Staff Software Engineer

Launched in 2012 by two Stanford professors, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, Coursera is now one of the largest online learning platforms in the world, with 168 million registered learners. Our mission is to provide universal access to world-class learning. We partner with over 350 leading university and industry partners to offer a broad catalog of content and credentials, including courses, Specializations and Professional Certificates degrees. Institutions around the world use Coursera to upskill and reskill their employees, citizens, and students in fields such as GenAI, data science, technology, and business. Coursera is a Delaware public benefit corporation and a B Corp.

Join us in our mission to create a world where anyone, anywhere can transform their life through access to education. We're seeking talented individuals who share our passion and drive to revolutionize the way the world learns.

At Coursera, we are committed to building a globally diverse team and are thrilled to extend employment opportunities to individuals in any country where we have a legal entity. We require candidates to possess eligible working rights and have a compatible timezone overlap with their team to facilitate seamless collaboration. 

Coursera has a commitment to enabling flexibility and workspace choices for employees. Our interviews and onboarding are entirely virtual, providing a smooth and efficient experience for our candidates. As an employee, we enable you to select your main way of working, whether it's from home, one of our offices or hubs, or a co-working space near you.

Job Overview:

Coursera is an engineering-first company. Our teams are responsible for maintaining a scalable and reliable platform, in addition to building interactive products for the worldwide learner community. We are made up of teams ranging from Development Infrastructure, Growth, Learner/Consumer Experience, Content Platform, and SDET Engineering. Every day, Engineering teams collaborate with cross-functional partners, including other engineers, data scientists, and product managers. We employ continuous delivery to deploy multiple times a day and move quickly as an organization

The Opportunity & The Team

As a Backend Staff Engineer on the Learner Success team, you'll be at the forefront of revolutionizing online learning by building the future of AI-powered, personalized education. Our team is responsible for developing and supporting a core area of Coursera's platform, directly impacting the learning journeys of millions worldwide. We're deeply invested in leveraging cutting-edge technologies, including generative AI and advanced data analytics, to create a truly personalized learning experience for every individual.

This is a high-impact role within a team that thrives on collaboration, innovation, data-driven decision-making and working closely with learners to help them transform their lives. You will have the opportunity to:

• Personalize the Learning Journey: Design, build, and scale core components that leverage generative AI and rich learner data to tailor learning experiences to individual needs, goals, and learning styles.
• Be a Pioneer: Work on cutting-edge technology, pushing the boundaries of what's possible with technology in education. You'll balance rapid industry evolution with building scalable and impactful personalized learning systems for the long term.
• Drive Impact at Scale: Create systems and features used by millions of learners daily, directly influencing their educational journeys and helping them reach their full potential through personalized learning pathways.

Be a Technical Leader: Provide technical leadership, mentor junior engineers, and contribute to the growth of the entire team, fostering a culture of innovation and excellence in personalized learning experiences.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate closely with product managers, data scientists, and other engineers to define and build scalable, secure, and personalized learning experiences.
• Design, develop, and deploy core backend services and APIs that leverage learner data and generative AI to power personalized learning features and recommendations.
• Champion and implement best practices with a focus on safety, bias mitigation, ethical considerations, and a learner-centric approach to personalization.
• Analyze learner data to understand the impact of AI-powered personalization on learning outcomes, iterating on solutions to drive continuous improvement.
• Proactively identify opportunities to improve system architecture, scalability, and performance, ensuring our personalized learning platform can grow to meet the needs of millions of learners.
• Contribute to the technical roadmap and strategy of the Learner Success team, shaping the future of personalized learning at Coursera.
• Mentor and guide junior engineers, fostering their growth and development, and building a world-class team passionate about personalized learning experiences.

Qualifications:

• You are passionate about building high-quality software that makes a real difference in people's lives, particularly within the education space.
• You have extensive experience building and scaling complex backend systems, with a strong foundation in software design principles, data structures, and algorithms.
• You are proficient in at least one backend programming language (e.g., Python, Java, Go) and are comfortable working with relational databases and distributed systems.
• You are enthusiastic about exploring the potential of generative AI and data-driven insights to personalize education.
• You have a strong understanding of data analytics and are passionate about using data to inform decisions and drive product improvement, particularly as it relates to personalization.
• You are a strong communicator, collaborator, and problem solver. You excel in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and are eager to contribute to a highly collaborative team.
• You have experience mentoring and guiding other engineers and are passionate about fostering a positive and supportive team culture.
• Experience with building and scaling microservices, cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP), AI, monitoring, and optimization.

If this opportunity interests you, you might like these courses on Coursera:

• Object Oriented Java Programming: Data Structures and Beyond Specialization
• Object Oriented Programming in Java Specialization
• Introduction to Programming with Python and Java Specialization
• Functional Programming in Scala Specialization

Compensation:

Coursera offers competitive pay and equitable compensation practices. Our job titles may span more than one career level. The targeted hiring base salary range for this role is between $178,200 to $203,800 for all Canada candidates. The actual base pay is dependent upon many factors, including but not limited to prior work experiences, training/education, transferable skills, business needs, and geographical location. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. This role may also be eligible for variable pay, equity, and benefits.

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