Design backend services and APIs (REST and gRPC) that are reused across product surfaces, making explicit trade-offs on data models and service boundaries.
Define and own reliability targets (SLOs/SLIs) for your services, with structured logging, metrics, and tracing, and optimize for both Core Web Vitals and p95/p99 latency.
Apply web security fundamentals with particular care for student data and K-12 privacy.
Contribute to platform direction through RFCs and architecture reviews, and participate in incident response and post-mortems.
Mentor mid-level and associate engineers through pairing and code review, and leave the code better than you found it.
Must Have
7+ years of professional full-stack web engineering experience, with a track record of owning features and services end to end in production systems used by real users.
Strong TypeScript and React skills, including state management, accessible UI patterns, and browser performance optimization.
Strong backend experience in Kotlin or Java on the JVM (Kotlin is our primary backend language), including designing and operating long-lived services. TypeScript backend experience is welcome for shared platform libraries and tooling.
Solid grasp of HTTP, REST, and gRPC with protobuf, our primary service-contract framework.
Hands-on PostgreSQL experience and sound data modeling for product features.
Working knowledge of AWS, containers (Docker/Kubernetes), and CI/CD pipelines. You don’t need to own clusters, but you should be effective in them.
Strong testing discipline across unit, integration, and end-to-end tests, and experience partnering with QA or DevProd to ship reliably.
Excellent written and verbal communication: you can lead design discussions, write clear RFCs, and explain technical trade-offs to non-engineering stakeholders.
Experience mentoring mid-level and associate engineers through pairing, code reviews, and technical guidance.
Nice to Have
Authentication and identity experience (OAuth/OIDC, SSO, token management)
DynamoDB or Redis, caching, and queues
Authoring tools, CMSes, or internal back-office apps
React Native
Linkerd, ArgoCD, or Terraform
OpenTelemetry and observability stacks (we use SigNoz)
EdTech or K-12 background (FERPA, COPPA, WCAG)
Design systems and component libraries
Backstage or internal developer platforms
