Software Engineer, Platform - Innovation Lab

Who We Are

Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to a fair and just marketplace for consumers. Our team is made up of truth tellers, change agents, and consumer advocates who investigate and build coalitions to fight for fairness and justice in the marketplace for consumers. We leverage our evidence-based approach to demand safer products, a healthier environment, and equitable services for everyone.

Our mission starts with you. We offer medical benefits that start on your first day as a CR employee that include behavioral health coverage, family planning and a generous 401K match. Learn more about how CR advocates on behalf of our employees.

Overview

We’re looking for a systems thinking, mission-oriented Software Engineer to join our Innovation Lab’s Product R&D team, a fast-moving, cross-functional group focused on building AskCR.

AskCR is a pro-consumer, expert-backed AI that offers advice using CR’s trusted information. We are one of the only AI-powered experiences backed by over 100 human experts, and incentivized to deliver on a pro-consumer mission.

In this platform-oriented role, you’ll help architect and scale the core systems that make AskCR reliable, performant, and easy to evolve across web and mobile experiences. You’ll also get to contribute to feature development and system health across the AskCR platform. If you love shipping production-grade software and believe AI should work for people, this role is for you.

This is a remote position. This position is not eligible for sponsorship.

How You'll Make An Impact

As a Software Engineer with a platform focus, you’ll own the technical foundations that make AskCR performant across platforms. You will:

• Drive end-to-end technical strategy and architecture for AskCR’s web and mobile systems: making them scalable, testable, and future-proof.
• Align business goals with platform decisions, collaborating closely with PMs, designers, and engineers to ship thoughtfully scoped, user-first features.
• Orchestrate smooth cross-platform development cycles, ensuring clarity in planning, timelines, and release processes.
• Champion best practices in CI/CD, monitoring, code quality, and developer experience across the engineering team.
• Investigate and resolve complex, high-impact production issues; keeping our systems resilient and our users happy.
• Support and mentor fellow engineers, fostering a strong engineering culture rooted in curiosity, collaboration, and mission.

About You

• You've earned the degree. You have a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience).
• You have the experience. 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, ideally across both backend and frontend domains.
• You have a deep expertise in Python, paired with strong fluency in frameworks like FastAPI, React, and/or React Native.
• You have a proven track record of designing, scaling, and shipping reliable multi-platform applications in production.
• You are comfortable working in CI/CD-heavy environments, with solid skills in observability, debugging, and automation.
• You are a clear and effective communicator, and have the ability to translate technical concepts so that they can be understood by peers in product, design, and editorial.

You’ll Be Highly Rated If

• You have prior experience working on consumer-focused AI applications or chatbots.
• You have familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform) and container orchestration technologies.
• You bring a strong interest in ethical AI and responsible development

FAIR PAY AND A JUST WORKPLACE

At Consumer Reports, we are committed to fair, transparent pay and we strive to provide competitive, market-informed compensation informed by location, as well as the candidate’s particular combination of knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience. It is expected that most qualified candidates will fall near the middle of the posted salary range. We have three locations: Yonkers, NY, Washington, DC and Colchester, CT.

Salary ranges

• NY/California:$140K-$160K annually
• DMW/Massachusetts: $135K-$155K annually
• Colchester, CT and additional approved CR locations: $115K-$135K annually

Consumer Reports is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in employment on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions or lactation), gender identity and expression (including transgender status), sexual orientation, marital status, military service or veteran status, protected medical condition as defined by applicable state or local law, disability, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. Consumer Reports will provide you with any reasonable assistance or accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process.