Senior Tech Lead - Full Stack

Job Type: Full - Time Employee

Location: Remote

Reports to: Director of Engineering

Direct Reports: 3–5 engineers

About ChalkTalk

At ChalkTalk, we believe that education is human. It's more than scores and statistics. Be part of a team that's transforming education and achieving up to 6x improvement in student learning outcomes.

ChalkTalk uses student assessments to generate digital courseware for every day in the course schedule. Every modular ChalkTalk lesson comes with teaching materials for the teacher; small group work and computer-adaptive practice for students; and progress reports for administrators. ChalkTalk is delivering improvement in student learning outcomes up to 6x, as measured by third-party test scores. ChalkTalk currently has 15 employees.

About the Role

We're looking for a Senior Tech Lead to grow and guide an existing full-stack engineering team. You'll be the connective tissue between product stakeholders and engineering - translating roadmap priorities into technical plans, shipping features with quality, and driving the architectural evolution of a platform used by thousands of students and teachers every day.

This is a hands-on leadership role. You'll write code, make architectural decisions, run 1:1s, and participate in product planning.

Responsibilities

Team Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of 3–5 full-stack engineers
• Own hiring, onboarding, and performance management
• Foster a culture of technical rigor, psychological safety, and continuous improvement
• Run effective sprint ceremonies and maintain predictable delivery

Product \& Stakeholder Collaboration

• Partner with product managers and designers to scope, estimate, and plan features
• Translate ambiguous requirements into clear technical specs and milestones
• Surface technical risks and trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders
• Represent engineering in cross-functional planning and roadmap discussions
• Measure outcomes of shipped work against product goals

Architecture \& Technical Vision

• Own architectural direction across frontend and backend systems
• Lead efforts to scale the platform and modernize legacy systems
• Establish and enforce engineering standards (code quality, testing, observability, security)
• Make pragmatic build vs. buy decisions and manage technical debt

Hands-On Engineering

• Contribute directly to the codebase (design reviews, complex features, critical fixes)
• Drive adoption of modern tooling and best practices
• Champion accessibility, performance, and reliability

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React, TypeScript, MUI, Redux, React Query, Webpack
• Backend: Python, Django, Django REST Framework, Celery, Django Channels
• Data: PostgreSQL, Redis
• Infrastructure: AWS, Docker, GitHub Actions
• Observability: Sentry, Datadog, CloudWatch
• Testing: Jest, React Testing Library, Cypress
• Integrations: Learnosity, Algolia, Clever/Classlink SSO \& LTI

Qualifications

• 7\+ years of full-stack software engineering experience
• 2\+ years in a tech lead, staff, or equivalent leadership role
• Strong backend experience (Python/Django or similar) and proficiency in React/TypeScript
• Proven ability to architect and scale production web applications
• Experience mentoring engineers and providing technical direction
• Strong communication skills; able to work directly with product and design
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and owning outcomes
• Experience in K–12 or education technology (preferred)
• Familiarity with assessment platforms or LTI integrations (preferred)

Why work at ChalkTalk?

• Mission: You want to help provide the best education possible to everyone on the planet.
• Impact: In just 15 weeks, districts that bought ChalkTalk saw their students experience 2–6X MORE GROWTH ON OFFICIAL STATE TESTS compared to their peers who received 52 weeks of traditional classroom instruction. Big impact with vulnerable student populations.
• Awards:

+ 2020: Top 10 finalist out of 700\+ companies at ASU\+GSV Cup.

+ 2021: Winner of FETC’s Best in EdTech alongside Microsoft \& Lego.

+ 2022: Winner of EdTech Week’s EdTech Cup in NYC.

+ 2023: “North America EdTech 200” by HolonIQ.

+ 2024: “The World’s Top EdTech Companies” by TIME Magazine \& Statista

+ 2025: “The World’s Top EdTech Companies” by TIME Magazine \& Statista

• Competitive Compensation: Competitive salary, commission and equity offers
• Benefits: Health, dental, life, disability and vision insurance.