Staff Software Engineer

Remote-US, Remote-CAN

The Company

Outschool’s mission is to inspire kids to love learning. In our fast-changing world, the traditional educational system struggles to meet the diverse and evolving needs of young learners. Outschool reimagines this system, offering flexible and engaging learning experiences as a supplement and alternative to traditional education. By connecting learners with a global community of teachers and peers through our online platform, we make learning personal, dynamic, and deeply human.

We've made significant strides since launching our marketplace of live online classes in 2017. Finding initial success with secular homeschoolers, we then expanded to enrichment learning to meet the needs of a wider audience, growing our business 16x since 2019. Post-pandemic, we have evolved our platform to power academic learning, incorporated AI, and have begun to grow our international community. We're proud to have served over 1M passionate learners with more than $100M in annual bookings.

Driving disruptive, positive change in education is rewarding and hard. Outschool team members are encouraged to challenge themselves, take risks, and grow in their careers. We look for talented people whose sense of urgency, innate curiosity, and determination to drive impact will help Outschool achieve outsized results in pursuit of our mission. We invite you to be part of an ambitious team dedicated to ensuring every learner can navigate the future with curiosity, resilience, and a love of learning.

Outschool has been named Fast Company’s most innovative EdTech company in the world, and one of the top ten best startups for women from Elpha. Outschool has also been one of BuiltIn’s Best Remote Places to Work for the last two years and has appeared on Y Combinator’s Top Companies list for the last three years. 

The Role

Join our dynamic Enrollments & Supply team at Outschool, where your role as an experienced engineer will be crucial in shaping the future of education. You'll have the unique opportunity to design and develop systems that are transformative, not just functional.

After our 15x scale-up during COVID-19, your expertise will be vital in steering Outschool’s continued growth. Our team thrived amidst unprecedented challenges, thanks to intentional development and scalable systems that effectively served learners. Now, as we move forward, your technical leadership will be essential in navigating and mastering new challenges.

Your role goes beyond overseeing technical aspects; it's about making a lasting impact. You'll engage in strategic decision-making while ensuring operational excellence and fostering a culture of technical consistency and clarity. This position is more than just a job; it's an opportunity to amplify your influence and propel the engineering organization to new heights.

This role is perfect for someone who has excelled as a staff engineer in a high-growth startup, it offers the chance to step into a leadership position that is both challenging and deeply rewarding. Join us in our mission to revolutionize learning and make a significant impact on future generations.

At Outschool we have decided to take an unconventional approach to titling that aligns with our values and is focused on impact above status. You can learn more about our titling philosophy here.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provide domain expertise and engineering insight to guide designs, accelerate project decision-making, and maintain oversight of technical execution 
• Bring industry-wide perspective, knowledge of existing resources and tools, and ability to discover new ones as needed in order to make effective build/buy recommendations
• Mentor and guide junior and senior engineers, fostering their growth and development, and providing them with the necessary support and resources to excel in their roles

DESIRED EXPERIENCE & SKILLS:

• Over 10 years of experience building software applications at scale
• Deep expertise in some core aspects of our stack: modern JavaScript/TypeScript: React, Next.JS, GraphQL/Apollo, Node/Express backed by PostgreSQL
• Strong communication skills, both spoken and written, and experience communicating with Product Managers and Data Scientists
• Proven expertise in orchestrating and managing large-scale projects, demonstrating a strong ability to design, implement, and oversee extensive experimental processes that yield impactful insights and drive significant outcomes
• Demonstrated leadership in guiding and nurturing the professional growth of both junior and senior engineering teams, showcasing exceptional skills in mentorship, technical leadership, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation
• Experience in project management, including planning, execution, and delivery of complex engineering projects that have added tremendous business value

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS:

• Previous work at high-growth startups
• Experience integrating with a payments system
• Experience evangelizing good performance practices via conferences or blog posts
• Previous work in Ed Tech companies

Outschool recruits across the US and Canada, and sets employee salaries to reflect local compensation and cost of living. For New York and California candidates, as well as candidates based in Seattle, WA the salary range for this role would be $185,000 - $245,000.

For Washington candidates outside of Seattle, as well as Colorado candidates, the salary range for this role would be $166,500 - $220,500.

We use Covey as part of our hiring and / or promotional process for jobs in NYC and certain features may qualify it as an AEDT. As part of the evaluation process we provide Covey with job requirements and candidate submitted applications. We began using Covey Scout for Inbound on March 21, 2024.

Please see the independent bias audit report covering our use of Covey here.

#LI-Remote

We use Covey as part of our hiring and / or promotional process for jobs in NYC and certain features may qualify it as an AEDT. As part of the evaluation process we provide Covey with job requirements and candidate submitted applications. We began using Covey Scout for Inbound on March 21, 2024.

Please see the independent bias audit report covering our use of Covey here.

OUTSCHOOL CARES:

At Outschool, we believe that taking care of one another enables us to do our best work. To us that means:

•Shared Financial Success: Competitive salaries, stock options, and investment plans that make saving for retirement easier.

•Health & Wellness: Comprehensive health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance coverage options for employees and their families. Our medical benefits include fertility and family planning coverage. We also provide employees with online access to coaching and therapy sessions through our partner, ModernHealth. 

•PTO & Family Benefits: PTO and family leave enable our team to take the time that we need to recharge, relax, and spend time with family and friends. 

•Fully Distributed: With a team distributed across the US and Canada, we create a remote culture through expensable meals, virtual events, expensable home office setup, and internet allowance.

•Lifelong Learners: Annual budgets to self-direct our professional development as well as DEI learning. There’s also a budget for employees’ learners to take classes on Outschool! 

•Community Impact: Outschool matches employee donations to established charities and has committed to support Outschool.org’s non-profit programs.

Outschool is an equal opportunity employer. We view diversity as a moral imperative and competitive advantage. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We plan and structure our interviews to directly assess skills and experience. 

If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, please contact recruiting@outschool.com.

Benefits packages are included for full-time employees only.

Full-time employees must be a citizen or legal residents of the U.S. or Canada and reside in U.S. or Canada.

Once you submit your application, Outschool will process your personal data to evaluate your candidacy for employment. Unless specifically indicated otherwise, we hire employees only in the U.S. and Canada. Applicants else where should be aware that we may discard your application upon submission or we may ask if you would like us to retain it later should there be consideration (this is not typical at all). If you are selected for interviewing, your data will be shared with interviewers and personnel involved in that process. If not hired, your application will be retained for one year in case there is another suitable role. You may opt out of this at any time. Please see our Employee/Applicant Privacy Notice for more detailed information. If applicable, as you progress through the process, we will be clear about what information is being asked for and what happens with that information.