Backend System Developer

The context:

Across the developing world, more children than ever are in school – but they are not learning. A recent study estimated that less than 1% of school children in Sub-Saharan Africa attend a school where the teaching meets basic standards of quality. At Rising Academies, we’re changing that, and we want your help. Our mission is to create the best schools and the most powerful teaching and learning tools for the people that need it most. We’re one of the fastest-growing quality-focused education companies in Africa, and a Certified B Corp®.

About us:

We own and operate our own great value private schools, partner with governments to improve the quality of public school systems, and use our content and technology to help other education providers. Founded in Sierra Leone in 2014, we provided emergency education to children kept out of school by the Ebola Epidemic before opening our first school in April 2015. Today, we serve more than 250,000 students across more than 900 schools in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana and now Rwanda.

Through great curriculum, intensive teacher coaching and actionable data, we help teachers and school leaders bring quality to every classroom. And we get results: independent studies show Rising students make more than twice the progress of their peers in comparable schools.

We have recently closed our Series A funding round and won a multi-year, multi-million dollar grant to accelerate the development of our digital ed-tech solutions for low-income students across the globe. Our ‘Bambai’ suite of digital tools already includes a school information system, school observation tool, chatbot tutor, accelerated learning program and teacher coaching app. This is just the start. We want to expand our range of digital products to help improve the quality of education for millions of students around the world. If you want to make a difference to the lives of teachers, students and parents, then we are the right place for you.

About the role:

We are looking for a backend focused engineer who is interested in building, designing and maintaining key technical aspects of the architecture we are building to deliver world class AI powered ed-tech products.

One of Rising’s key products is Rori, our Math tutor chatbot that is available on WhatsApp. We have so far had great success with the first versions of Rori, and are now planning to further build out the technical stack that we use for Rori. The goals for this expansion are to migrate from existing platforms to enable us to build new features and create a technical product that can help us in building new AI powered conversational products. You will have a chance to contribute to the design and implementation of these exciting new technical solutions, and help us build a technical stack that ensures sustainable future growth. You will also be responsible for contributing and adhering to the technical standards and best practices that we are implementing across the Rising Digital teams.

We are currently exploring exciting new technologies and languages, such as Rust, in order to find the best long term fit for the systems we are building. You will get exposure to these new technologies, and have an input into our decision making on their long term adoption within the team. As we make these decisions we expect our tech stack to evolve and change as it matures, therefore we are looking for someone who wants to join us for that challenge, rather than just to work with a specific language.

The Backend System Developer will:

• Implement and contribute to designs for the new conversational tech stack
• Implement and contribute to the design of services that facilitate the conversational tech stack
• Contribute to team discussions on engineering standards and best practices
• Ensure engineering implementations meet with the team’s technical standards and best practices
• Upskill on new technologies and contribute to discussions and decisions on the adoption of those technologies within the Rori tech stack
• Acts as technical support for the systems

Location and reporting:

This is a full-time remote position. Candidates can be based in any country. The Backend System Developer will report to the to the Rori Engineering Manager

Application deadline:

The target start-date for this role will be 1st September 2024, but may be earlier, depending on selected candidate availability.

Requirements

Qualifications and Experience:

• At least 2 years experience in databases, application hosting, software engineering, system security.
• At least 2 years experience with Python-based development and deployment (preferably using FastAPI and Django).
• At least 2 years of experience with API development, testing and deployment, preferably at scale.
• At least 1 years experience with architecture design for backend systems.
• At least 1 years experience with microservice architecture development and deployment.
• At least 1 years experience with CI/CD and modern deployment and monitoring practices, preferably using Docker or other containerization approaches.
• At least 2 years experience in modern software practices like kanban, agile methodologies or similar.
• Proven ability to understand organisational and product requirements and to be able to translate these into technical system plans.
• Beneficial: Experience with Rust, Go, Elixir, C++ or other “systems” languages.

About You:

• You have excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills
• You can communicate with technical teams and business stakeholders in a multicultural environment, as well as clearly document software for these audiences
• You demonstrate people skills, must be able to collaborate effectively with diverse personalities and skill sets, and enjoy constructive conflict
• You have a strong track record of professionalism and trustworthiness
• You possess effective communication, relationship building, and teamwork skills
• You have a strong track record of working within technical teams, with technical leads, product owners and fellow developers
• You can take initiative and problem-solve when challenges arise
• You have a strong ability to keep on task
• You are willing to take risks, fail, learn, give and receive feedback, and try new approaches
• You are passionate about improving the quality of education across Africa

Benefits

Compensation and Benefits:

We offer a competitive salary and benefits package. We regularly benchmark our compensation against comparable businesses, social ventures and non-profits.

Rising’s goal is to be transparent about salaries at all levels of the organisation and have a standard, global pay scale for all positions that is non-negotiable.

The benefits we offer are built to have a strong added value on our staff’s well-being and we are excited to discuss this further with you in the process.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Rising is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to providing a work environment that is inclusive and free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions are based on individual qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, national origin, family or parental status, veteran or disability status.

Rising is committed to creating a culture within the organisation, and its schools, that recognises the importance of safeguarding children and prioritising their rights and needs. We strive to uphold international safeguarding standards, and keep the safety and well-being of our students at the heart of what we do. All Rising employees are expected to abide by the Child Protection Policy, and to have the same level of commitment to protect children from harm. Safeguarding questions are part of every interview process and all Rising employees undergo reference checks before joining the organisation.