Engineering Manager

Over the last 10+ years, Ellevation Education has built a thriving business serving the administrators, specialists, and teachers who support English Learners (ELL) at public schools across the US. Today, over 1,800 school districts use our software to manage their EL programs and drive key outcomes for students. We are a successful, rapidly growing business with a real mission—helping ELLs achieve their highest aspirations. We are making a series of investments in the development of a benchmark assessment aimed at informing instruction for EL students in grades 2–12 across the country. This lightweight assessment will serve as a lower-stakes vehicle to measure students’ growth between the high-stakes, federally mandated summative assessments.

To do this, we’re building a new team to focus on all aspects of the content to power our new assessment: from tooling to empower our assessment creators to the experience students across the country will use to take the assessment. The team will start small and scrappy then incrementally grow over the course of a few months.

As an Engineering Manager, you'll co-lead the overall effort alongside a Product Manager and an Instructional Lead -- the three of you collaboratively deciding how to work backward from overall strategic goals to specific outcomes in this area of the product. You’ll work with our UX designer along with a team of engineers and instructional content specialists to bring this aspect of the product to life.

As a manager, you'll work with all the engineers on your team to: understand their growth paths; ensure they have good challenges ahead of them; steadily provide them with useful, direct feedback. You’ll also play a role in discussions that help guide the overall evolution of Ellevation’s engineering team.

Initially, you will be hands-on in the technical design and code. As the team ramps up, you may shift to do less day-to-day coding . You will play a crucial role in the technical work in your space in at least two core ways. First, you will help ensure your teams are making sound technical tradeoffs, steadily balancing short-term delivery against longer-term concerns. Second, you will work with your teams to identify and advocate for technical investments -- work the engineers believe to be valuable, but which is not being requested from outside the team.

To do your job well, you will be extremely comfortable weighing tradeoffs, generating options, and assessing risks in an intentionally cross-functional manner.

Ideally, you will bring some real depth of experience in building and operating complex systems.

Our backend is written in Python with FastAPI; we’re very happy to hire folks who don’t know Python if they bring a depth of experience in another typical backend language and plenty of real-world system design experience. Our front end is written in Typescript with React.

We look for engineers who are excited to use their technical skills and experience in support of a mission-driven company.

About You

• You have 5+ years of software development experience
• You have 2+ years of experience managing a team of engineers
• You have experience designing, implementing, and operating complex systems
• You have a strong track record of helping the engineers on your teams learn and grow
• You demonstrate an eagerness to learn from others
• ••You are excited to put your technical skills to work to solve hard problems for a business

Impact

• 1 month - Build context around the product and team, begin to chart a path for the team to navigate the technical stewardship tradeoffs, and develop a hiring plan for additional engineers
• 3 months - Lead development by balancing content tooling and student experience, lead regular 1:1’s and semi-annual reviews with reports, and deepen partnership with product, instructional design, and user experience peers
• 6 months - Empower engineers on the team to a greater sense of ownership for development, and collaborate with product, instructional design, and user experience peers to navigate the ambiguous product space.
• 12 months - Contribute to longer-term planning in the instruction product space

Are you passionate about growth and eager to learn? Do you possess a drive to excel and make a difference? Ellevation values diversity, creativity, and a hunger for new perspectives. While our job postings outline preferred qualifications, we believe that talent comes in various forms. If you're motivated, adaptable, and ready to contribute, we encourage you to apply. We welcome candidates from all backgrounds and experiences, recognizing that unique skills and fresh outlooks are invaluable assets to our team. Don't let a checklist of requirements deter you – take the leap, and let's explore the possibilities together!

About Us:

At Ellevation, we develop world-class software to help educators serve the fastest growing population of K-12 students: English Learners (ELs). Ellevation helps school districts transform their Multilingual Learner programs and ensure all students can achieve their highest aspirations. Our product suite includes a best-in-class data and instructional planning platform, resources to build teacher capacity, and student-facing programs to teach academic language.

We are a fast-growing, mission-driven technology company partnering with over 1,500 school districts and more than 2 million current and former English Learners. Over the next five years, we plan to double the number of ELs we serve and drive measurable outcomes for students. Ellevation merged with Curriculum Associates in 2021 to accelerate impact for Multilingual Learners. Our company continues to operate independently and is well-capitalized to support our ambitious social and financial objectives.

Why Ellevation?

In addition to our great benefits and competitive salaries, here are some things that make us unique:

+ Mission-driven organization where team members are empowered to make a significant impact

+ Opportunities to join DEIB-focused groups and support building a culture of belonging 

+ Professional development and growth opportunities

+ Company and team offsites in various cities across the United States

+ Collaborative workspace in the heart of Boston - a stone's throw from many central T stops (Downtown Crossing, Government Center, and Aquarium). Free snacks, beverages, and local organic fruit provided

+ Remote and in-person engagement opportunities, including happy hours, themed events, and competitions 

+ Remote and in-person wellness programming to support team’s mental and physical wellbeing

Learn more about our team in our Culture Deck.

Here at Ellevation, we champion diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging. We strive to build a team that reflects the diverse communities we serve. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values a range of ideas and opinions. 

We believe in building a culture where productivity can flourish, one that is empathetic, respectful, and inclusive. We are proud to have been recognized in prior years as “Best Tech Workplace for Diversity” by the Timmy Awards for investing in training around inclusive behaviors, microaggressions, unconscious bias, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and feedback across the company. We are encouraged by our progress, but there’s more work to be done.

Additional Information: Ellevation operates under Curriculum Associates, LLC, an Equal Opportunity Employer. Curriculum Associates, LLC will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, genetic information, or any other category protected by law. Curriculum Associates, LLC will grant employment, without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, genetic information, or any other category protected by law. Such action shall include, but not be limited to, the following: employment, upgrading, demotion, transfer, recruitment or recruitment advertising, layoff or termination, rates of pay or other forms of compensation.

Our company uses E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit www.uscis.gov/e-verify. 

Information that you provide when applying for employment with Curriculum Associates, LLC may be subject to the California Privacy Rights Act. Click here for more information about our data-collection practices and your rights related to that data.

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