Lead Full Stack Engineer

College Board•Remote - Virginia, VA

2d•$168,000 - $181,000•Remote

About The Position

The Item Calibration team works together to solve complex technical problems and develop innovative solutions. Embracing a culture of continuous improvement, we look for ways to incorporate new technologies in the delivery of systems that are responsible for analysis and scoring of tests of SAT/PSAT and AP programs, all with the singular purpose of providing comprehensive assessments to millions of students. We regularly collaborate sharing our ideas to define the future of our applications. Our team is characterized by our positive team culture, strong technical skills, focus on delivering value and our ability to have fun while being productive. We are a collaborative group of engineers who mentor one another, pitch in when a teammate needs help, and treat mistakes as problems to solve together. As a Lead Engineer on the Item Calibration team, you will lead the technical direction and development of critical scoring capabilities for College Board's assessments. Leveraging your AWS expertise, strong analytical and problem-solving skills, you will analyze complex feature requirements, automate processes, and drive efficiencies. Collaborating with cross-functional teams, you will contribute to improving reliability and efficiency of systems. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in a fast-paced, Agile environment and is eager to make a meaningful impact on the digital transformation of SAT, PSAT, and AP assessments.

Requirements

7+ years of software development experience in a production environment, including experience leading technical design and delivery
Strong backend development experience in JavaScript/Node.js and TypeScript, with an appreciation for functional programming concepts
Minimum of 3-4 years of hands-on experience developing solutions with AWS services, including Lambda, S3, Step Functions, DynamoDB, SNS, SQS, and CloudWatch, and ideally broader exposure to resources such as API Gateway, IAM, CloudFront, VPCs, and SecretsManager
Experience delivering with CI/CD and NoSQL data stores, and with infrastructure-as-code (AWS CDK a plus)
Proven ability to lead and mentor engineers, set clear technical direction, and raise the effectiveness of the team by example
Ability to influence and align engineers and partners without formal authority
Capable of analyzing, planning, designing, and owning vaguely defined issues with minimal supervision
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a keen eye for detail
Proactive with a strong sense of ownership and responsibility
Excellent communication and collaboration skills to work across technical and business teams, with a collaborative attitude that incorporates various perspectives
Understanding of Agile methodology and DevOps best practices, with a willingness to work in a DevOps environment
Familiarity with Test-Driven Development (TDD), Behavior-Driven Development (BDD), and Documentation as Code
Hands-on experience using AI coding assistants in the development workflow, with the judgment to critically evaluate AI-generated output and the ability to coach junior engineers on using these tools well
A passion for expanding educational and career opportunities and mission-driven work
Authorization to work in the United States for any employer
Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions and comfort learning and applying new digital tools independently and proactively.
Clear and concise communication skills, written and verbal
A learner's mindset and a commitment to growth: welcoming diverse perspectives, giving and receiving timely, respectful feedback, and continuously improving through iterative learning and user input.
A drive for impact and excellence: solving complex problems, making data-informed decisions, prioritizing what matters most, and continuously improving through learning, user input, and external benchmarking.
A collaborative and empathetic approach: working across differences, fostering trust, and contributing to a culture of shared success.

Nice To Haves

Experience with assessment or education technology systems, such as scoring or calibration, is a strong advantage
Strong organizational skills, and an interest in Developer Experience (DX) and User Experience (UX) concepts
Bachelor's degree in computer science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering or equivalent

Responsibilities

Lead the design, development, testing and deployment of backend AWS cloud solutions that include highly scalable REST APIs, microservices, data pipelines and other event driven applications using Node.js, TypeScript and serverless technologies.
Partner with business and technical teams to translate data insights into actionable recommendations and sound technical decisions.
Lead the development and review of requirements, data mappings, user stories, and other artifacts, clearly communicating to both business and technical team members.
Lead the resolution of production issues, driving troubleshooting and root cause analysis and working with engineering teams to implement lasting fixes.
Proactively monitor production deployments and, on occasion, troubleshoot outside normal business hours, given the accuracy and timeliness that scoring requires.
Guide functional testing by validating data accuracy, system behavior, and process integrity.
Utilize application development tools and methodologies across multiple platforms.
Set and uphold engineering standards, ensuring the team delivers code that uses best practices and design patterns, that includes comprehensive unit testing, and that has gone through a sound code-review process.
Serve as the technical lead for the team, mentoring and coaching junior engineers and providing technical direction, guidance on priorities, and constructive feedback on code, designs, and approach to help them grow and work with increasing independence.
Influence technical direction and the adoption of engineering practices across the team and with partners, without relying on formal authority.
Design and create artifacts that enable junior engineers to deliver effectively, such as design specs, flow diagrams, reference implementations and code templates, runbooks, and well-defined user stories with clear acceptance criteria.
Break down complex features into clearly scoped tasks for junior engineers, and review their work to uphold quality and consistency with team standards and best practices.
Partner with the manager, product, and Psychometrics stakeholders on roadmap, estimation, and delivery planning, representing the team's technical perspective.
As team standards and approved tools allow, use AI-assisted development tools to accelerate design, coding, testing, and documentation, and guide junior engineers in using them effectively and responsibly, including prompting techniques, validating and reviewing AI-generated output, and protecting sensitive and CONFIDENTIAL data.