THE COMPANY

Outschool's mission is to inspire kids to love learning. We believe the best way to do that is by linking learning to kids’ interests, connecting them with others who share those interests, and giving them the autonomy to pick their own path. We provide small group classes that meet over live video chat where learners are connected with teachers and classmates who share their interests. These classes are offered through our marketplace and conducted on our remote learning platform.

Our business is growing explosively: 900,000+ learners have taken more than over 7M class hours. We've more than quadrupled our team since the beginning of 2020 from 25 to 118 to keep up with growth. We’ve raised $130M since founding with most of that still in the bank. We’ve also been named Fast Company’s most innovative edtech company in the world and in the top ten best startups for women from Elpha.

We're committed to access and impact so we founded outschool.org to offer financial assistance to families in need. In addition, Outschool has created an Educator Endowment Fund in appreciation for these teachers who are so central to our mission of inspiring kids to love learning.

Our product and expertise have become central to many families, educators and organizations and will continue to provide kids with unique opportunities to explore their interests in 2021 and beyond.

THE ROLE

We are an effective team of fully remote engineers distributed across the US and Canada. Our philosophy is to start small and then intentionally iterate so we can test our assumptions and learn quickly (we call this Remixing Our Work, one of our cultural values). We're iteratively building up a complex product for a highly engaged audience, getting a lot done by staying focused on the work that matters.

We work in modern JavaScript (TypeScript), React, GraphQL/Apollo, and Node/Express backed by PostgreSQL. We also use Python and other frameworks/languages where appropriate.

We believe that the future of education is hybrid - online and in person. We are looking for engineers at a variety of experience levels who are excited about inspiring children to learn by building tools that allow children to access a fundamentally different learning experience. If you have over 2 years of experience we encourage you to apply. We value hands-on experience most of all.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES:

Here are some examples of projects we have recently tackled:

• We added gift cards as a way to pay for classes; there are over 100,000 classes to choose from;


• We migrated our backend from Heroku to AWS, and we are in the process of migrating the application layer;


• We built a recommendation engine for classes that best fit learners’ interests, it soon turned out to be one of the most used features of our site;


• We are in the process of fully revamping our search using ElasticSearch, Kafka and home grown data pipelines;


• We built a new app area, dedicated just to learners.

If this sounds interesting or like fun, feel free to apply!

DESIRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE:

• Industry experience working as an engineer.


• Experience in modern front-end frameworks (e.g. React, Vue, etc) and Node based applications.


• Experience writing APIs with Javascript or Python.


• Familiarity with relational databases such as PostgreSQL and/or distributed storage like ElasticSearch.


• Proven ability in peer-to-peer collaboration via pairing, documentation.


• Willingness to mentor others in what you know.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS:

• Previous experience in startups, especially edtech


• Experience with AWS or Heroku


• Passion for learning and education


• Familiar with GraphQL and/or the challenges of scaling a web app

OUTSCHOOL CARES:

At Outschool, we believe that taking care of one another enables us to do our best work. To us that means:

• Shared Financial Success: Competitive salaries, stock options, and a 401k that makes saving for retirement easier.


• Health & Wellness: Comprehensive health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance coverage options for employees and their families. Our medical benefits include fertility and family planning coverage. We also provide employees with online access to coaching and therapy sessions through our partner, ModernHealth.


• PTO & Family Benefits: PTO and family leave enable our team to take the time that we need to recharge, relax, and spend time with family and friends.


• Fully Distributed: With a team distributed across the US and Canada, we create a remote culture through expensable weekly meals, virtual events, expensable home office setup, and internet allowance.


• Lifelong Learners: Annual budgets to self-direct our professional development as well as DEI learning. There’s also a budget for employees’ learners to take classes on Outschool!


• Community Impact: Outschool matches employee donations to established 501c3s, and has committed to donating $3M to Outschool.org non-profit programs.

Outschool is an equal opportunity employer. We view diversity as a moral imperative and a competitive advantage. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We plan and structure our interviews to directly assess skills and experience.

Outschool is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to disabled veterans and applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance due to a disability, you may contact us at recruiting@outschool.com.

Must be a citizen or legal resident of the U.S. or Canada and reside in the U.S. or Canada.