Staff Software Engineer at Shepherd
NYC, NY
$170,000–$240,000
Jul 21, 2026
NYC, NY
Jul 23, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A full-stack software engineering role at an AI-driven commercial insurance startup, focused on building and owning features across data collection, automated underwriting, and policy administration systems. The position is the first engineering hire based in New York, working alongside underwriters and actuaries. It suits an experienced engineer comfortable taking end-to-end ownership across the stack using TypeScript, Node.js, React, and GraphQL.
Senior level · 5+ years · New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 4 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 10,500 people in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 7,900–13,700
Applicant volume Heavy — This req sits in a large pool with little in its requirements to thin it, and auto-apply tools fire at everything in the occupation. Applying early and leading with the rare skills below is what gets read.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $170,499 (middle half $133,523–$210,499).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (5)
The posting names JavaScript/TypeScript as a hard requirement ('You have experience working with Javascript/Typescript') — both are listed together as a single interchangeable gate; TypeScript is emitted as primary with JavaScript as the alternative, and vice versa, since the JD treats them as a combined requirement covering backend and/or frontend.
The full tech stack (React, Next.js, GraphQL, Apollo, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Redis) appears only under an 'Our Tech Stack' narrative section, not in a requirements or qualifications block, so all stack items are marked preferred.
The role is explicitly the first engineering hire in the NYC office, working on-site alongside underwriters and actuaries — the office-centric framing and 'sitting and working closely' language indicate this is not a remote role.
Insurance domain experience (InsurTech or actuarial background) is called out as a desirable trait in the 'dream candidate' framing but is not stated as a hard gate; no concrete technology is associated with it, so it is omitted from the skills list per guidelines.
No compensation figures are disclosed in the posting.
Read the full posting
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