Senior Software Engineer, Studio

About Vibes 

Vibes’ mobile-first platform creates personal, revenue-driving and long-term mobile engagement between consumers and the world-class brands they love. Industry leaders like Chipotle, Kohl’s and Polo Ralph Lauren use Vibes to grow customer relationships with relevant, high-volume mobile messaging and mobile wallet marketing on a global scale. Vibes enables marketers to seamlessly connect with their customers using a data-rich and API-packed solution that beautifully optimizes and unifies their SMS, MMS, RCS and Mobile Wallet campaigns. To learn more about Vibes, visit www.vibes.com.  

Position Overview

We are seeking a collaborative, proactive, and results-driven senior full-stack Software Engineer to join the Studio team at Vibes.

Studio is the newest product offering at Vibes: a self-serve way for far more businesses to provision and launch RCS agents on our messaging services. Having just launched, we are actively gathering customer feedback and have significant room to grow. We move with the speed and ownership of a startup, while drawing on the reach and infrastructure of an established company.

We're looking for a senior engineer to help drive what comes next: someone ready to own a core domain of the product from day one, set the technical bar for how we build, and grow into a technical leadership role as the team scales.

This is a full-time, hybrid role based in the greater Chicago area, with an expectation of being in the office two days per week.

The Role

You will design, build, and own significant parts of the technical foundation of Studio. You'll work across the full stack, developing APIs and building product features, all while shaping the architecture, engineering practices, and product direction.

We think in projects, not tickets, and we start with the what and why before the how. You'll often be the project lead on the work you own, responsible for understanding the deliverable before you start, cutting it down to something shippable, driving it to completion, and releasing it. Engineering weighs in on product decisions early here, so your read on what's feasible and how fast we can ship genuinely shapes what we build.

What Success Looks Like

After 6–12 months, a successful hire:

• Owns one or more major areas of the system end-to-end, and is the person the team turns to on them
• Ships meaningful functionality to production early and often, and raises the quality bar for the team
• Leads projects to completion, from a clear deliverable through the hard technical trade-offs to a deliberate release
• Makes sound, high-stakes decisions under ambiguity, and brings the team along on them
• Mentors teammates and improves how the whole team works, not just their own output
• Is on a clear path toward a technical Lead role as the product and team grow

How We Work

• We prioritize ownership, speed, and a relentless focus on the customer
• We ship fast and iterate, putting real product in front of customers and improving it with what we learn
• We use AI as leverage, and everyone owns what they ship regardless of how it was written
• We expect engineers to engage deeply with both product and technology
• Everyone owns outcomes, not just code

Responsibilities

• Own the design and delivery of full-stack features and services using React and TypeScript on AWS infrastructure
• Lead projects end-to-end, owning delivery from kickoff through release
• Set the technical direction for major areas of the system, including architecture and key trade-offs
• Design and maintain the public API and MCP server that, alongside our web UI, are the primary surfaces customers use to build on Studio
• Push the limits of how the team leverages AI to build and ship faster
• Mentor engineers through code review, pairing, and technical guidance
• Partner closely with product and other teams across Vibes to shape and deliver customer value
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex issues across the stack
• Continuously improve the system, and the team's engineering practices, based on customer feedback and usage
• Challenge existing approaches and push for better ways to build and ship

Requirements & Qualifications

• Formal education in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent professional experience
• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, including ownership of significant production systems
• Deep expertise across the full stack
• Strong proficiency with modern JavaScript frameworks (React, TypeScript)
• Proven experience designing and building APIs and backend services
• Solid experience with cloud platforms (AWS preferred)
• Fluency with AI-assisted development, using it as leverage without compromising quality or ownership
• A track record of owning ambiguous problems and driving them to resolution
• Experience mentoring engineers or leading feature work, with the judgment to know when to lead and when to enable
• A strong sense of ownership and accountability, and comfort in fast-moving environments
• Strong communication and collaboration skills

Location & Work Arrangement

• Hybrid role based in Chicago
• In-office two days per week
• Authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship

Our Core Values

• Respect, Honesty, and Integrity for All Stakeholders
• Always be Learning
• Relentless Focus on the Customer
• Never be Satisfied
• Create Value
• Seek Accountability and Ownership

Compensation and Benefits

The compensation range for this role is $140,000 to $150,000. Final compensation will be determined by factors such as relevant work experience, skills, and certifications. Vibes offers a full slate of benefits from competitive salaries, options, medical, dental and vision coverage, short- and long-term disability, life insurance, 11 paid holidays, flexible vacation, summer Fridays, Winter Holiday break, commuter benefits, a 401(k) plan and match, and a paid parental leave program.

Equal Opportunity

Vibes is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, parental or pregnancy status, marriage and civil partnership, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Reasonable accommodations will be made to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act and will be provided as requested by candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.