Job Description:

Employment Terms: this is a two-year term limited full time benefits eligible position.

Position Summary

OpenStax is a non-profit textbook publisher, learning software producer and platform for learning research based at Rice University. Our mission is to provide every student with free or low-cost access to high-quality learning materials and tools that help them succeed in their education and career. We have created software to help college students read with more engagement and practice more effectively, incorporating our research team's expertise in cognitive science and machine learning. OpenStax has published more than forty high-quality, peer-reviewed textbooks, available for free and used by millions of students annually.

The Software Engineer (SE) III will contribute towards the design and implementation of a greenfield system which will serve as the foundation for an exciting new initiative. The individual will leverage open source systems and technologies to help build a cloud-based platform that will serve K12 students, teachers, and educational researchers with a goal of supporting tens of thousands of active users in an accelerated time frame. The SE III will join a team responsible for the full lifecycle management of the platform including application development and operations, and will have frequent contact with staff and developers. In addition to writing code, this position requires reviewing other developers' work, contributing towards architecture and design decisions, participating in the estimation and specification of new work, and mentoring more junior developers.

You will join a team who is driving change at a pivotal phase of our evolution, as we deliver high quality educational content, ranging from textbooks to simulations and videos to exercises to full courses, and give educators and learners the support they need in core college and high school disciplines.

We celebrate diversity of all kinds and we are committed to nurturing an inclusive environment. We seek to hire, develop, and retain talented people from all backgrounds. We are part of a private university, but our team comes from a variety of backgrounds and includes people who attended universities and community colleges, as well as people who did not graduate from college.

Essential Functions

• Designs, implements, and develops solutions for complex system/programs independently
• Works with a variety of users to gain information, and develops intra-system tradeoffs between different users, as necessary;
• Interacts with a diverse client base and outside vendor contacts
• Documents system builds and application configurations
• Maintains and updates documentation as needed
• Provides technical analysis, design, development, conversion, and implementation work
• Provides production system support and issue resolution
• Works as a project leader, as needed, for projects of moderate complexity
• Serves as a technical resource for applications
• Compares, evaluates, and implements new features and technologies, and integrates them into the computing environment
• Mentors lower level developer/programmers
• Performs all other duties as assigned

Required Qualifications

• 
  Bachelor's degree in an Engineering, Computer Science, MIS or related discipline
  
  
  • May substitute additional related experience, above and beyond what is required, on an equivalent year for year basis in lieu of the education requirement
  
  
• 
  5 years related development experience
  
  
  • May substitute additional related education, above and beyond what is required, on an equivalent year for year basis in lieu of the experience requirement
  
  
• Expertise in designing, developing, testing, and deploying applications
• Proficiency with application design and data modeling
• Ability to define and solve logical problems for highly technical applications
• Strong communication skills with both technical and non-technical clients
• Ability to lead activities on structured team development projects
• Ability to select, adapt, and effectively use a variety of programming methods
• Basic knowledge of software engineering principles
• Strong knowledge of at least one programming language

Preferred Qualifications

• 5 years experience developing and maintaining software in a collaborative agile development environment
• Development experience with Python and/or Ruby as well as some knowledge of JavaScript / TypeScript
• Familiarity with AWS and Infrastructure-as-Code tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation
• Experience with Debian or Ubuntu Linux and container technologies such as Docker
• Knowledge of distributed system design and architectures

Remote work acceptable. Typical working hours are Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM CT.

Rice University is an Equal Opportunity Employer with commitment to diversity at all levels, and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability or protected veteran status.

Apply Now