Software Engineer - Full Stack

About Empowerly

Empowerly (www.empowerly.com) is an education technology company dedicated to democratizing college admissions through personalized college and career counseling. Committed to empowering students to become the most successful version of themselves, we provide tailored guidance backed by data-driven education technology. Our offerings include startup and research internship programs and expert counseling from former college Admission Officers and experienced college counselors, all designed to level the playing field in college admissions.

As a rapidly growing, mission-driven, and venture-backed company, we emphasize collaboration, data-driven decision-making, and empowerment. In February 2024, Empowerly raised $15 million in a funding round led by Conductive Ventures. This new capital will support the expansion of our services, enhance our machine learning capabilities, and aid in the development of our first mobile app, set to launch in the U.S. by the end of 2024. To date, Empowerly has raised $30 million.

Empowerly operates on a remote-first basis, building a team of individuals who excel in remote environments and are passionate about making high-quality college counseling accessible to all students, regardless of their background or location.

About the Role

Empowerly is seeking a Software Engineer in the United States. As a Software Engineer at Empowerly, you will collaborate with Founding Engineers, their teams, and their leadership to lead crucial, innovative projects and initiatives. You will have the opportunity to build products that enhance access to college counseling services for students. 

You are someone who thrives in a fast-paced environment. You love building products with a team and seek out the responsibility and rewards that come with shipping functionality that customers love. You are customer obsessed. You are comfortable working and collaborating with leadership, designers, customers, and sales. You can confidently make and execute high-level engineering decisions with minimal oversight. 

You come with 3+ years of software development experience and have a strong technical background in building web applications, working with infrastructure, and writing quality code. Your responsibilities will include developing responsive web interfaces, coding intelligent algorithms, and enabling AI education applications. You will work closely with the product management team to balance technical capabilities with our services, products (aka Empowerly score), growth (aka marketing), and sales (aka account executives). This role requires a deep willingness to wear multiple hats, continuously learn, and significantly impact Empowerly's overall success.

Responsibilities

• Consistently ship features and resolve issues to enhance the experience for marketplace counselors, students, and families.

• Lead projects related to the engineering software development

• Align software development approaches across multiple areas under the technical direction of  Engineering Leadership

• Proactively identify areas for improvement in the codebase, seeking enhancements to product quality, security, and performance.

• Participate in end-to-end product execution, collaborating closely with Empowerly’s Product Managers and UI/UX designers on interaction and visual design.

• Engage in prototyping, testing, training, and defining support procedures alongside the engineering team, product team, and executive leadership.

• Support the build the technical foundation of the Empowerly platform by designing APIs, coding beautiful UIs, and making effective trade-offs for complex product problems.

• Serve as the go-to person and de-facto engineering feature owner as our team scales

• Experience with our tech stack: 

• + Front End: HTML/ CSS, JavaScript

• + ReactJS and related frameworks

• + Database Familiarity:  PostgreSQL

• + Cloud Infrastructure: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), or Microsoft Azure.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, or equivalent technical experience.

• 3+ years of experience working in software engineering.

• Experience leading software engineering projects in a rapidly changing and fast-paced environment.

• Proven ability to lead software design decisions, define and manage end-to-end project requirements, and ship complex products with minimal guidance.

• Proficiency in developing and debugging with scripting languages such as Python, Perl, PHP, and/or shell scripts.

• Strong grasp of full-stack web development frameworks, with the ability to create an application end-to-end.

• Experience developing and working with automated testing frameworks to enable reliable end-to-end testing and deployment strategies.

• Experience auditing and contributing to product infrastructure.

• Demonstrated capacity to clearly and concisely communicate about complex technical, architectural, and organizational problems, including to non-technical employees, and propose thorough iterative solutions.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

• Ability to be agile and adaptable.

• Thrive in a fast-paced, early-stage startup environment.

• Positive, can-do attitude.

• Resilience in overcoming minor setbacks and swiftly handling ambiguity.

• Impeccable attention to detail.

Empowerly Characteristics

• Driven by a mission to provide comprehensive access to college counseling and beyond.

• A high-growth, scrappy, and intense startup environment.

• A team of high IQ, developmentally hungry professionals.

• A collaborative and energetic team player who is committed to personal and collective growth.

• Adaptable, quick to respond, and committed to delivering delightful experiences to both internal and external customers.

$80,000 - $120,000 a year

The Software Engineer is a full-time, exempt position working remotely. Competitive benefits package includes health/dental/vision insurance, unlimited PTO, and 401K. Typically, the salary range is $80,000 - $140,000 depending on location, experience, and skill set. In addition to our tangible benefits, Empowerly provides our people the opportunity to learn and grow within a supportive team environment.