Senior Backend Software Developer - Learner Assessments

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 Senior Engineer on the Assessment Platform group, you'll drive innovation in how millions of learners practice, validate, and prove their job-ready skills through diverse, interactive assessments. Our platform powers a wide range of assessment experiences - from AI-graded assignments and peer reviews to interactive dialogues and hands-on projects - enabling learners to demonstrate real-world capabilities and earn credentials that matter in today's job market.

You will have the opportunity to:

• Scale our assessment infrastructure to support diverse learning experiences
• Evaluate and implement emerging technologies to enhance assessment capabilities
• Create tools that help course authors design engaging, rigorous assignments
• Build features that impact millions of learners globally

Join us in shaping the future of skills-based learning and assessment, where technology meets education to create meaningful learning experiences at global scale.

Your Responsibilities:

• Collaborate closely with product managers, data scientists, and other engineers to define and build scalable, secure, and personalized learning experiences.
• Design and implement scalable assessment features for millions of learners
• Guide technical and architectural decisions that balance innovation with reliability to improve learner experiences
• Analyze system performance and data to drive continuous improvement
• Mentor engineers and foster a culture of technical excellence

Your Skills:

• 6+ years of experience in backend development, with expertise in Java and Spring Boot
• Strong foundation in distributed systems, data structures, and software design principles
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS/GCP) and microservices architecture
• Proven track record in building and scaling high-throughput systems
• Strong communication and collaboration skills in a fast-paced environment
• Experience leading technical initiatives from conception to production
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience designing and implementing scalable AI-powered features
• Background in educational technology or consumer products with high user engagement

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: 

Our job titles may span more than one career level. The starting base pay for this role is between $135,000 and $178,000. The actual base pay is dependent upon many factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs, and location. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. This role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, and benefits. 

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