Senior Software Engineer, Backend

Knewton, New York, NY

See jobs at Knewton

What is Knewton? At Knewton, we believe each student is unique and that their knowledge is not defined by their last answer. Sometimes what a student needs at any moment may not be the next lesson in their textbook. Teachers, schools and education companies use Knewton solutions to adapt to each student’s unique needs with tailored recommendations. Join us to help students have a more positive educational experience.

What have we accomplished since opening our doors in 2008? We’ve built an adaptive learning API that has delivered more than 15 billion (that’s right, billion) personalized recommendations to over 14 million students on every continent (okay, except Antarctica). We are building on the success of our recently-launched Alta product to deliver educational software to colleges and universities across the country. We’re headquartered in NYC with offices in London and Tokyo. Investments top $150M from well-known angel investors plus Accel, Bessemer, First Round Capital, Firstmark, Founders Fund, GSV and Atomico.

Our team is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join the Engineering team.

As a Senior Software Engineer, you will be responsible for building and enhancing the microservices that power the Alta learning product. You will work closely with our Product, UX and Data Science teams to lead projects that make alta more powerful and scalable. You will also work collaboratively with other senior engineers to guide the technical direction of our systems, while helping more junior engineers to effectively utilize cutting-edge web technologies.

This is a great opportunity to:

Drive technology initiatives to improve the scalability, resilience, and performance throughout our platform
Mentor engineers and help them grow to their full potential
Be a thought leader and actively engage in continuously improving practices and methodology across the company
Collaboratively work with talented engineers, data scientists, product managers and UX designers to deliver quality software features to our users
Express your voice on how to build great software on the team and across the company

What we are looking for:

6+ years experience in software development, 4+ years of which are specific to backend development on scalable distributed systems
Proven full-lifecycle development experience on large projects, creating robust and scalable solutions
In-depth understanding of the full-stack of a cloud-based distributed platform
Expert level understanding of Java or some other typed language e.g. Scala, C++, Kotlin
Basically all the necessary skills to develop backend code that is well-tested, robust to traffic, and designed to survive multiple iterations of the product
Experience mentoring junior engineers
Passion for education

Perks include:

Competitive salary, great health insurance, and equity
401k match!
Great coworkers with a passion for empowering students and educators
Flexible hours, no vacation policy, and paid maternity/paternity leave
High-quality equipment (default: a new Macbook Pro with a giant monitor)
Social groups and sports teams
Fully stocked kitchen with all-day snacks and a full bar
Free lunches everyday and free dinners when you work late
Free monthly MetroCards/PATH cards

About Knewton

Our mission is to personalize learning for the world. No two students come from the same background or learn the same way. With Knewton adaptive learning, every student is supported and challenged. Knewton offers integrated adaptive courseware for colleges and universities across North America. Also, education companies and publishers use Knewton Enterprise to build or enhance powerful adaptive learning products across grade levels and subject areas.