Fast Facts

Join College Board's Observability Engineering team as a Senior Software Engineer where you will design and develop solutions that enhance application observability, drive better user experiences, and support millions of students and educational institutions.

Responsibilities: You will be responsible for designing and implementing full-stack applications using React, TypeScript, and Node.js, developing visualizations for user experiences, collaborating with team members, and mentoring junior engineers.

Skills: Strong experience with React, TypeScript, Node.js, cloud infrastructure (AWS), microservices, and DevOps practices, along with excellent communication and problem-solving abilities.

Qualifications: 5+ years of software development experience, including 2 years with modern JavaScript frameworks and distributed cloud environments; experience with serverless architectures and Infrastructure as Code is a plus.

Location: Remote - Virginia, United States of America

Compensation: $150000 - $163000 / Annually

College Board – Technology – Observability Engineering

100% Remote, working core EST hours

About the Team

The Observability Engineering team at College Board builds solutions to improve the observability of our applications, services, pipelines, and processes, empowering development teams to better serve our customers. We focus on producing cleaner observability signals, processing and presenting product-specific information to facilitate business intelligence, and providing a comprehensive set of well-integrated observability tools. We are committed to delivering an incredible user experience across College Board sites and applications, serving millions of students and thousands of colleges, schools, and districts. Our work not only improves the user experience but also enhances our data analytics and signal selection capabilities, reduces costs, and increases the quality of life for our internal development teams. Our team of five highly productive engineers tackles complex challenges with innovation and speed of delivery, operating almost like a startup. We exploit the capabilities of cloud technologies and adhere to good software development practices. We learn and we teach. We foster creativity and value the merit of ideas.

About the Opportunity

As a Senior Software Engineer on our Observability Engineering team, you are an idea-generator, a catalyst, and a collaborator. You understand cloud software delivery, tools, and processes that empower efficient and resilient delivery that adheres to top-notch development practices. You thrive in an environment with a strong mix of creativity and productivity. You are technologically curious and seek out opportunities to research emerging technologies and trends, standards, and products. Your eagerness and vision enable you to create and learn complex solutions. Your excellent communication and mentoring skills allow you to effectively articulate solutions to the team while bringing them up to speed, enabling all to make healthy contributions.

In this role, you will:

Design & Implementation (70%)

• Design, develop, unit test, implement, and document solutions for our development teams, including full stack applications based on React, TypeScript, and Node.js, while adhering to Agile, CI/CD, and DevOps best practices
• Provide visualizations that quickly gauge the overall end user experience and generate high-quality alerts
• Continuously develop the skills required to work as part of the agile team in a poly-skilled development environment
• Apply subject matter expertise in current technological capabilities such as cloud networking, API integrations, infrastructure resiliency, and cloud design
• Write code to automate the infrastructure lifecycle, create and support internal tools utilizing IaC, and use CLIs
• Partner with domain SMEs (Delivery Team Software Engineers, Security, Infrastructure, Network, Observability and Operations) to analyze the features and capabilities 
• Work with technology leaders to understand business objectives and align architectures and cloud product offerings with those objectives
• Contribute to the development and growth of the Cloud Engineering Program through thought leadership, design, and implementation of tools and processes
• Participate in the Enterprise Architecture Review process

Strategy & Communication (20%)

• Implement cloud-first architectural solutions and best practices
• Contribute to technology strategy and planning, conducting research on emerging technologies in support of systems development efforts and recommending technologies that will increase cost effectiveness and systems flexibility
• Participate in agile scrum ceremonies (Sprint Planning, Grooming, Daily SCRUM, Demo, Retro) and contribute to team deliverables
• Participate in peer reviews of software engineering artifacts
• Assist in the identification and resolution of production and production-like issues

Team Coordination (10%)

• Mentor team members by designing and developing training materials to communicate the current and future infrastructure architecture, technology implementations, and software development practices
• Establish a great backup to cover for you during absences; Create and maintain supporting material to ensure they can perform effectively

About You

You have:

• 5+ years of software development experience, including at least 2 years of recent experience with React, TypeScript, and/or Node.js
• Strong knowledge and experience with distributed cloud infrastructure, including AWS resources such as Lambda, SNS, SQS, S3, Step Functions, EC2, ECS, VPC, IAM, CloudWatch, DynamoDB
• Experience building event-driven cloud-based serverless applications, with technical knowledge of cloud computing, DevOps, and microservices
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD framework, immutable infrastructure, automation, orchestration, and other modern DevOps patterns
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills with an ability to present ideas in business-friendly and user-friendly language
• Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain good customer working relationships
• Exceptional analytical, conceptual, and problem-solving abilities
• Ability to prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment
• Authorization to work in the U.S.

Additional nice-to-have:

• Experience building API’s or other back-end services
• Experience with Grafana or similar data visualization tools

About Our Process 

• Application review will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled  
• While the hiring process may vary, it generally includes resume and application submission, recruiter phone/video screen, hiring manager interview, performance exercise such as live coding, a panel interview, a conversation with leadership and reference checks.  

About Our Benefits and Compensation 

College Board offers a competitive benefits and compensation program that attracts top talent looking to make a difference in education. As a self-sustaining non-profit, we believe in compensating employees equitably in relation to each other, their qualifications, their impact, and the relevant market.  

The hiring range for a new employee in this position is $150,000 to $163,000.  Your salary will be carefully determined based on your location, relevant experience, the external labor market, and the pay of College Board employees in similar roles. College Board strives to provide our best offer up front based on these criteria.  

Your salary is only one part of all that College Board offers, including but not limited to:    

• A comprehensive package designed to support the well-being of employees and their families and promote education. Our robust benefits package includes health, dental, and vision insurance, generous paid time off, paid parental leave, fertility benefits, pet insurance, tuition assistance, retirement benefits, and more 
• Recognition of exceptional performance through annual bonuses, salary growth over time through market increases, and opportunities for merit raises and promotions based on increased scope of responsibility 
• A job that matters, a team that cares, and a place to learn, innovate and thrive 

You can expect to have transparent conversations about benefits and compensation with our recruiters throughout your application process. 

About Our Culture

• Our high-performing engineers work with the latest technologies, so you will be constantly learning and sharpening your skills
• We are motivated to positively impact the educational and career trajectories of millions of students a year 
• We prioritize building a diverse and inclusive team where every employee can thrive, and every voice is heard 
• We value learning and growth; we offer formal and informal ways to lead through your superpowers, sharpen your strengths, and meet your development goals 
• We offer a transparent approach to promotions and merit raises, annual performance-based bonuses, and how to grow your career here over time

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