Senior Software Engineer

About Magpie

At Magpie, we envision a world where every child, no matter their background, becomes a confident reader. Our nonprofit team combines research‑backed instruction, joyful game design, and innovative technology to tackle America’s reading crisis head‑on — with the goal of eradicating illiteracy through a digital‑first, student‑centered approach.

We’re seeking an experienced Full Stack – Senior Software Engineer to join our small, mission‑driven Platform team. You’ll wear many hats, work across boundaries, and help us build a platform that scales impact—not just traffic. In this role, you’ll design and build the core systems that power Magpie’s learning experiences, from scalable backend services to intuitive front‑end interfaces and reliable data pipelines.

You’ll help create experiences that meet every child where they are in their learning journey, while unlocking actionable insights for educators and families.

You’re drawn to missions that matter. You think deeply about the systems behind learning, not just the code. You balance pragmatism with curiosity and build for the long term. The ideal candidate pairs strong technical execution with deep empathy for users, thrives in a collaborative startup environment, and is motivated by the opportunity to make reading joyful and accessible for all.

• Design and build platform capabilities that deliver reliable, high‑value features with safety, precision, and user focus.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and fellow engineers to create new features and improve existing ones.
• Approach the platform as a product: maintain a clear understanding of customer needs, identify friction points, and take ownership of outcomes with metrics‑driven decision making (KPIs, OKRs, and North Star metrics).
• Use data to inform decisions, measure impact, and drive improvements through empirical evidence.
• Take ownership across all phases of development, from design to production, and monitor system performance in live environments.
• Continuously improve the flow of work from idea to production, using data to identify and remove friction.
• Write clean, efficient, and well‑documented code following best practices.
• Build and maintain APIs, and integrate with third‑party services.
• Ensure application performance, quality, and responsiveness across platforms.
• Participate in code reviews, testing, and debugging to maintain high‑quality deliverables.
• Mentor other engineers and contribute to their growth.
• Contribute to architectural decisions and help define technical standards and best practices.
• Stay up to date with emerging technologies and suggest improvements to enhance development processes.

• 6+ years of full‑stack engineering experience, with a track record of building systems, driving engineering standards, and setting technical direction.
• Experience building for both internal stakeholders and external users, including complex systems such as authentication, onboarding, or enablement features.
• Experience writing automated tests (unit, integration, and/or end‑to‑end) as part of normal delivery workflow, with an understanding of how testing supports confident, frequent deployment.
• Hands‑on experience with event‑driven architecture, system integrations, and content management platforms.
• Led the design or delivery of meaningful systems that improved outcomes for users or teams.
• Startup or early‑stage company experience, ideally as a founding engineer, with a strong sense of ownership over what you build.
• A pragmatic approach to tools and technologies, with the ability to explore alternatives and make recommendations to improve systems and processes.

• Infrastructure / Backend:
  Terraform, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), AWS, SQL/No
  
  SQL (Postgres, Mongo, Timestream), Lambda
• Software / Frontend:
  Type Script, JavaScript, CSS, React

• Pair with teammates across disciplines to learn how we build, ship, and support new features.
• Start contributing to production code and exploring our workflows, tools, and deployment practices.
• Get comfortable in the codebase, understanding our architecture and systems.
• Embrac…