Sr. Software Engineer (Backend)

Company Overview

Mantra Health is an award-winning digital mental health provider on a mission to make evidence-based care more accessible to students. We partner with colleges and universities to offer comprehensive virtual mental health services, including therapy, psychiatry, 24/7 crisis care, emotional wellness coaching, and self-care content.

Our technology solutions seamlessly integrate with campus health systems to enhance student well-being and improve graduation rates. Recognized as a leader in digital mental health, Mantra Health was named a Rising Star by the UCSF Digital Health Awards and won Juniper Research’s Gold Star for Best Digital Therapeutic Solution. Today, our programs support over 900,000 students across 125+ campuses, including Penn State, MIT, and Miami Dade College.

We’ve raised over $34m from leading investors. We’re looking for ambitious, talented, action-oriented individuals to join us in shaping the future of student mental healthcare.

Opportunity for Impact

We are seeking a Software Engineer III (Backend) to help lead development on our backend systems as we grow. This role is a unique blend of hands-on execution and strategic technical contribution, touching every aspect of our core university mental health platform as well as the development of our new products. You will be responsible for ensuring the stability, scalability, and security (including HIPAA/FERPA compliance) of our backend infrastructure, directly contributing to our ability to serve more students and make a greater impact on their lives.

As a student mental-health driven edtech startup, our workforce spans teams from engineering, product, design, operations and clinical, requiring a proactive engineer who can navigate complexity and collaborate effectively within a highly diverse and distributed team. This position offers unique opportunities including significant ownership of backend systems, mentoring less-tenured engineers, architecting solutions for high-impact strategic projects, and exposure to our dynamic startup environment.

What You’ll Do

• Own Backend System Development: Design, develop, optimize, and maintain significant portions of our core backend systems using Typescript, Express.js, GraphQL, and PostgreSQL with TypeORM. Architect and build scalable solutions supporting critical business functions.
• Ensure System Health & Compliance: Guarantee system stability, scalability, and security, ensuring compliance with HIPAA and FERPA regulations through robust design and implementation.
• Drive DevOps & Infrastructure Excellence: Build, maintain, and enhance CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, CircleCI), implement infrastructure-as-code practices (AWS preferred), and monitor system performance and reliability.
• Develop New Products & Features: Play a key role in developing our new products, designing and maintaining APIs (GraphQL/REST) and potentially contributing to data pipeline or machine learning initiatives.
• Champion Engineering Best Practices: Deliver high-quality, well-tested code (unit, integration, E2E), actively participate in code reviews, mentor junior engineers, and foster a culture of continuous improvement and technical excellence.
• Collaborate Across Teams: Work closely with product, design, clinical, and operations teams to translate requirements into effective technical solutions, demonstrating strong ownership ("One Car, Many Drivers").

Who You Are

• Expert Backend Engineer: Bring 5-8+ years of experience designing, building, and scaling robust backend systems, demonstrating deep expertise in Node.js, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, and modern API standards (GraphQL/REST).
• Scalable System Architect: Possess a proven ability to architect complex, reliable systems from concept to deployment, ensuring scalability, maintainability, and security compliance (HIPAA/FERPA).
• DevOps & Infrastructure Owner: Exhibit strong ownership ("One Car, Many Drivers") through hands-on experience building/maintaining CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, CircleCI) and managing cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred), championing automation and reliability.
• Proactive Problem Solver & Quality Advocate: Thrive on tackling complex challenges, delivering high-quality, well-tested solutions, and proactively identifying opportunities for system improvement and refactoring in a fast-paced environment.
• Collaborative Mentor & Communicator: Excel at working cross-functionally, clearly communicating technical ideas, and actively mentoring peers and junior engineers to foster a culture of growth and shared knowledge.
• Mission-Driven & Adaptable: Deeply aligned with Mantra's mission to improve student mental health, bringing positive energy, embracing a growth mindset, and adapting readily within a dynamic startup culture.
• Data-Oriented Developer (Bonus): Demonstrate proficiency or a strong interest in building data pipelines, managing ELT workflows, and applying analytics or ML techniques to derive insights.

Why Choose Mantra

• Impactful Opportunity: Directly contribute to improving mental healthcare access for hundreds of thousands of university students within a mission-driven organization.
• Professional Growth: Benefit from significant system ownership, opportunities to architect new solutions, mentorship possibilities, and exposure to senior leadership in a dynamic startup environment.
• Collaborative Culture: Join a passionate, vibrant, and dedicated team ("One Car, Many Drivers") focused on collaboration, continuous learning, and positive impact.
• Career Advancement: Grow your skills and influence by scaling critical systems, potentially leading technical initiatives, and contributing to high-visibility projects.
• Compensation & Benefits: We offer competitive compensation and a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your well-being and professional journey.

Our Benefits

At Mantra, our distributed team is our secret sauce that allows us to support our mission everyday. We're collaborative, empathetic, and curious. We take time to celebrate our wins and learn from our mistakes. Each full-time employee at Mantra enjoys:

• Stock Options
• Medical, vision, and dental coverage
• 401(k)
• Flexible work location
• Generous PTO, vacation, and tenure-based sabbatical Policy
• Inclusive parental leave, equal for all parents
• $1,000 new-parent mental wellness benefit
• Commuter card, if you commute
• Access to One Medical
• Healthcare & Dependent Care FSA

The salary range for this role is $150,000 - $170,000

Mantra health is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.