Senior Software Engineer

Role Overview

The Platform Team builds and operates the core services that power Teachstone’s products. This role is a senior individual contributor position with deep backend responsibility. The work emphasizes system design, data integrity, performance, and reliability over feature UI work.

You will design, build, and maintain backend systems that other teams depend on. This includes core platform capabilities such as identity and access management, shared services, and cross-product infrastructure. You will partner closely with product, infrastructure, and other engineering teams to ensure the platform is stable, scalable, and flexible.

What You’ll Do

• Design and implement backend services and APIs that support multiple product teams.
• Own complex systems end to end, including data models, business logic, and integrations.
• Build and evolve identity and access management capabilities, including authentication, authorization, roles, and permissions.
• Improve reliability, performance, and observability of existing services.
• Lead technical design discussions and contribute to architectural direction.
• Raise the bar on code quality through reviews, refactoring, and technical standards.
• Diagnose and resolve production issues, including participating in root cause analysis.
• Collaborate with product and engineering leadership to scope work and manage technical tradeoffs.
• Mentor other engineers through pairing, feedback, and technical guidance.

Technical Environment

• Ruby on Rails (primary backend framework)
• Relational databases
• Background job processing
• RESTful APIs
• Cloud-hosted infrastructure (AWS)
• CI/CD pipelines and automated testing

Experience with Rails is valuable, but strong backend engineers with experience in other modern frameworks or languages are encouraged to apply.

What We’re Looking For

• 6+ years of professional software engineering experience, primarily backend-focused.
• Strong fundamentals in system design, data modeling, and API design.
• Experience building and operating production backend systems at scale.
• Comfort working in a mature codebase with real-world constraints.
• Ability to make pragmatic technical decisions and explain tradeoffs clearly.
• Experience collaborating across teams and disciplines.
• Strong ownership mindset. You care about the long-term health of the systems you touch.

Nice to Have

• Prior experience with Ruby on Rails.
• Experience working on platform or infrastructure-adjacent teams.
• Experience improving legacy systems incrementally.

History of mentoring or leading technical initiatives without people management responsibility.

What We Offer:

• Fair, Competitive Pay:  We ensure equal pay for equal work, using consistent salary bands based on market benchmarks, reviewed annually. Prior salaries, negotiation skills, or fear of conflict don’t influence your pay.
• Salary Range: $124,500 - $134,500 base salary, determined by your experience and skills 
• Comprehensive benefits: Medical/dental, 401(k), PTO, insurance, development opportunities. Details provided at offer. Eligibility depends on your role and employment status.

Why This Role Matters

The Platform Team enables every other engineering team to move faster and more safely. Decisions made here have wide impact across the product surface area. This role is for an engineer who enjoys depth, leverage, and long-term system thinking.

Ready to Make a Difference?
At Teachstone, we believe that every interaction shapes a brighter future. If you're passionate about transforming education and want to be part of a team that's committed to meaningful impact, we want to hear from you. Apply today and help us create classrooms where every child thrives!

At Teachstone, we encourage all individuals to apply and bring their unique perspectives to our team. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. We value the different experiences and ideas our team members bring and believe they are essential to solving complex challenges and driving our mission forward.