Manager of Software Engineering

What’s ASA all about?

American Student Assistance (ASA) is a pioneer of student-led career learning helping millions of middle and high schoolers plan their futures – on their terms. Our mission is to radically transform the way careers are planned and pursued, and we’re doing this by creating digital tools that empower students to explore education and careers that align with their goals.

Since our founding in 1956, ASA has been at the forefront of educational innovation for middle and high school students nationwide. Our work has consistently adapted to meet their needs in a changing education landscape, and today, we’re focused on developing resources and opportunities that support students during the transition from high school into their careers.

*Local Candidates Only*

Overview:

Under the direction of the VP of Technology, the Manager of Software Engineering will help staff and manage a team of full-stack developers and quality assurance engineers to maintain and support ASA’s external-facing digital ecosystem. The Manager of Software Engineering will also serve as the key technical architect for new feature development for our direct-to-kid applications.

Detailed Description:

American Student Assistance (ASA) is a pioneer of student-led career learning helping millions of middle and high schoolers plan their futures – on their terms. Our mission is to radically transform the way careers are planned and pursued, and we’re doing this by creating digital tools that empower students to explore education and careers that align with their goals.

As the Manager of Software Engineering within ASA’s Technology team you will lead a team of full-stack developers and QA engineers responsible for the maintenance and support of our cloud-based digital ecosystem. This role requires exceptional technical skills, proficiency in evaluating and designing technical architectures, as well as great teamwork. You must have experience building and deploying applications using AWS. You will work closely with senior management, our internal Product Operations and Marketing teams, our Security and Systems Engineering teams, as well as external development and creative partners, as required. This is a highly visible role on ASA’s Technology Team, and you will be part of the team that leads ASA into the next stage of its digital evolution.

To be successful in this role, you must be able to thrive and succeed in a fast-paced environment and to balance a technical vision with operational, cost-of-ownership considerations as well as product strategy. You must approach problems from a customer-centric and systems-design perspective, while ensuring that your skills and the team’s skills are constantly evolving to meet best-practices.

You will be responsible for building a team of software and QA engineers, and must have demonstrated success both managing and mentoring others. You will need to be highly collaborative and a creative problem solver, who can effectively communicate and influence at all levels of the ASA organization.

Major Responsibilities:

• Build and lead a high-performing software engineering team to deliver complex production systems
• Design software system architecture
• Provide daily technical guidance to staff and prioritize high level issues
• Define and document software engineering development standards and DevOps procedures
• Design and implement scalable web services, applications, and APIs using secure coding practices
• Develop and maintain internal software tools
• Write low-level and high-level code, as well as technical documentation
• Troubleshoot and bug-fix web application and code deployment issues
• Identify performance bottlenecks in both process and technology to improve efficiency
• Collaborate with the product team on design and scope of new product features, as well as the translations of complex technical concepts into laymen’s terms
• Provide architecture, project implementation, and expert level troubleshooting for applications running in the cloud infrastructure (primarily AWS)
• Drive experiments to evaluate new cloud solutions to save time, money, or drive future business
• Identify and research new technologies and solutions to address business needs
• Act as technical resource for external developed digital products and partner integrations
• Work with our external consultants/agencies as required to design and build next-generation digital experience for the Gen-Z audience
• Ensure stability, consistency and synchronization across platforms and seamless integration with other infrastructure components such as Salesforce and data warehouse
• Capacity planning and resource management
• Perform all other duties as assigned

Required Education, Experience, and Skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering or computer science, or the equivalent work experience.
• 8+ years of experience as a full stack engineer with emphasis on responsive web applications.
• 5+ years of experience as a tech lead and a manager of small teams of engineers
• AWS Developer / Cloud certification(s) or equivalent experience
• A successful track record or proven aptitude as a hands-on technical leader or software engineering manager
• Proven experience in leading high-performing software engineering teams to deliver complex production systems
• Lead the design and implementation of new systems using cutting-edge technologies
• Ability to work independently with minimal direction, be a team player and lead informal teams as required by assignment
• Currency with best practices in software engineering, web application development, and DevOps tools and processes; curiosity and drive to continue learning
• Advanced knowledge of front-end languages and frameworks including:
• HTML5
• CSS3
• JavaScript / JQuery
• Typescript
• Next.js
• Proficient in back-end languages:
• Javascript (Node.js / React.js)
• Typescript
• Python
• Ruby / Rails
• PHP
• Proficient in open-source database systems and SQL including:
• PostgreSQL
• MySQL
• Extensive experience building customer-facing applications on Cloud using:
• AWS
• Serverless Framework
• Azure Cloud Services
• Knowledge of current DevOps practices for development, security, and release management such as use of Docker, SNYK, and YAML
• Knowledge of code versioning tools such as GitHub or CodeCommit
• Delivered projects using embedded Agile methodologies (Scrum or Kanban)
• Advanced troubleshooting skills

Benefits & perks

• Generous PTO including vacation/sick/personal time, 17 paid holidays, an annual week-long winter holiday break, and Summer Fridays
• Hybrid work freedom with the ability to work from home 3 days per week and 2 required days per week in our Boston office – which offers a fully stocked kitchen and weekly catered meals
• Paid sabbatical for employees with 5+ years of service to enjoy 4 weeks off with a $2K stipend so that they can recharge, spend time with family, or learn a new skill
• Tuition reimbursement & student loan repayment – because education is at ASA’s core
• Awards & recognition programs with cash prizes

Of course, our benefits package also includes the fundamentals: top-tier health insurance, employee and employer contributed retirement plans, FSAs (including employer-funded dependent care FSA!), life and disability insurance, and more!

Our culture & commitment to diversity

ASA’s greatest strategic asset is our people. As a mission-driven, public-purpose organization, we know our success depends on attracting – and retaining – a diverse workforce that practices what it preaches.

Our culture is an inclusive one that celebrates individual abilities alongside collective strengths. Rooted in three core values – knowledge, inclusion, and trust – ASA’s culture embraces expertise, professional development, self-advocacy, and empowering one another to succeed; we build diverse teams that work together in pursuit of shared goals; we foster trust through authentic communication that drives true business growth. To ensure these values are upheld, an employee-led culture committee meets regularly to plan training sessions, events, and the odd Bingo championship.

Does a career at ASA align with your professional goals? Great! We look forward to reading your application.