Job Description
- Mission-led role impacting millions globally each week
- Ship impactful features and shape engineering practices
- Join a fast-paced, non-hierarchical startup environment
ThroughLine is the global safety net for people in crisis, helping millions access verified crisis support resources and guided self‑help on the world's largest platforms – ChatGPT, Google, Pinterest, Roblox, Tinder – just to name a few.
We’re a team of engineers, clinicians and operators who care deeply about getting this right, where the stakes are real and the work matters.
We move fast and we trust our people. You'll have real autonomy and responsibility from day one, including the mandate to challenge assumptions and redesign how work gets done. You'll be part of a team that's genuinely diverse because the people we serve are genuinely diverse. We're building ThroughLine to reflect that.
The role
We're looking for a Full-Stack Engineer to join our Helpline Solutions squad — someone excited by the chance to rethink not just what we build, but how we build it. You'll build and evolve the back-end infrastructure and products that help people in crisis find the right support across our web app, embeddable widget, API, and Find A Helpline products.
You’ll also work on the tooling that powers this ecosystem — the systems that keep our helpline directory accurate across 170+ countries, the recommender systems that match people to the right service, and the experiences that make it easy for helplines to keep their information current.
Part builder, part problem-solver, part systems thinker, you thrive when the problem is ambiguous, the stakes are real, and the “obvious” solution feels insufficient.
Why this role exists
Here’s the core problem: helpline data changes constantly. Hours shift, services evolve, phone numbers change. When data is distributed across 170+ countries and maintained by under-resourced organizations, accuracy becomes the constraint.
We're building the infrastructure to solve that. This year, we're rethinking and rebuilding our tooling, not just to make it incrementally better, but to fundamentally improve how our team and partners work day to day. AI-powered tooling will be at the heart of this — especially internal tools that amplify human judgment instead of replacing it.
If someone in crisis finds a broken helpline link or gets routed to the wrong service, that's a failure. You're building the systems that prevent it — and the workflows behind them — that prevent it.
What you'll do
- Build and evolve our web app, widget, API, and Find A Helpline products that serve millions of people every week.
- Reimagine internal data integrity workflows using LLMs: where humans should stay in the loop, where automation actually helps, and where today’s processes are simply outdated.
- Contribute to the recommender systems that match people to the right helpline.
- Ship features that improve how people discover and access support. You’ll see the impact immediately.
- Work fluently across frontend, backend, and infrastructure — and help influence how we design, build, and ship in an AI-forward way.
What this isn’t…
- Waiting for perfect specs or clear tickets. You'll work with incomplete information and incomplete specs. You bring clarity through collaborating with AI agents and teammates.
- Traditional, corporate development. We're a startup, which means less structure and more problem-solving in real time and we actively question “how it’s always been done” — especially when better tools now exist. We’re solving complex problems and there’s always an enormous amount of stuff to do.
What You’ll Bring
- Versatile engineer. 5+ years of full-stack web development with modern frameworks and cloud platforms. You move fluidly across frontend, backend, and infrastructure.
- LLM-native. You already use GPT, Gemini, Claude, or open models to think, prototype, debug, and move faster — and you’re opinionated about where they help and where they don’t.
- Code quality and operations. You know what clean, maintainable, well-documented code looks like. You have strong unit and integration testing skills, and understand CI/CD pipelines and DevOps principles.
- Founder / Builder’s mindset. You’ve built or led something from scratch and owned it end-to-end, and aren’t attached to legacy ways of working
- Mission-aligned. You believe technology should reduce suffering — not exploit it.
Wishlist / bonus experience
- Recommender systems or search/ranking algorithms experience
- Global-scale data challenges (multiple timezones, languages, regulatory contexts)
- Early-stage startup or social-impact experience
- Open-source or hackathon projects
Our stack (for orientation)
- Frontend: Next.js, React, Material UI
- Backend: Ruby on Rails, RESTful APIs, Apollo GraphQL
- Infra: Heroku, Algolia, Salesforce
- AI: GPT, Gemini, Claude, open-weight models
What success looks like in 90 days
- You’ve shipped a production-grade feature that meaningfully improves how people in crisis access support
- You’ve improved or rebuilt a key workflow for our data integrity team
- You've improved our development velocity — either through better tooling, more effective use of AI in your workflow, or identifying and fixing systemic inefficiencies.
- You've raised the bar on how we approach development — your ideas and practices about AI-forward building and internal tooling influence how the whole team works.
Our culture
- We've all experienced times when we needed help – that's why we care deeply about this work
- We bring perspectives shaped by gutsy choices – immigrating, founding companies, career pivots, living our identities openly.
- We move fast but sustainably (no burnout culture here)
- We're collaborative and non-hierarchical – good ideas matter more than tenure
- We listen in all moments, whether things are going well or not (and not just on work stuff)
- We work with care and urgency because people rely on us on their worst days
- We start every week with a genuine personal check-in and end on Fridays with a check-out with a rotating leader
- We're technology realists who believe human ingenuity should be focused on reducing suffering
You shouldn't choose us if…
- We're driven, really driven: Our mission is personal to us. If you're not passionate about doing things differently with mental health support, you might find it a bit much.
- We're small: We're early on our journey, so no specialized roles and no "that's not my job."
- We're a start-up: We're still figuring things out, which means incomplete information and unexpected changes.
At ThroughLine, we serve people across all genders, ethnicities, racial and religious backgrounds. We want our team to reflect this too. As an equal opportunity employer, we welcome all applicants. We especially encourage candidates from underrepresented communities to apply.
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