At Magpie, we envision a world where every child, no matter their background, becomes a confident reader. Our nonprofit team combines research-backed instruction, joyful game design, and innovative technology to tackle America’s reading crisis head-on — with the goal of eradicating illiteracy through a digital-first, student-centered approach.
We’re seeking an experienced Full Stack - Senior Software Engineer to join our small, mission-driven Platform team. You’ll wear many hats, work across boundaries, and help us build a platform that scales impact—not just traffic.
In this role, you’ll design and build the core systems that power Magpie’s learning experiences, from scalable backend services to intuitive front-end interfaces and reliable data pipelines. You’ll help create experiences that meet every child where they are in their learning journey, while unlocking actionable insights for educators and families.
You’re drawn to missions that matter. You think deeply about the systems behind learning, not just the code. You balance pragmatism with curiosity and build for the long term. The ideal candidate pairs strong technical execution with deep empathy for users, thrives in a collaborative startup environment, and is motivated by the opportunity to make reading joyful and accessible for all.
Requirements
✅ 6–8+ years of full-stack engineering experience, with a track record of building systems, driving engineering standards, and setting technical direction.
✅Experience building for both internal stakeholders and external users, including complex systems such as authentication, onboarding, or enablement features.
✅Hands-on experience with event-driven architecture, system integrations, and content management platforms.
✅ You’ve led the design or delivery of meaningful systems that improved outcomes for users or teams.
✅Startup or early-stage company experience, ideally as a founding engineer, with a strong sense of ownership over what you build.
✅A pragmatic approach to tools and technologies, with the ability to explore alternatives and make recommendations to improve systems and processes.
Tech Stack:
Within your first 30 days, you will:
By day 60, you’re:
By day 90, you will:
What Success Looks Like:
Benefits
At Magpie, your work will directly unlock the great reader in every child. If you’re ready to lead with purpose, build with urgency, and partner with a mission-driven team to solve one of America’s biggest educational challenges — we want to hear from you.
We are on a mission to unlock the great reader in every child to end illiteracy in our country -- centering the experiences of Black, Latino, and Native American students and students experiencing poverty. We are developing research-based, identity-affirming PK-8+ digital literacy tools that leverage student uniquenesses to help every child master the foundational reading skills needed to become strong, confident readers. We’re currently hiring our founding team of mission-driven individuals committed to helping us develop a scalable, impactful reading product that helps us eradicate illiteracy in America.Illuminate Literacy is fiscally sponsored by Cambiar Education, a 501c3 that supports transformative leaders of public school systems and educational entrepreneurs to develop innovative solutions that disrupt the patterns of educational inequity.🔥 Key Highlights 🔥 Two fully digital prototypes built and currently being tested with a dozen schools and out-of-school partners; MVP kindergarten offering will be released fall 2023 Fully-funded sister R&D organization, AERDF Reading Reimagined, to explore major unknowns in literacy learning for priority students and to bridge cutting-edge research to practice Founding team with deep expertise in teaching kids to read, on technology, at scale, comprised of literacy experts, practitioners, designers, engineers, and former education systems leaders. Founded and led by Rebecca Kockler, former Assistant Superintendent of Academic Content for the Louisiana Department of Education and developer of the nationally recognized ELA Guidebooks Extensive relationships with major systems leaders across the country requesting to be co-designers and first adopters; 100% retention of current partners year over year Commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and to an inclusive R&D and product development approach that centers Black, Latino and Native American students and those experiencing poverty
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