The College Board is a mission-driven, not-for-profit organization dedicated to excellence in education. They are seeking a Lead Engineer to guide the technical direction of their BigFuture platform, focusing on building scalable and innovative software solutions that empower students in their college and career planning.
Responsibilities:
- Design and deliver high-quality software that is scalable, secure, and reusable—leveraging modern technologies, proven design patterns, and cloud-native practices to power BigFuture’s core tools
- Collaborate with product owners, architects, and stakeholders to uphold the highest engineering standards and translate big ideas into impactful, student-facing solutions
- Break down new product capabilities into actionable, verifiable technical changes that move quickly from concept to reality
- Design and implement solutions to allow rapid testing of innovative concepts using the latest technologies, typically React web apps
- Create sharable documentation, both technical and non-technical
- Exercise discretion in prototyping: investing time to make sure the most important things work well, and working with the team to mock or minimize less important features
- Maintain clean code and strong engineering standards such that when prototypes are greenlit for further development, the project is easy to build upon
- Continuously develop the skills required to work with this rapidly developing technology
- Participate in, or lead Agile SCRUM ceremonies (Sprint Planning, Grooming, Daily SCRUM, Demo) by contributing to team deliverables and driving alignment, focus, and momentum across sprints
- Elevate team performance by giving and receiving thoughtful code reviews, mentoring peers, and helping solve complex technical challenges
- Assist in resolving production issues with urgency and precision, ensuring a smooth and reliable user experience
- Model discipline in adhering to development standards, security practices, and CI/CD principles while helping the team move fast without compromising quality
- Continuously grow your skills and embrace a poly-skilled environment where everyone contributes beyond their specialty
- Serve as an organizational Subject Matter Expert on implementing Generative AI applications
- Work with our Enterprise Architecture team to review and/or establish implementation patterns involving Generative AI tools
- Advise on, and where feasible, create tools and infrastructure that will enable teams to safely deploy Generative AI tools
- Keep abreast of developments in GenAI capabilities and implementations
- Share knowledge of new developments with the team via chats, meetings, and presentations when appropriate
- Serve as an advisor to internal teams developing staff education around Generative AI
Requirements:
- 7+ years of professional experience designing, building, testing, and managing scalable web applications in AWS-hosted environments
- 3+ years' experience building back-end applications using Node(with TypeScript)
- Experience with relational and NoSQL databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redshift, DynamoDB)
- Experience building observability for your products: Set up CloudWatch, X-Ray, for logging, metrics, and alerts
- Hands-on experience implementing Generative AI applications (e.g., RAG chatbots, model fine-tuning, or other LLM-powered tools)
- Enthusiasm for learning new technologies, especially in the fast-moving GenAI space
- Strong knowledge and hands-on experience with back-end technologies such as Node.js and/or Python
- Experience with asynchronous programming and event-driven messaging patterns
- Strong knowledge of AWS services (e.g., Lambda, SNS, SQS, S3, Step Functions, IAM, KMS, API Gateway, CloudWatch, DynamoDB)
- Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments
- Proven ability to mentor and coach less experienced teammates in new technologies
- Strong analytical thinking, structured problem-solving, and practical decision-making skills
- Effective communication and documentation skills
- Proficiency in reviewing and improving code structure and architecture for testability, maintainability, and scalability, with hands-on experience in JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Node.js, Next.js, APIs, and AWS Serverless technologies (Lambdas, DynamoDB, S3, CloudWatch, etc.)
- Leadership in the end-to-end design and implementation of user interfaces, from architectural planning and component strategy through to polished execution, including accessibility, performance optimization, and mentoring peers on building intuitive, scalable, and user-centric front-end solutions
- Strong problem-solving skills, working collaboratively with team members to identify and resolve issues, and partnering with Product Owners to prioritize backlog
- Proven ability to pitch new ideas and implement improved systems and processes, delivering excellent results
- Effective communicator and team lead, able to provide actionable feedback, mentor team members, and participate in interviews to evaluate engineering talent
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, or related engineering fields preferred
- 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 a 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