Validation engineer Jobs in Chicago, IL

Who we are

AwardSpring is an established and growing SaaS company that partners with colleges and foundations to help them award scholarships and manage their donors. We complete the virtuous cycle of giving, getting, and giving again - between donors, students, and the institutions in the middle. We serve hundreds of institutions across the US and Canada with a small, focused team operating on a mature, multi-tenant platform.

About this role

If you've been doing product work whether your job description said so or not - pushing back on specs that don't make sense, proposing better solutions in standups, shipping things you decided needed to exist - this role names what you've been doing. We're hiring engineers who own outcomes, not tickets. AI-assisted development has changed the leverage one good engineer can bring, and we're staffing for that reality.

This is an individual contributor role on a small product team. You'll work directly with peers in engineering, with product partners on the same team, and report to the CTO.

How we work

AwardSpring is an AI-native product team. Nearly 100% of the code in our product is AI-generated. Every IC on this team - engineer, PM, designer, builder - ships features end-to-end in our codebase using agentic tooling. The line between traditional disciplines is intentionally blurred: PMs ship code, engineers make product calls, designers prototype in production. We hire for fluency in agentic development, not for time spent in any specific stack. If you've used Claude Code, Cursor, or comparable tools to ship real software at production quality, you already speak our language.

What you'll do

• Ship complex, high-value features end-to-end across our products. Three months in, we should be able to point at things that exist because you built them.
• Drive the technical decisions for the systems you own - architecture, data model, performance.
• Work directly in our codebase using agentic tooling as your primary development interface. Engineers will review your code; you'll review theirs.
• Push back when something shouldn't ship. Propose better solutions when the scoped one is wrong.
• Stay close to customers - the best product engineers we've seen are the ones who actually talk to users.

Who you are

• You've shipped production software using Claude Code, Cursor, or comparable agentic tools. Not "experimented with" - shipped. We'll walk through what you built and how
• You're comfortable in unfamiliar codebases. Our stack is .NET 8 / Angular / SQL Server, but you don't need to know it - you need to trust your tooling to take you into any stack
• 3+ years working as an engineer in production environments
• Strong opinions about what "good" looks like - both product decisions and craft
• You'd rather ship one thing that matters than push three tickets across a board
• Comfortable presenting ideas in front of customers, executives, and peers

What we give you

• Top-of-market AI tooling: Claude Max, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and whatever ships next - your call, our budget
• Unlimited token budgets. We don't ration the thing that makes you 10x
• Direct line to the latest models the day they release
• A mature, multi-tenant production codebase - real users, real stakes, real environments to ship in to
• Health, dental, vision, 401(k) match, unlimited PTO, paid parental leave

Our Values

• ACTION - When in doubt, spring into action. Be accountable. Teach what you've learned.
• DETERMINATION - Simplify and improve everything you touch. Expect obstacles. Be creative and relentless in your effort to overcome them.
• HUMANITY - Show empathy and kindness to everyone you interact with.
• IMPROVEMENT - Work hard every day to grow your knowledge and capabilities. Strive to become invaluable to clients and peers.

A note on workspace

We are Chicago-based with an office in West Loop / Fulton Market. This is a hybrid role for Chicago-area candidates; in-office presence is part of the job, with the specific schedule set with your manager.

AI in our hiring

We use AI tools to assist in screening applications and assessing fit. Final hiring decisions are made by humans. If you'd prefer your application be reviewed without AI assistance, note it in your cover letter — it won't disadvantage you.

Equal Opportunity Employer

AwardSpring is dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. AwardSpring is an equal opportunity employer and hires without regard for race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status. We are committed to an environment free from harassment or discrimination.