Senior Software Engineer / Technical Lead - US Based

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame's mission is to help develop the world's most productive and admired workforces. We do this by delivering a comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world's top publishers. We add value to customers through their entire learning journey.

While it appears to most people that we just sell training courses (over 40,000 of them), what we really offer is the opportunity for companies to upgrade the skills of each of their employees.

We are at a pivotal time in our growth as we diversify the ways we drive revenue. We've expanded our product offering dramatically, and have a growing network of partners that is developing into a vibrant channel. Our customer base has high satisfaction ratings and there is room to grow our retention even more.

www.opensesame.com/about.

About the Job

We are seeking a Senior Engineer to join our team and contribute to the growth and success of OpenSesame’s eLearning platform. As a Senior Engineer, you’ll work across the stack to develop new features, improve existing systems, and ensure high standards of performance and scalability. At OpenSesame, we are evolving toward Extreme Programming (XP) practices, and you’ll spend much of your time pairing or mobbing with other engineers to develop solutions collaboratively as we modernize and improve our systems.

This role requires a well-rounded engineer who can move seamlessly between front-end and back-end tasks, understands cloud infrastructure, and has experience with automated deployments. You’ll mentor and support other engineers, provide technical guidance, improve team processes, and help others level up their skills.

Performance Objectives:

In your first 90 days: Get fully integrated into the team’s workflow, develop a deep understanding of the product and architecture (including legacy systems written in Drupal 7 and Angular), and start contributing to collaborative development processes.

• Team Integration & Shared Ownership: Collaborate with the team to understand ongoing projects, key systems, and the current state of the product, with a specific focus on learning the legacy systems and their role in the platform.
• Contribute to Team Success: Actively participate in pair programming and mob programming to develop new features and resolve issues. Ensure the code the team produces is well-tested, scalable, and maintainable.
• Mentorship & Peer Support: Start mentoring team members by sharing insights, providing technical guidance, and supporting collaborative problem-solving. Help peers grow by offering constructive feedback and learning together through daily pairing and mobbing.
• Improve Team Processes: Engage fully in the team’s agile ceremonies, retrospectives, and discussions. Contribute to refining XP-based processes, such as test-driven development (TDD), to enhance team productivity and satisfaction.

Within 6 months: Take on more leadership in technical decision-making, guide the team’s development practices, and ensure quality in both code and process, while deepening your understanding of legacy systems and their modernization.

• Drive Team Decisions: Play a larger role in shaping the technical direction of the team. Work with others to ensure architectural decisions and designs reflect the collective needs of the product and its scalability, while embracing XP practices such as “YAGNI” (“You aren’t gonna need it”) and “Do the simplest thing that could possibly work.”
• Lead by Example: Continue to engage in pairing and mobbing to lead important tasks within the context of team goals. Lead initiatives to improve systems, performance, and workflows in a way that benefits the whole team.
• Collaborative Development: Work closely with Product and Design to ensure features meet business goals and deliver value. Facilitate collaboration within the team to break down silos and encourage collective ownership. Ensure that everyone’s voice is heard in pairing and mobbing sessions.
• Incremental Delivery & Vertical Slicing: Help the team break down complex features into vertical slices that deliver incremental value. Encourage the team to focus on releasing small, functional increments to ensure fast feedback and continuous improvement, particularly in legacy areas where change may be more challenging.
• Strengthen Team Dynamics: Act as a peer leader, supporting the growth and development of fellow engineers through mentoring and guiding technical decision-making in a way that aligns with the team’s XP practices. Help the team continually improve their mobbing, pairin