What We Do
Insurance is a $10T industry still running on PDFs, email threads, and manual reconciliation. Ascend is changing that. We built the first and only complete financial operations platform purpose-built for insurance — combining accounting automation, payments, and premium financing in a single vertically integrated solution. In five years, we've become the market leader: over 4,000 businesses, including more than half of the 50 largest brokers in the country, trust Ascend to bring clarity to complex accounting operations from collection to close.
How We Do It
Ascend automates the financial operations that insurers, MGAs, and agencies run every day and embeds directly into the transactions where money actually moves. Point solutions are easy to build and even easier to copy. The companies that win won't just sell tools — they'll capture value where the money actually moves. Ascend is built for exactly that moment. Our customers don't just adopt software, they unlock measurable efficiency with a proven 5-7x return on investment.
Our team is onsite in San Francisco. We bring deep expertise in insurance, fintech, and financial infrastructure to build what the industry has never had.
Why We Do It
The insurance industry intermediates trillions of dollars — and almost none of that infrastructure was built for the modern era. Legacy systems aren't just inefficient; they're a ceiling on what the industry can become.
Ascend's mission is to become the leading financial automation platform for insurance by 2030 — powering the financial operations of the entire industry and transforming the way trillions of dollars move. We're not building another point solution, we're building the financial backbone of insurance. Your Role
Ascend is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join our team on-site in San Francisco to help expand our core product. As an Engineer at Ascend, you’ll be part of a small but growing team focused on solving complex technical challenges using Ruby. You’ll also interface directly with our customers and work cross-functionally to develop new product features, dashboards, and checkout processes—without any layers.
Responsibilities Will Include
Objective #1: In your first 30 days:
Understand Ascend’s platform, product, and customer workflows by collaborating with team members and engaging with customers
Contribute to user-facing projects using Ruby on Rails and Next.js
Partner with product managers and designers to solve customer challenges directly
Objective #2: In your first 60 days:
Take ownership of end-to-end features that process millions in insurance premiums using Ruby on Rails
Build intuitive UIs with Next.js to power financial operations
Develop internal tools to streamline customer workflows
Maintain high product quality through proactive monitoring and continuous improvements
Objective #3: In your first 90 days and beyond:
Collaborate with customers to translate their needs into scalable solutions for the multi-trillion-dollar insurance industry
Develop the industry’s leading point-of-sale system for insurance, enabling seamless payments and improving conversion rates
Automate back-office tasks with AI, reducing time and improving accuracy for accounting teams
Help shape technical architecture and processes as the platform scales
Mentor engineers through thoughtful code reviews and technical guidance
Must Have
4+ years of experience as a Full Stack or Backend Engineer
2+ years working in a growth-stage startup
Experience with relational databases
Experience building and scaling consumer products
A strong desire to learn new skills and solve business problems
Nice to Have
Familiarity or interest in learning Ruby on Rails and Next.js
Familiarity with building external APIs and integrations with platforms such as Salesforce
Experience in building payment, checkout, or insurance products
Tech Stack & Processes
Ruby on Rails API hosted on Heroku
Next.js with TypeScript hosted on Vercel
Tailwind CSS across all the frontend
Postgres and Redis for storage
Continuous integration and delivery
Base Salary Range: $200,000–$250,000
#LI-RS1 Benefits
Unlimited PTO 🌴
Meaningful equity 🤑
Dog friendly office 🐕
Commuter benefits 🚌
Free lunch in office everyday 🥡
Health care for you and your dependents 🍎
Equal Opportunity
We are committed to equal opportunity employment and embrace diversity within our organization. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
We encourage candidates to apply even if their experience doesn't precisely match this opportunity. We value diversity and are dedicated to equal opportunity employment.