Lead Backend Engineer

Lead Backend Engineer

Location: Remote - Candidates who live near CB offices have the option of being fully remote or hybrid (Tuesday and Wednesday in office). The ideal candidate will be located in EST or CST.

Type: This is a full-time position.

About The Team

The BigFuture team is committed to empowering students to take the right first step after high school. We reach over 7 million students annually, serving as the leading free resource for college, scholarship, and career exploration. The BigFuture Student team develops and maintains the full suite of BigFuture student products, including the mobile app BigFuture School and bigfuture.org. Our products encompass College Search, Scholarship Search, Career Search, dashboards, checklists, and community features, enabling students to confidently discover, define, and pursue their unique paths. We operate in an agile, collaborative environment that fosters creativity, curiosity, and problem-solving. Our goal is to deliver clean, sustainable solutions that scale to meet the needs of millions while actively reducing technical debt. Engineers on our team not only write code but also mentor others, document their work, and partner with product and design teams to shape solutions and influence our overall direction. We value mutual learning, early risk identification, and finding simplicity in complexity, all while celebrating our shared successes and growth. We are mission-driven technologists who take pride in building products that positively transform the educational and career trajectories of students nationwide.

About The Opportunity

This is an opportunity to play a direct role in shaping the future of BigFuture, the most widely used college and career planning platform for students. As a Lead Engineer on this team, you will be a leader, collaborator, and innovator. You will own the technical direction by defining, documenting, and communicating the architecture and design patterns for your system or product area. You will possess a strong interest in understanding our stakeholders and leveraging new technologies to support them. You will collaborate closely with product owners, architects, and designers to translate ideas into solutions, and with fellow engineers to elevate code quality, documentation, and sustainable practices, including operational readiness and monitoring. From your first day, you will be encouraged to coach teammates, influence technical decisions, and help simplify complex problems, ensuring that students and educators experience fast, reliable, and meaningful tools. Beyond product development, this role offers the chance to enhance engineering practices, explore emerging technologies like AI, and grow into a trusted technical leader whose work impacts millions of students annually. You will be comfortable taking on new challenges and owning all phases of prototyping, including requirements definition and analysis, application design, coding, reviewing, testing, deploying, and support. You will be eager to lead by example and through formal peer collaboration, coaching, and mentoring.

In This Role, You Will

Design and Development (60%)

• Design and deliver high-quality software that is scalable, secure, and reusable, leveraging modern technologies, proven design patterns, and cloud-native practices to power BigFuture’s core tools.
• Collaborate with product owners, architects, and stakeholders to uphold the highest engineering standards and translate big ideas into impactful, student-facing solutions.
• Break down new product capabilities into actionable, verifiable technical changes that move quickly from concept to reality.
• Design and implement solutions to allow rapid testing of innovative concepts using the latest technologies, typically React web apps.
• Create sharable documentation, both technical and non-technical.
• Exercise discretion in prototyping: investing time to ensure the most important things work well, and collaborating with the team to mock or minimize less important features.
• Maintain clean code and strong engineering standards so that when prototypes are greenlit for further development, the project is easy to build upon.
• Continuously develop the skills required to work with this rapidly developing technology.

Team Operations & Success (30%)

• Participate in or lead Agile SCRUM ceremonies (Sprint Planning, Grooming, Daily SCRUM, Demo) by contributing to team deliverables and driving alignment, focus, and momentum across sprints.
• Elevate team performance by giving and receiving thoughtful code reviews, mentoring peers, and helping solve complex technical challenges.
• Assist in resolving production issues with urgency and precision, ensuring a smooth and reliable user experience.
• Model discipline in adhering to development standards, security practices, and CI/CD principles while helping the team move fast without compromising quality.
• Continuously grow your skills and embrace a poly-skilled environment where everyone contributes beyond their specialty.
• Serve as an organizational Subject Matter Expert on implementing Generative AI applications.
• Work with our Enterprise Architecture team to review and/or establish implementation patterns involving Generative AI tools.
• Advise on, and where feasible, create tools and infrastructure that will enable teams to safely deploy Generative AI tools.

Learning & Sharing (10%)

• Keep abreast of developments in GenAI capabilities and implementations.
• Share knowledge of new developments with the team via chats, meetings, and presentations when appropriate.
• Serve as an advisor to internal teams developing staff education around Generative AI.

About You, You Have

• 7+ years of professional experience designing, building, testing, and managing scalable web applications in AWS-hosted environments.
• 3+ years’ experience building back-end applications using Node.js (with TypeScript).
• Experience with relational and NoSQL databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redshift, DynamoDB).
• Experience building observability for your products: Set up CloudWatch, X-Ray, for logging, metrics, and alerts.
• Hands-on experience implementing Generative AI applications (e.g., RAG chatbots, model fine-tuning, or other LLM-powered tools).
• Enthusiasm for learning new technologies, especially in the fast-moving GenAI space.
• Strong knowledge and hands-on experience with back-end technologies such as Node.js and/or Python.
• Experience with asynchronous programming and event-driven messaging patterns.
• Strong knowledge of AWS services (e.g., Lambda, SNS, SQS, S3, Step Functions, IAM, KMS, API Gateway, CloudWatch, DynamoDB).
• Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments.
• Proven ability to mentor and coach less experienced teammates in new technologies.
• Strong analytical thinking, structured problem-solving, and practical decision-making skills.
• Effective communication and documentation skills.
• Proficiency in reviewing and improving code structure and architecture for testability, maintainability, and scalability, with hands-on experience in JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Node.js, Next.js, APIs, and AWS Serverless technologies (Lambdas, DynamoDB, S3, CloudWatch, etc.).
• Leadership in the end-to-end design and implementation of user interfaces, from architectural planning and component strategy through to polished execution, including accessibility, performance optimization, and mentoring peers on building intuitive, scalable, and user-centric front-end solutions.
• Strong problem-solving skills, working collaboratively with team members to identify and resolve issues, and partnering with Product Owners to prioritize backlog.
• Proven ability to pitch new ideas and implement improved systems and processes, delivering excellent results.
• Effective communicator and team lead, able to provide actionable feedback, mentor team members, and participate in interviews to evaluate engineering talent.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, or related engineering fields preferred.

All Roles At College Board Require

• A passion for expanding educational and career opportunities and mission-driven work.
• Authorization to work in the United States for any employer.
• Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions and a comfort learning and applying new digital tools independently and proactively.
• Clear and concise communication skills, written and verbal.
• A learner's mindset and a commitment to growth: welcoming diverse perspectives, giving and receiving timely, respectful feedback, and continuously improving through iterative learning and user input.
• A drive for impact and excellence: solving complex problems, making data-informed decisions, prioritizing what matters most, and continuously improving through learning, user input, and external benchmarking.
• A collaborative and empathetic approach: working across differences, fostering trust, and contributing to a culture of shared success.

About Our Process

Application review will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days. While the hiring process may vary, it generally includes resume and application submission, recruiter phone/video screen, hiring manager interview, performance exercise such as live coding or whiteboarding sessions, a panel interview, a conversation with leadership, and reference checks.

What We Offer

At College Board, we offer more than just a paycheck—we provide a meaningful career, a supportive team, and a comprehensive package designed to help you thrive. We’re a self-sustaining nonprofit that believes in fair and competitive compensation, grounded in your qualifications, experience, impact, and the market.

A Thoughtful Approach To Compensation

The hiring range for this role is $168,000 to $183,000. Your exact salary will depend on your location, experience, and how your background compares to others in similar roles at The College Board. We aim to make our best offer upfront—rooted in fairness, transparency, and market data. We adjust salaries by location to ensure fairness, no matter where you live. You’ll have open, transparent conversations about compensation, benefits, and what it’s like to work at The College Board throughout your hiring process. Check out our careers page for more.

About Our Culture

We are motivated to positively impact the educational and career trajectories of millions of students a year. We prioritize building a diverse and inclusive team where every employee can thrive, and every voice is heard. We value learning and growth; we offer formal and informal ways to lead through your superpowers, sharpen your strengths, and meet your development goals. Our high-performing engineers work with the latest technologies, so you will be constantly learning and sharpening your skills, enabling you to be industry-forward instead of left behind technologically.

About College Board

The College Board reaches more than 7 million students a year, helping them navigate the path from high school to college and career. We’re a mission-driven, not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to excellence in education. Founded 125 years ago, we are committed to clearing a path for all students to own their future. We pioneered programs like the SAT® and AP® to expand opportunities for students and help them develop the skills they need. Our BigFuture® program helps students plan for college, pay for college, and explore careers. Learn more at cb.org.

Mission: Clearing a path for all students to own their future.

What Guides Us: At The College Board, our work is guided by four Operating Principles, and we seek team members who not only align with these principles but actively live them out in their day-to-day work.

• Prioritize and Simplify: We focus on what matters most, reduce complexity, and move quickly when needed.
• Say and Receive: We give and receive feedback candidly and kindly, welcoming growth and healthy debate.
• Go for Greatness: We pursue excellence using data, iteration, and bold thinking to raise the bar.
• Lead as One College Board: We build a culture of trust, inclusion, and shared responsibility for long-term impact.

We Value and Provide Growth, Recognition, and Purpose

In addition to a competitive salary and benefits, we offer:

• Annual bonuses and opportunities for merit-based raises and promotions.
• A mission-driven workplace where your impact matters.
• A team that invests in your development and success.

✨Learn More ✨

Learn more about The College Board’s Operating Principles, Our Remote-first Workplace Policy, Benefits, Recruiting Process and More.

EEOC statement

The College Board is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We’re committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status.

Key skills/competency

• Backend Development
• Node.js
• AWS
• Generative AI
• System Design
• Agile Methodologies
• Mentoring
• Problem-Solving
• TypeScript
• Databases (SQL/NoSQL)