About the job
Join a Billion-Dollar Mission in the Making
Subject is reimagining education from the ground up. We’re backed by Kleiner Perkins, SoftBank Opportunity Fund, Owl Ventures, and founders of category-defining companies. Now we’re building the most ambitious engineering team in edtech — and we’re looking for mission-focused superstars to join our team.
We’re developing powerful, flexible platforms to deliver engaging virtual high school courses at scale — and we need engineers who can ship reliable, high-performing systems that make it all work behind the scenes. If you’re a senior full-stack engineer with backend expertise and a love for building systems that matter, this is your moment.
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What You’ll Own
You’ll drive backend-heavy feature development and platform infrastructure that supports student enrollment, learning progress, media delivery, teacher dashboards, district integrations, and more. This is not just maintenance — it’s rethinking how schools deliver education in the 21st century.
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Responsibilities
Backend Leadership: Architect and implement scalable, maintainable services using Node.js and Postgres. Design and optimize APIs, databases, and job queues that power core business functionality.
System Engineering: Build resilient infrastructure in GCP. Leverage Docker, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code to support high uptime and fast iteration.
Full-Stack Collaboration: While you’ll focus on backend, you’ll collaborate with frontend engineers (Next.js, TypeScript) to deliver seamless, user-friendly experiences across the stack.
Data Stewardship: Design data models and systems that scale with our growth — including user activity tracking, assessment data, and school district reporting.
Security & Privacy: Help us build for a K-12 audience by maintaining high standards for data protection, student safety, and compliance with education data regulations.
Velocity & Ownership: Operate in fast sprints alongside product and content teams. Own what you build, ship quickly, and iterate even faster.
Team Building: Mentor peers and contribute to a high-trust, high-output engineering culture. Set a strong example in code quality, reliability, and communication.
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You Bring
- 4+ years of senior level experience in full-stack or backend software engineering, with ownership of high-scale production systems.
- Deep expertise in backend technologies: Node.js (Express/Nest), Postgres (including schema design and performance tuning), and RESTful API design.
- Proficiency in GCP (or AWS), Docker, and CI/CD tooling for cloud-native deployments.
- Working fluency with front-end stacks like React/Next.js and TypeScript (you won’t lead on UI, but you’ll integrate with it daily).
- Startup hunger: You’ve shipped with incomplete specs, debugged in prod, and thrived in ambiguity.
- Performance mindset: You care about uptime, observability, and delivering value at speed.
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Cultural Fit
We are a championship team — not a family. We care, but we perform. We win together.
You thrive in intensity. 60+ hour weeks? In-office every day? That’s your edge.
You believe impact beats pedigree. Your resume is just the starting point — your results will speak loudest.
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Mission-Driven Tech That Changes Lives
At Subject, we’re building tools that directly help students graduate high school, improve outcomes, and unlock opportunities. Every line of code has impact. Every system you ship serves real students and teachers.
We’re not in this to participate. We’re here to change the future — and if you are too, we want to talk.
Skills Required
- 4+ years of senior level experience in full-stack or backend software engineering
- Expertise in backend technologies: Node.js, Postgres, RESTful API design
- Proficiency in GCP (or AWS), Docker, and CI/CD
- Fluency with front-end stacks like React/Next.js and TypeScript
- Experience in high-scale production systems
Subject Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Subject and has not been reviewed or approved by Subject.
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Healthcare Strength — Coverage includes medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance, alongside wellness programs, mental health benefits, and wellness days. Feedback suggests this breadth supports core health needs beyond basics.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Generous PTO, paid holidays, paid sick days, and company‑wide vacations are provided. This mix indicates a wide range of time‑off options for rest and recovery.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Company equity and performance bonuses are part of the total rewards. This signals access to ownership upside in addition to cash compensation.
Subject Insights
What We Do
We empower districts with accredited middle and high school original credit, credit recovery, and multilingual courses that meet the needs of today’s learners and educators. Our platform was built from the ground up based on extensive feedback from educators and team members who understand firsthand the challenges of teaching today's digital-native students. Teachers told us they needed better ways to engage students, track progress effortlessly, and improve district-wide outcomes—and we listened. Through close collaboration with educators, we developed features that directly address their most pressing needs: bite-sized, engaging video content that captures student attention, flexible language support to serve diverse student populations, comprehensive homework help, seamless progress monitoring tools that save teachers time, and comprehensive analytics that help districts boost graduation rates and student success metrics. Backed by top accreditations (Cognia, WASC) and approvals (UC-AG, NCAA, College Board), Subject delivers measurable results that administrators can trust. Our partner districts report increased student engagement, improved completion rates, and stronger academic outcomes. Ready to transform learning in your district? Let's discuss how Subject can help you achieve your educational goals.
Why Work With Us
Our vision is to revolutionize education by empowering all students with the ability to outperform their current trajectory. We will change the world by increasing society’s access to high quality education, improving high school graduation rates and giving our students better access to top colleges and universities.
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