Scholastic

Sr. Specialist/Lead Software Engineer

Scholastic$165K — $175K *
Education, Government & Non-Profit
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Strong expertise in modern web application and service architecture.
  • Deep knowledge of backend (Java/Spring Boot, Python) and frontend (React) ecosystems.
  • Experience with cloud infrastructure, preferably AWS services.
  • Excellent communication skills able to engage with all organizational levels.
  • Proven skills in Agile development practices and team leadership.

Responsibilities

  • Lead technical architecture discussions and implementation strategies.
  • Coach and mentor team members on coding best practices.
  • Oversee sprint planning, backlog grooming, and team capacity management.
  • Collaborate with Product Owner and DevOps to align on project priorities and address tech debt.
  • Ensure a strong understanding of business context among team members.
  • Advocate for team needs within engineering management.
  • Resolve production incidents related to code and architecture.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive health and wellness package, including zero deductible medical plans.
  • 401(k) retirement savings plan with Roth and traditional options.
  • Tuition-free educational programs for undergraduate and graduate degrees.
  • Generous parental leave policy.
  • Employee Stock Purchase Plan offering a 15% stock discount.
Full Job Description
Job Description:

NOTE: This role is based in New York City and encourages a minimum of two days per week in the SoHo office. Some roles or teams may require additional in-office attendance if the essential functions of the role require it.

THE OPPORTUNITY

The Sr. Specialist/Lead role within the software engineering discipline is a leader of their agile team. They partner with product owners to define requirements for our Education Products and define a technical approach that will meet all functional and non-functional requirements. They also mentor the software engineers within their scrum teams, and are responsible for developing their engineering skills and helping them grow into more senior software engineering roles. Those in this role should have deep expertise in one or more core software engineering areas, and broad knowledge on other software engineering skills related to their area as well as other key engineering functions including dev ops, quality engineering, performance engineering, security, and site reliability engineering.

Using all of these skills, the Sr. Specialist/Lead is responsible for ensuring their teams deliver quality software that meets customer needs.

RESPONSIBILITIES
  • Determines the best approach for software implementations and architecture and works with the team to develop them.
  • Applies and coaches/advocates for common principles of good code development, including extensibility, reusability, maintainability, and testability through coaching/mentoring and code review.
  • Takes the primary role of leading sizing/estimating and backlog grooming.
  • Partners closely with the team's Product Owner, designer, quality lead, and DevOps to manage within team capacity, manage tech debt, and mature/evolve effective team Agile product development practices.
  • Works with the PO to develop shared team understanding of business context, value, and strategic importance of their work.
  • Advocates for the team's needs with engineering leadership.
  • Plays a key role in resolving code/architecture related production incidents, partnering strongly with other team members.


Some benefits that we offer:
  • Full suite of health and wellness benefits (including a $0 deductible Medical Plan)
  • Retirement Savings Plan 401(k) with options for both Roth and Traditional Contributions
  • Tuition-Free programs for undergraduate and graduate degrees
  • Generous Parental Leave Program
  • Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) with opportunity for discounted stock at a 15% discount


Thank you for your consideration in choosing Scholastic.

#LI-MV1

Qualifications

HOW YOU CAN FIT (Qualifications)

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

Required:
  • Aptitude for troubleshooting and problem solving.
  • Expertise in modern web application/services development, technical design and architecture.
  • Practical experience in software engineering and application/service architecture.
  • Strong sense of ownership and accountability with a commitment to delivering high quality software that balances technical and business goals.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills with ability to communicate with a variety of audiences at all levels.
  • Strong understanding of Agile product development and practices.
  • Deep knowledge of modern backend(Java, Python) and frontend(React) development ecosystems, tooling, and best practices.
  • Strong backend development experience using Java (Spring Boot) and/or Python, including building APIs, services, and data processing components.
  • Leverage agentic AI tools for software development (Cline/Cursor/Kiro etc.)
  • Experience with cloud infrastructure and services, Amazon Web Services preferred(Lambda, ECS/EKS, S3, API Gateway, RDS, DynamoDB, CloudFormation/Terraform)


Preferred:
  • Strong understanding of service oriented architecture concepts
  • Knowledge of Object Oriented Programming, Model View Controller paradigm
  • Experience with relational or NoSQL data platforms like MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB.
  • Knowledge of version control systems and workflow (e.g. Git)
  • Experience building solutions that leverage generative AI capabilities
  • Experience with GenAI agentic frameworks like Bedrock, LlamaIndex, Langchain etc.
  • Understanding of HTML, CSS, and a web application framework such as Angular/React.


Experience and Education:

Experience: Prior experience in a mid-level engineering role, with responsibility for technical design and strong expertise with one or more technical areas.

Education: Bachelors or masters in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or similar field of study, or equivalent experience.

Time Type:

Full time

Job Type:

Regular

Job Family Group:

Information Technology

Location Region/State:

New York

Compensation Range:

Annual Salary: 165,000.00 - 175,000.00

About Scholastic

Scholastic Corporation is an American multinational publishing, education and media company known for publishing, selling, and distributing books and educational materials for schools, teachers, parents, and children. Products are distributed to schools and districts, to consumers through the schools via reading clubs and fairs, and through retail stores and online sales. The company also has a substantial presence in television and video, licensing and consumer products, and is a leading provider of educational materials online and in print. Scholastic also publishes instructional reading and writing programs, and offers professional learning and consultancy services for school improvement.
Learn more about Scholastic
Size
6,800 employees
Market Cap
$1.3 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$61 million
Founded
1997
5 Year Trend
-1.2%
Revenue
$1.2 billion
NASDAQ

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