Today, 67% of students and 82% of low-income students can’t read at grade level by the end of third grade. That’s when students are supposed to go from learning to read to reading to learn. It’s America’s number one education crisis and we know how to fix it.
Ignite Reading delivers one-to-one virtual tutoring that teaches every student the foundational skills they need to become a confident, fluent reader. We pair students who need extra support with expert reading tutors who provide daily, 15-minute, Science of Reading-based instruction that rapidly closes their decoding gaps. We focus on the foundational reading skills—phonics, phonemic awareness, and sight words—kids need to master so they can decode a sentence. Students in Ignite Reading’s program achieve over 2 weeks of reading skills growth per week of instruction, and notably all students achieve the same outstanding results including students with IEPs, multilingual learners, students of color and those receiving free or reduced-price lunch.
Ignite Reading is a mission-driven public benefit corporation. We believe we can do well for our team members and shareholders while we solve one of the nation’s biggest challenges. We believe we will be more successful with a diverse team and are seeking candidates who have lived experience related to social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Your Role
The Senior Software Engineer for Ignite Reading is responsible for leading software development projects in support of scaling Ignite to serve at least 1,00,000 students.
Ignite Reading uses technology to enable the delivery of our virtual tutoring services, maximize the learning of our students, and accelerate our ability to scale. To this end, the product is focused on four key technology needs:
- A tutoring logistics platform, which enables us to schedule, conduct and report on our tutoring sessions.
- A tutor workflow platform, which lets tutors know exactly what to teach each student every day.
- An extended learning application, which enables students to practice what they learn in their tutoring sessions after they return to the classroom or go home at night.
- An AI/ML implementation, which will enable us to ensure lesson fidelity as we scale.
Key Responsibilities
- Assessing the state of technical needs and platforms across the organization.
- Designing, testing, and developing key software projects, building and optimizing solutions to meet the short and long term needs of Ignite Reading.
- Partnering with tutoring, academic, and operations teams to create and deliver solutions that meet the needs of internal and external customers.
- Meeting or exceeding project timelines and deliverables.
- Ensuring consistent functionality with Ignite Reading platforms.
- Supporting the development of the engineering function at Ignite Reading.
- Providing a continuous feedback loop on the customer experience in order to drive innovative program solutions and improvements.
Qualifications
- 7+ years of pragmatic, real-world experience as a software engineer.
- In-depth knowledge of modern web development technologies, OOP languages, and relational databases. Our first product has been built using Ruby on Rails 7, Hotwire, Tailwind, and Postgres all deployed in Heroku. Candidates with experience in similar web tech stack (Python/Django, JavaScript/Node, PHP/Laravel, Java/Spring, .NET, etc.) are highly encouraged to apply.
- Product focused. You utilize product management methodologies and have the ability to understand the needs of our users and translate those needs into prioritized product features.
- Quality focused. You maintain high standards of code and lead thoughtful application design to ensure platform performance, uptime, and scale, and have excellent debugging and optimization skills.
- An orientation to collaboration
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
- Exceptional organizational, project management and time management skills
- Experience at early stage startups is a plus
- Ability to be self-managing and flexible while working in a remote environment
- Ability to roll up your sleeves and do whatever it takes to get the job done while balancing long-term projects with the urgency of immediate demands in a fast-paced startup environment.
- Experience with Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Pair-programming a plus.
At Ignite Reading, we’ve decided to embrace a transparent compensation structure for a few reasons:
To promote fairness and equity: This approach supports fairness within our structure. When everyone knows how compensation decisions are made, it reduces the likelihood of pay discrimination based on factors like gender, race, relationships, or negotiation skills.
To provide accountability for our approach: The same role receives the same compensation, with no negotiation.
Salary: $170,000 - $200,000
We believe in building and fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace environment. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer where all applicants are considered for employment without attention to color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status. Research shows that candidates from underrepresented backgrounds often don't apply for roles if they don't meet all the criteria – unlike majority candidates meeting significantly fewer requirements. We strongly encourage you to apply if you’re interested!
We are seeking candidates who have lived experience related to social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are a virtual organization with headquarters in the California Bay Area.
Top Skills
What We Do
When kids learn to read on time their opportunities in school and life improve profoundly. If a child cannot read by the time they are in third grade, they are four times less likely to graduate high school.* In 2022, only 33% of U.S. fourth graders and 31% of eighth graders were reading at grade level (National Assessment of Educational Progress reading assessment scores). Ignite Reading is on a mission to fix this.
Ignite Reading delivers one-to-one virtual tutoring that teaches K-8th graders the foundational skills they need to become confident, independent readers. We pair developing readers with expert reading tutors who provide daily, 15-minute, Science of Reading-based instruction that rapidly closes decoding gaps. Students across all demographics achieve the same outstanding results–an average of 2.4 weeks of reading skills growth per week of instruction–including students with IEPs, multilingual learners, students of color and those receiving free or reduced-price lunch. By ensuring all students master the foundational skills to fluently read any word, Ignite Reading empowers them to move forward and unlock everything school and life have to offer.
"Ignite Reading is one of the most, if not the most, successful interventions we have implemented in our district. The student results and program design are indisputable."
- Claudia Salvestrin, Assistant Superintendent, Red Bluff Union Elementary School District, CA
