Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience
3-6 years of professional software engineering experience, with flexibility for standout candidates
Strong backend experience in modern languages (Kotlin, Python, Go, etc.)
Hands-on experience scaling systems from hundreds of thousands to millions of users
Experience designing APIs and event-driven systems
Familiarity with relational databases and cloud infrastructure (ideally AWS)
Proven track record of owning multi-week features with measurable impact
Responsibilities
Ship impactful, end-to-end features enhancing student and teacher experiences
Own initiatives from design through rollout with increasing independence
Build and scale backend services and APIs as traffic grows
Improve engineering foundations like code quality and CI/CD
Participate in operational excellence focusing on performance and reliability
Collaborate closely with product managers and designers on UX
Utilize AI coding tools in daily workflows and review AI-generated code
Benefits
Competitive compensation and equity
Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and life insurance
Flexible PTO policy and company holidays
Daily DoorDash credit for lunch
100% company-paid Wellhub Membership for fitness and wellness
401(k) matching
Dog-friendly office
Full Job Description
As a Software Engineer at Kira, you will build and own backend services that power critical product workflows, and you will grow quickly while doing it. This role is for an engineer who has already seen a system grow fast and wants more ownership: real design decisions, close collaboration with our VP of Engineering, and mentorship from senior engineers.
This is a product-minded backend role with meaningful work in performance, reliability, and infrastructure. You'll partner with product and design to ship complete features, contribute across the stack when needed, and have opportunities to meet directly with teachers and students to learn how they use Kira and where we can improve.
This is a full-time position that requires flexibility with work hours and availability outside of regular business hours. We have offices in San Francisco, CA and New York City, NY. We ask that employees work from one of the two locations and come into the office in person 4 days a week (Wednesdays WFH).
What You'll Do
Ship impactful, end-to-end features that improve student and teacher experiences
Own scoped initiatives from design through rollout, making real design decisions with increasing independence
Build and scale backend services, APIs, and event-driven systems as our traffic and customer base grow rapidly
Improve engineering foundations, including code quality, observability, testing, and CI/CD
Take part in operational excellence: performance, reliability, security, and incident response
Partner closely with product managers and designers on UX, interaction design, and execution
Use AI coding tools (such as Cursor and Claude Code) as a daily workflow, and review and understand everything they produce
Contribute to design discussions and code reviews, and grow through mentorship from senior engineers
What We're Looking For
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, or equivalent technical experience
Roughly 3-6 years of professional software engineering experience. We will consider standout candidates outside this range
Strong backend experience in at least one modern language (for example Kotlin, Python, Go, Rust, Scala, Elixir, or Haskell). Kotlin is a nice-to-have, not a requirement, and we expect you to ramp up on Kira's stack (Kotlin, Python)
Hands-on experience scaling a system through real growth, such as taking users or requests from tens or hundreds of thousands to millions, not only operating mature large-company services
Experience designing APIs and event-driven systems (queues, messaging), with a practical approach to scalable architecture
Experience with relational databases (for example MySQL) and operating production systems on cloud infrastructure (ideally AWS)
A track record of owning a multi-week feature or initiative, including design decisions, and a clear, specific story about its impact
AI-enabled development as a real daily workflow (Cursor, Claude Code, or similar), with good judgment about when to use AI and when to solve or review code yourself. You can explain, debug, and fix AI-generated code
Familiarity with automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, and reliable deployment practices
Clear written and verbal communication, including the ability to explain your thinking to technical and non-technical colleagues
A mix of larger-company and startup experience is a plus, along with comfort in a fast-paced, early-stage environment with changing priorities
Hunger to grow, a positive can-do attitude, and impeccable attention to detail
Nice To Have
Experience contributing to frontend codebases (for example React and TypeScript), so you can go full-stack when a feature needs it
Experience shipping LLM-backed features, including handling latency, cost, model failures, and fallbacks.
Experience building or maintaining AI evaluations, including representative datasets, task-specific quality checks, and regression tests for prompt or model changes.
Experience building workflows where models call tools or coordinate multiple steps, including managing state, retries, timeouts, and human review.
Experience at a company that grew quickly during your tenure
What We Offer
Competitive compensation and equity. For applicants in the US, the salary range for this role is $165,000 - $195,000, depending on relevant considerations like professional experience and related skill sets
Medical, dental, vision and life insurance, including a medical insurance plan with 100% coverage of employee premiums
Flexible PTO policy and company holidays
DoorDash credit for lunch daily
Wellhub Membership: 100% company-paid access to premium gym networks (Orangetheory, SoulCycle), 60+ wellness apps (Headspace, MyFitnessPal, Apple Fitness+), and 1:1 coaching sessions spanning fitness, mental health, nutrition, and sleep
