Software Engineer, Communities

About Tin Can

Tin Can is building a safer, simpler way for kids to connect — without smartphones. We’re creating screen-free, delightful devices and services that let families call the people who matter most, free from the noise of today’s digital world.

We’re building a bold, authentic, nostalgic, and kinda quirky brand that resonates with folks who want something simpler & better for their kids than the tech-infused lives we’re currently living (and who have a sense of humor about it).

The Role

A Tin Can is only as good as the list of people a kid can call. When a whole class or block gets Tin Cans together, the phone arrives with friends already on it. That’s Communities: hundreds of schools, neighborhoods, and groups have already bought Tin Cans together, and it’s one of the fastest-growing parts of the company. We’re looking for a Software Engineer to own the product side of it end to end.

Today a community directory is set up by hand: an organizer collects families in a form, our team turns it into a roster, and every kid in it can call every other kid. You’ll make that something organizers and parents do themselves, down to the rule in our call-routing service that decides whether a community call goes through. You’ll sit with the Head of Communities and the community ops team, alongside the engineers who own our app, voice platform, and account portal. Every contact you make callable is a child a parent trusted us with, and you’ll go as deep as that responsibility requires.

What You’ll Do

• Own the community portal, API, and ops tooling (Next.js, TypeScript on Lambda, Postgres) — what organizers use to run a directory and what our team uses behind community orders

• Make directories self-serve — join requests parents can send, approvals that take effect immediately, and creation that doesn’t need a ticket to our team

• Own the rule that decides whether a community call connects — who can call whom, opt-in versus opt-out, and what happens the second a parent removes their family

• Capture each family’s school and neighborhood: pick the datasets worth acquiring, build the pipeline that ingests them, and let a parent choose from the result, so we can see which communities are a few families from critical mass and show parents what’s nearby

• Build what comes after directories — the features that unlock once a community reaches real density, what a kid can do on a Tin Can only because the other kids on the block have one too

• Handle children’s data the way parents assume we do — what we store, who can see it, and what happens when a family leaves

• Instrument what you ship — alarms, tests, and the data that shows whether kids in dense communities call more

What We’re Looking For

• 4+ years building and running web services, with real ownership of what you shipped

• Strong TypeScript across the stack — you’ve built and run an API in production (ours run on AWS Lambda with Postgres) and can ship a Next.js front end a PTA volunteer can use

• You can design a relational model for membership, permissions, and audit history, and you think about who leaves before who joins

• You treat authorization as a product feature, not a checkbox — who can reach a child, how fast “no” takes effect, and how you’d prove it

• Fluency using AI as a multiplier across prototyping, build, and analysis; this is how we work, not a nice-to-have

• A reliability mindset — you instrument what you ship, and you’d rather catch a broken directory with an alert than an email from a PTA president

• A clear communicator who writes things down, because you want the whole team to understand the systems you build

• A collaborative, low-ego approach — everyone here sweeps the floor

• Bonus: trust-and-safety or permissions systems; a kids’ product where you learned what COPPA asks; Flutter, Shopify, or Retool; or curiosity about telephony

Why Join Tin Can

• We’re building tech that protects childhood: We’re on a quest to give kids a more analog childhood — one with real conversations, real connection, and way less screen time. No doomscrolling, data mining, or dopamine traps — just a simpler, better way for kids to stay in touch. This is a rare opportunity to build something that truly matters.

• You’ll own what only works because there are other Tin Cans: Communities is how a phone arrives with friends already on it, and this is the first engineering role dedicated to it. Directories are the start; you’ll have a seat at the table for what unlocks once a community reaches real density.

• Small, high-trust team: Every company says “team,” but at Tin Can it means something different. We’re a small, mission-driven group that genuinely has each other’s backs — professionally and personally. You’ll be joining a tight-knit crew where your ideas and instincts matter from day one.

• Room to explore, not just execute: You’ll have the space to challenge assumptions, solve hard problems, and build systems that reflect our values of trust, simplicity, and care.

If you’re excited by the idea of making sure every kid who picks up a Tin Can has friends on the other end — and building what gets better every time a neighbor gets one too — we’d love to meet you.