The Role
Build and maintain full-stack SmartCenter capabilities using Python backends and web technologies. Design APIs, business logic, workflows, integrations, and user experiences; improve system architecture, testing, reliability, security, privacy, and compliance. Partner with product, design, QA, and customer-facing teams to deliver pragmatic solutions, support production systems, and apply responsible AI-assisted development practices.
Summary Generated by Built In
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Join a working team that is dedicated to the mission of the work we do!
Teaching Strategies is an innovative edtech organization focused on connecting teachers, children, and families. As front runners in the early childhood education market, we build dynamic, top-quality digital products that integrate all of the essential elements of a high-quality solution: curriculum, assessment, professional development, and family engagement. We are building a team of results-oriented individuals who will thrive in a collaborative, work-hard/play-hard culture. We pride ourselves on the impact we have on the early childhood field through supporting teachers who are doing the most important work there is, teaching children to become creative, confident thinkers.
Position Overview
Teaching Strategies is looking for a Senior Full Stack Engineer to help build and evolve the systems that child care centers rely on to run their businesses. This engineer will work across our Python backend and web application surfaces and take responsibility for a variety of SmartCenter modules and cross-cutting platform capabilities that help centers operate efficiently and support teachers, administrators, and families.
Teaching Strategies is looking for a Senior Full Stack Engineer to help build and evolve the systems that child care centers rely on to run their businesses. This engineer will work across our Python backend and web application surfaces and take responsibility for a variety of SmartCenter modules and cross-cutting platform capabilities that help centers operate efficiently and support teachers, administrators, and families.
In this role, you will take ownership of meaningful product and service work from discovery through delivery. You will translate product ideas and operational needs into clear technical plans, make pragmatic engineering decisions around architecture and technical debt, and collaborate closely with product managers, designers, QA, support, and other engineers.
The ideal candidate is a senior engineer with strong Python backend experience, practical frontend/web experience, and the judgment to work effectively in a mature production system. You should be comfortable improving existing systems, building new capabilities within established patterns, and balancing short-term delivery with long-term product and platform health.
This role is expected to use AI-assisted development practices where they improve quality, speed, and clarity, including CLI-based prompt and guided AI workflows as well as fully agentic development flows where appropriate. You will also help the team evolve practical, responsible patterns for AI use in partnership with other engineers.
Specific Roles & Responsibilities:
- Design, build, test, and maintain full stack product capabilities across a variety of SmartCenter modules and shared platform workflows, including center administration, family and child records, account management, reporting, operational tools, and integrations.
- Develop backend services, APIs, task processing, and business logic primarily in Python, following existing application patterns for authorization, data access, transactions, deferred work, and service boundaries.
- Build and improve web application experiences using the existing frontend stack, with attention to usability, performance, accessibility, and maintainable client-side code.
- Make pragmatic, informed decisions about technical debt, refactoring, sequencing, and tradeoffs, especially in areas where privacy, security, regulatory compliance, data integrity, and customer trust matter.
- Partner with product, design, QA, customer-facing teams, and non-technical stakeholders to shape solutions that are technically sound and aligned with center and family needs.
- Translate HIPAA, CCPA, and other applicable government and regulatory requirements into practical engineering controls and implementation plans, including appropriate access controls, auditability, data handling, retention, and privacy safeguards.
- Use AI-assisted development throughout the delivery lifecycle, including requirements analysis, technical planning, implementation, testing, debugging, code review preparation, documentation, and release readiness.
- Apply CLI-based prompt and guided AI workflows, and use fully agentic flows where appropriate, while maintaining strong engineering judgment, security awareness, and accountability for the final output.
- Help define, evaluate, and improve team practices for effective AI use, including where AI should accelerate work, where human review is essential, and how the team should share reusable prompts, workflows, and lessons learned.
- Seek input from architecture, design, security, infrastructure, or specialized domain experts when needed, and incorporate that guidance into practical delivery plans.
- Improve quality and reliability through automated tests, clear monitoring signals, careful rollout practices, and thoughtful handling of privacy, security, compliance, and data-integrity edge cases.
- Build cross-product and cross-service technical knowledge so SmartCenter modules integrate cleanly with family engagement, center administration, account, admin, and other platform workflows.
- Participate in team planning, estimation, incident response, production support, and continuous improvement of engineering practices.
Qualifications:
- 5-15+ years of professional software engineering experience, with demonstrated senior-level contributions to enterprise product or service areas.
- Strong Python backend development experience, including API design, domain modeling, data validation, error handling and testing.
- Experience building and maintaining web applications with JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and modern or legacy frontend frameworks; comfort working in an established frontend codebase.
- Experience building or maintaining modular enterprise applications that support multiple business and operational workflows.
- Experience with AI-assisted software development is preferred, including prompt-driven implementation, AI-supported testing/debugging, code review preparation, documentation workflows, or agentic development tools.
- Interest in working in an AI-first engineering culture, with the curiosity and discipline to help the team evolve responsible, effective AI practices.
- Practical understanding of relational or NoSQL data modeling, transactional behavior, asynchronous processing, queues, and idempotent workflow design.
- Strong judgment around authorization, regulatory compliance, privacy, data integrity, and operational risk, especially for systems that handle sensitive information about children, families and child care centers.
- Ability to reason through existing systems, identify the right integration points, and deliver improvements without unnecessary rewrites.
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate, review code constructively, and raise the technical quality of a team.
- Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical tradeoffs to non-technical team members.
- Strong bias for pragmatic execution: able to move work forward while keeping quality, maintainability, and customer impact in view.
- Experience with Google Cloud Platform, App Engine and/or Flask is a plus.
- Interest in early childhood education, child care center operations, and building software that supports teachers, administrators, and families.
Why Teaching Strategies
At Teaching Strategies, our solutions and services are only as strong as the teams that create them. By bringing passion, dedication, and creativity to your job every day, there's no telling what you can do and where you can go! We provide a competitive compensation and benefits package, flexible work schedules, opportunities to engage with co-workers, access to career advancement and professional development opportunities, and the chance to make a difference in the communities we serve.
Let's open the door to your career at Teaching Strategies!
Some additional benefits & perks while working with Teaching Strategies
Teaching Strategies offers our employees a robust suite of benefits and other perks which include:
- Competitive compensation package
- Employee Equity Appreciation Program
- Health and wellness insurance benefits
- 401k with employer match
- Flexible work environment
- Unlimited paid time off (which includes paid holidays and Winter Break)
- Paid parental leave
- Tuition assistance, professional development, and opportunities for career growth
- Best in class technology equipment for every employee
- Penthouse suite in downtown DC seconds away from Washington Nationals Stadium and Audi Field
Teaching Strategies is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to fostering a workplace where everyone can thrive.
Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)
About
Teaching Strategies is the leading provider of curriculum, assessment, professional development, and family connection resources in the early childhood field. Offering ground-breaking solutions, including The Creative Curriculum®, GOLD®, tadpoles®, ReadyRosie™, ParentPal™, Al's Pals™, and professional development, Teaching Strategies believes that a child’s first 8 years form a critical foundation for school success. Teaching Strategies has been an advocate for the early childhood education community for more than 40 years.
Skills Required
- 5-15+ years of professional software engineering experience with senior-level enterprise contributions
- Strong Python backend development experience, including API design, domain modeling, data validation, error handling, and testing
- Experience building and maintaining web applications with JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and modern or legacy frontend frameworks
- Experience building or maintaining modular enterprise applications supporting multiple business and operational workflows
- Practical understanding of relational or NoSQL data modeling, transactional behavior, asynchronous processing, queues, and idempotent workflow design
- Strong judgment regarding authorization, regulatory compliance, privacy, data integrity, and operational risk
- Ability to understand existing systems, identify integration points, and deliver improvements without unnecessary rewrites
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate, review code constructively, and improve team technical quality
- Clear written and verbal communication skills, including explaining technical tradeoffs to non-technical stakeholders
- Strong bias for pragmatic execution while maintaining quality, maintainability, and customer impact
- Experience with AI-assisted software development, including prompt-driven implementation, AI-supported testing or debugging, code review preparation, documentation, or agentic development tools
- Experience with Google Cloud Platform, App Engine, and/or Flask
- Interest in early childhood education, child care operations, and software supporting teachers, administrators, and families
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The Company
What We Do
Teaching Strategies is the leading provider of curriculum, assessment, professional development, and family connection resources in the early childhood field. Offering ground-breaking solutions, including The Creative Curriculum®, GOLD®, tadpoles®, ReadyRosie™, ParentPal™, Al's Pals™, and professional development, Teaching Strategies believes that a child’s first 8 years form a critical foundation for school success. Teaching Strategies has been an advocate for the early childhood education community for more than 40 years. Commenting Policy: Teaching Strategies reserves the right to delete comments that contain: offensive language, personal attacks, comments that target any ethnic, racial, or religious group; spam or off-topic links to other sites; or comments that are clearly off topic. Repeat offenders may be banned from the page.
