Principal Software Engineer I

At Curriculum Associates (CA), we believe a diverse team leads to diversity in thinking, making our products better for teachers and students. If you read this job description, feel energized by what you see here, and believe you could bring passion and commitment to the role, but you aren’t sure you meet every qualification, please apply! Above all, we are looking for the right person!

Summary:

Join our innovative educational technology organization as a Principal Software Engineer. Leverage your expertise in Scala, Spark, databases, and Big Data to architect and deliver scalable, impactful software solutions. In this role, youll lead solution engineering efforts, drive new platform and product developments, analyze and enhance system architecture, and collaborate with product managers to plan and execute smooth feature rollouts within an Agile environment.

Essential duties/responsibilities:

• Lead technical initiatives and guide the team to develop innovative software solutions that address complex challenges.
• Build scalable, efficient, and high-performance pipelines and workflows for processing large volumes of batch and real-time data.
• Maintain and enhance existing software systems to ensure performance and reliability.
• Recommend and implement technology upgrades to drive continuous improvement.
• Support real-time streams, ETL pipelines, data warehouses, and reporting services.
• Design and develop data frameworks, applications, and microservices that seamlessly integrate with other services.
• Utilize Big Data tools such as Kafka, AWS S3 Data Lake, EMR, and Spark to ingest, store, transform, and query data.
• Adhere to coding best practices, including unit testing, design/code reviews, and comprehensive documentation.
• Conduct thorough code reviews to maintain quality, mentor junior team members, and promote continuous learning.
• Perform performance analyses and capacity planning for each release.
• Work effectively as part of an Agile team, contributing to process improvements and innovative solutions.
• Implement and promote security protocols and data governance standards across development projects.
• Proactively introduce new approaches to overcome software challenges throughout the product lifecycle.
  
  

• Strong software design skills with a deep understanding of design patterns and performance optimization.
• Expertise in writing high-quality, well-structured Scala code with an emphasis on functional programming and test-driven development.
• Ability to produce clear, concise, and organized documentation.
• Knowledge of Amazon cloud computing services (Aurora MySQL, DynamoDB, EMR, Lambda, Step Functions, and S3).
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively with team members of varying technical backgrounds.
• Proficiency in conducting detailed code reviews focused on improving code quality and mentoring developers.
• Familiarity with software engineering and project management tools.
• Commitment to following security protocols and best practices in data governance.
• Capability to construct KPIs and use metrics for continuous process improvement
  
  

• 15+ years of experience designing and developing enterprise-level software solutions.
• 10+ years of experience with large volume data processing and Big Data tools such as Apache Spark, Scala, and Hadoop.
• 5+ years of experience developing Scala/Java applications and microservices using Spring Boot.
• 5+ years of experience working with SQL and relational databases.
• 2+ years of experience working within Agile/Scrum environments.
  
  

• Extended experience with Amazon cloud computing infrastructure.
• Background in the educational technology domain.
  
  

• Deliver large software development initiatives collaborating with product owners, to deliver i-Ready experiences.
• Partner with architects and distinguished engineers to design robust software services and modules ensuring seamless customer experience at scale.
• Operate with a continuous improvement mindset, conducting code and design reviews, as well as driving adoption of state-of-the-art productivity tools.
• Model and champion efficiencies in software development and delivery practices.
• Stay abreast of industry best practices and drive adoption of applicable state-of-the-art frameworks and tools.
• Communicate clearly and consistently utilizing verbal and written forms, influencing alignment on cross-team goals.
• Champion personal and peer development through mentoring.
• Engage in proactive learning to improve functional as well as technical knowledge.
  
  

• Strong communication skills.
• Expert level knowledge of multiple frameworks and languages.
• Extensive experience delivering cloud hosted software services at scale.
• Experience working in an Agile environment, including experience with Scrum. 
  
  

• Bachelor’s in computer science preferred
• 10+ years of experience in web application development.