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Kaizen Labs is modernizing government technology by replacing legacy systems with AI-native software that serves millions of Americans. Founded in 2022 and backed by NEA, a16z, and Accel, the company has raised $35M and currently reaches 55M Americans across 50+ agencies.
As a Forward Deployed Software Engineer at the senior level, you will architect and ship full-stack features end-to-end, from scoping and technical design through production. You'll work directly with the Palantir stack—Foundry ontologies, pipelines, AIP agents, and Maven Smart System workflows—building AI-powered product surfaces including intelligent intake flows, constituent assistants, automated case routing, and operator dashboards.
Key responsibilities include setting technical direction and raising code quality standards, engaging directly with federal agency stakeholders to translate requirements into shippable products, owning platform reliability and performance at government scale with real SLAs, and mentoring earlier-career engineers through code review and pairing.
You'll bring 5+ years of professional engineering experience with a track record of owning complex features and systems. You have hands-on development experience with Palantir Foundry, AIP, or Maven, deep fluency in React/Next.js and Node.js/TypeScript/Postgres, and are proficient with AI coding tools (Cursor, Copilot, Claude). You've built something real—a product, open source project, or system you designed and stood behind—and operate effectively in ambiguity, defining problems as often as solving them.
Strong candidates may have shipped software in classified environments, worked as Forward Deployed Engineers, touched federal/state/local government tech, have cloud deployment depth (AWS, Vercel, GitHub Actions, ECS/Fargate), or led technical work in early-stage environments.
This is a hybrid role requiring residence in New York or DC with ability to commute to the office at least three days per week (Tuesdays-Thursdays). An active Top Secret or TS/SCI clearance and U.S. citizenship are required.
