Senior Software Engineer

A pioneer in K–12 education since 2000, Amplify is leading the way in next-generation curriculum and assessment. Our core and supplemental programs in ELA, math, and science engage all students in rigorous learning and inspire them to think deeply, creatively, and for themselves. Our formative assessment products help teachers identify the targeted instruction students need to build a strong foundation in early reading and math. All of our programs provide educators with powerful tools that help them understand and respond to the needs of every student. Today, Amplify serves more than 10 million students in all 50 states. For more information, visit amplify.com.

Amplify is a leader in creating immersive, rigorous digital learning experiences that look great, play great, and help students expect great things of themselves. Amplify has been described as the best tech company in education, and the best education company in tech.

As an engineer at Amplify, you will join a talented team tackling the toughest problems in education with the best ideas in technology – including user experience, APIs and services, data analysis, and deployment pipelines. You’ll play an active role in imagining and improving product design and the classroom experience. 

What You’ll Do

• Impress the toughest customers around – students – by:

  • building engaging, quirky, fast front ends using frameworks like React

  • ensuring an equitable experience for students by implementing code that runs great across platforms under variable, performance, memory and network constraints

• Make life better for passionate teachers by:

  • improving apps reliability and uptime 

  • monitoring apps to make sure they are available to teachers and classrooms

  • building well structured and documented API integrations so that our apps can interoperate with ease

  • frequently and confidently ship improvements from your laptop to classrooms 

  • architect apps that meet the ultimate reliability and uptime challenge for digital tools – is this better than paper?

• Help school administrators build great schools by:

  • building software that respects privacy and ensures security while offering useful insights

  • implementing code that runs great across platforms under variable memory and network constraints

  • analyzing performance and squashing tricky bugs using tools like DataDog or AWS CloudWatch

• Learn every day by:

  • collaboration, pull requests, and mentoring on a cross-functional team

  • participating in cross-team share-outs, brownbags, and workshop series

Example Projects You Might Work On

• Crafting immersive compelling experiences for teachers and students using the latest web tools.

• Implementing logic that handles student work: from persistence to selecting the right activity for the right student at the right moment.

• Optimizing software so that it can handle hundreds of thousands of kids with stability and security in mind.

• Ensuring existing software continues to function well. 

• Improving our workflows and tooling, and of course our existing customer experience. 

Basic Requirements of the Senior Software Engineer:

• BS in Computer Science or equivalent

• 5+ years of professional software development experience

• Strong CS and software engineering fundamentals

• Ability to write code expertly in Javascript and at least one other dissimilar language

• 2+ years’ experience with a modern JavaScript framework (preferably React/Redux)

• 2+ years experience with server-side development preferably in Node.js

• Experience deploying production systems in the cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure)

• Strong proven communication skills in writing and conversation

• Understanding of good software design and modern software engineering practices

Preferred Qualifications of the Senior Software Engineer:

• Experience with tools we use every day:

  • Build: Linux, Jenkins, Chef, Docker, SCSS, Webpack

  • Deploy: Chef, AWS (EC2, Lambda, SQS, etc.), Datadog

  • Monitor: DataDog (or similar)

• 2+ years experience developing online games in Javascript

• Experience designing, building, and implementing games, and game engines

• Experience with tools we don’t use, but should, and the wisdom to know when to recommend them

• Proven passion for building and learning: open source contributions, pet projects, self-education, Stack Overflow

• Exposure to TypeScript

• Experience in education or ed-tech

What we offer:
Salary is only one component of the Amplify Total Rewards package, which includes a 401(k) plan, competitive health insurance and mental health options, basic life insurance, paid time off, parental leave, and access to best-in-class development programs. The gross annualized salary range for this role is $135,000 - $140,000. This role is eligible to receive an annual discretionary bonus that rewards individual and company performance.

We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. To that end, we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool. 

Amplify is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We take affirmative action to ensure equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. 

This position may be funded, in whole or in part, through American Recovery & Reinvestment Act funds.

Amplify Education, Inc. is an E-Verify participant.

If selected, a background check will be required. As required by state and local laws and district policies, you may also be required to provide additional documentation, such as proof of vaccination or submit to enhanced background screening, including fingerprints.