical direction for major initiatives tradeoffs, sequencing, and the quality bar

Build Across the Full Stack
Ship production features across our stack, front to back:

• React with TanStack (Start, Query) our preferred stack, and where we're headed
• TypeScript, end-to-end even infrastructure is via Pulumi
• AI and agents LLM features, tool-calling, and agentic workflows (Vercel

[…]
ievers in supporting open source, and provide a monthly day of Open Source where you can work on your favorite tool. In addition to internal hackathons and other projects

• Technical influence . Make the high-leverage calls on architecture, standards, and how we scale.
• Founder-level access . Work directly with the founders, with autonomy to drive major initiatives end-to-end.
• High-impact scope . Ship features customers urgently need and see them used in production quickly.
• Public-service impact . Your work improves how local governments operate, helping millions of Americans access public-service careers.
• Competitive package . $170k-$216k base, 0.15-0.40% equity (L3), comprehensive health benefits (platinum plan with vision and dental), 401(k), paid parental leave, and a professional development stipend.

Ready to Join Us? A few important notes

Location: This is an onsite role based out of our New York City HQ, four days a week (typically Mondays Thursdays), with some flexibility depending on the role and the candidate. Candidates must reside in New York or be able to commute to our NYC office. Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without requiring sponsorship.
Work Philosophy: We're an early-stage startup serving government clients with hard deadlines. There may be occasional off-hours work around launches or critical issues (rare and typically planned). We value flexibility and trust you to manage your schedule while maintaining a high bar for responsiveness and customer outcomes.
We're excited to build with you
Team Holly 🌆
www.hollygov.com
Holly is committed to building a diverse company and working with the broadest talent pool possible. We encourage applications from all races, religions, national origins, genders, sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, and ages, as well as veterans and individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, let us know.