At Knewton, we believe each student is unique and that their knowledge is not defined by their last answer. Sometimes what a student needs to succeed is personalized attention that caters to their needs. Knewton does this at scale. College professors use Knewton’s adaptive courseware to revolutionize the classroom and give each student exactly what they need. Join us to help students reach their goals.

What have we accomplished since opening our doors in 2008? We’ve built an adaptive learning API that has delivered more than 15 billion (that’s right, billion) personalized recommendations to over 15 million students on every continent (okay, except Antarctica). At the same time proving that our adaptive learning technology improves learning outcomes. We are building on the success of our recently-launched Alta product to deliver adaptive courseware to colleges and universities across the country. We’re headquartered in NYC with offices in London and Tokyo. Investments top $150M from well-known angel investors plus Accel, Bessemer, First Round Capital, Firstmark, Founders Fund, GSV and Atomico.

Our team is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to lead our engineering team focused on improving the adaptive learning experience for students and teachers.

Lead Software Engineers at Knewton are strong engineers who have an interest in expanding their leadership skills. They are responsible for keeping the technical pulse of the team, while being a strong partner to our Product Team. They work cross functionally with Data Science and Product to set goals for the teams, and plan long-term initiatives.

Engineering teams at Knewton focus on student and teacher experiences across all of Knewton’s products - including building the recommendation system, progress metrics, and student dashboards to help students learn more efficiently and improve learning outcomes. Most recently, our Lead Software Engineers have led tech initiatives in building out our infrastructure to handle 50x users and overhauling our front-end to ensure a robust user experience - all while guiding and managing teams of engineers to optimize their technical and professional chops.

This is a great opportunity to:

• Lead an engineering team from a technical perspective to build out Knewton’s adaptive learning products
• If interested, this position offers the opportunity to gradually grow into a management role.
• Spend 20%-30% of your time on technical work e.g. code review, small features, etc. Our teams are of 7 engineers, and we expect our leads to be deeply involved in the technical details of the team.
• Design and improve team process, lead scoping exercises, and enforce technical integrity and standards within the team
• Advocate for the user in our development process
• Mentor and coach engineers and help them achieve their career goals
• Collaborate closely with our Product, Data Science and UX team to continually expand and improve our education software
• Own the overall planning, execution and success of complex technical projects

What we are looking for:

• 5+ years of software development on high-scale distributed systems or an impactful software product
• Experience managing and mentoring engineers and a desire to grow in that area
• Proven full-lifecycle development experience on large projects, creating distributed and scalable solutions and a background in service-oriented architecture
• Expert level understanding and interest to lead a development process in Java; bonus points if you know Python
• Javascript chops e.g. deep understanding of advanced concepts such as prototypal and functional inheritance, closures, and reactive programming
• Excellent verbal and written communication with a proven track record of collaborating cross-functionally
• BA/BS degree in Computer Science or related degree or equivalent practical experience

Perks include:

• Competitive salary, great benefits, and equity including a 401k match
• Great coworkers with a passion for empowering students and educators
• Flexible hours, no vacation policy, and paid maternity/paternity leave
• High-quality equipment (default: a new Macbook Pro with a giant monitor)
• Social groups and sports teams
• Fully stocked kitchen with all-day snacks and a full bar
• Free lunches everyday and free dinners when you work late
• Free monthly MetroCards/PATH cards

This is a great opportunity to:

• Lead an engineering team from a technical perspective to build out Knewton’s adaptive learning products
• If interested, this position offers the opportunity to gradually grow into a management role.
• Spend 20%-30% of your time on technical work e.g. code review, small features, etc. Our teams are of 7 engineers, and we expect our leads to be deeply involved in the technical details of the team.
• Design and improve team process, lead scoping exercises, and enforce technical integrity and standards within the team
• Advocate for the user in our development process
• Mentor and coach engineers and help them achieve their career goals
• Collaborate closely with our Product, Data Science and UX team to continually expand and improve our education software
• Own the overall planning, execution and success of complex technical projects

What we are looking for:

• 5+ years of software development on high-scale distributed systems or an impactful software product
• Experience managing and mentoring engineers and a desire to grow in that area
• Proven full-lifecycle development experience on large projects, creating distributed and scalable solutions and a background in service-oriented architecture
• Expert level understanding and interest to lead a development process in Java; bonus points if you know Python
• Javascript chops e.g. deep understanding of advanced concepts such as prototypal and functional inheritance, closures, and reactive programming
• Excellent verbal and written communication with a proven track record of collaborating cross-functionally
• BA/BS degree in Computer Science or related degree or equivalent practical experience

Perks include:

• Competitive salary, great benefits, and equity including a 401k match
• Great coworkers with a passion for empowering students and educators
• Flexible hours, no vacation policy, and paid maternity/paternity leave
• High-quality equipment (default: a new Macbook Pro with a giant monitor)
• Social groups and sports teams
• Fully stocked kitchen with all-day snacks and a full bar
• Free lunches everyday and free dinners when you work late
• Free monthly MetroCards/PATH cards