Sown To Grow Looking for Software Engineer at Menlo Park, CA Full Time

Sown To Grow (STG) is a K12 education technology platform that empowers schools to improve student social, emotional, and academic health through an easy and engaging reflection and feedback process. In a short weekly routine, students check-in emotionally and reflect on the strategies that are working best for them (or new ones to try). They start with a focus on emotional well-being and expand to academic goal-setting over time. Teachers, principals, and counselors understand real-time student emotions with AI-driven insights, and proactively support student needs.

About Us

• We understand the challenges schools face – we intimately understand the challenges faced by schools because our founding team spent years working in schools/districts. We take pride in our team, which includes dedicated educators, social workers, and experienced administrators. Together, we work closely with schools every day, aiming to maximize our impact.
• We are dedicated to impact – We are supported by renowned, impact focused organizations such as the National Science Foundation, US Department of Education, NewSchools Venture Fund, and Digital Promise. With their support and our unwavering commitment, we’ve invested significantly in research to ensure that our product creates a meaningful and positive impact within schools and classrooms.
• We are passionate about equity – The majority of STG’s school and district partners serve predominantly low-income communities, which have been historically underserved. Our product is thoughtfully designed to close gaps rather than create them, and ensures that every student has an equal opportunity to thrive.
• We’re small, but mighty – Our tight-knit, agile group is driven by a shared aspiration to make a difference while building a successful business. With team members who have experience working at large, influential organizations such as Meta, IBM, Capital One, and Palantir, we are determined to create a scalable product that impacts millions of students positively.

About You

We’re seeking a software engineer who embodies the following qualities: * Passion for Impact: We’re not just another tech company – we’re driven by a deep commitment to making a meaningful difference in the lives of students. If you’re passionate about creating positive change and empowering the next generation, you’re in the right place. * Comfort in Ambiguity: In a dynamic start-up environment, change is constant, and the path forward isn’t always clear-cut. We’re looking for team members who thrive in uncertainty, can craft a strategy on the fly, and execute with confidence and autonomy. * Sense of Urgency: Time is of the essence in a start-up. If you’re someone who enjoys the thrill of moving fast and building with purpose, you’ll find our culture both exhilarating and rewarding. * Aspiration for Growth: While you may have experience at larger organizations, you’re ready for a new challenge that offers more responsibility and an opportunity to shape the future. We’re here to provide that platform for your professional growth.

Responsibilities

• Collaboratively work with designers, product managers, school implementation teams, and other developers
• Analyze feature requirements/specifications and propose scalable data models, API interfaces, and architecture needed to build features
• Implement new features to match designed specifications (including development of unit/integration tests), while maintaining current product and keeping technical debt to a minimum
• Understand the delicate balance between building fast and building correct, and be able to weigh the pros and cons of different choices
• Code review pull requests (new features, bug fixes) submitted by other developers
• Monitor, maintain and improve existing web application infrastructure and deployment processes
• Establish performance metrics and monitor performance of web application infrastructure
• Build for scale, availability, performance, and security across the stack.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher degree in computer science or related fields (software engineering or equivalent)
• 2+ years experience as a Backend or Full Stack Engineer
• Experience with React, Vue, or other similar frontend JavaScript frameworks
• Experience building RESTful API’s using Ruby on Rails, Django, Laravel, or other similar backend MVC frameworks
• Experience writing and maintaining high-quality production code and using source code control/revision tools (i.e. Git)
• Experience in deployment and management of cloud native infrastructure and services with an emphasis on performance and cost optimization (such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud etc)

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong interest in working in the education technology industry in an impact driven role
• Adaptability to working in fast-paced, dynamic environment
• Experience developing GraphQL APIs
• Experience working with and optimizing SQL databases and queries
• Experience working with Amazon Web Services