brightwheel company logo

Staff Software Engineer, Full-Stack

brightwheelPosted 3/7/2025

brightwheel logo

Staff Software Engineer, Full-Stack

brightwheel

Salary Range

142k - 237k USD / YEAR

Job Summary

Brightwheel is a leading technology brand in early education, trusted by tens of thousands of providers and millions of educators and families. The company is seeking a staff software engineer to join their Activation team, helping ensure customers quickly get up and running on the Brightwheel platform. This role involves expanding understanding of customer needs, delivering software solutions, operating in an agile environment, and collaborating with product, design, and other engineers. As a lead on the Activation team, you will be responsible for designing new software systems, introducing new technologies, and advocating for technical advancement within the engineering team. Brightwheel values ownership, autonomy, and impact, offering flexible remote work options, $4,000/year travel stipends, and equity in a fast-growing company.

Job Description

Our Mission and Opportunity

Early education is one of the greatest determinants of childhood outcomes, is a must for working families, and has lasting social and economic impact. Brightwheel’s vision is high quality early education for every child. We pursue this by directly supporting teachers in the classroom, engaging parents in the development of their kids, and enabling the small businesses that make up the backbone of the $175 billion early education industry. Brightwheel is the most loved technology brand in early education, trusted by tens of thousands of providers and millions of educators and families.

Our Team

Our team is passionate, talented, and customer-focused. We embody our Leadership Principles in our work and culture. We are a fully remote team with employees across every time zone in the US. Our exceptional investor group includes Addition, Bessemer, Emerson Collective, Lowercase Capital, Mark Cuban Notable Capital, and others.

Who You Are

We are seeking a staff software engineer who is well-rounded technically, and passionate about the positive impact their code can make in people's lives. Brightwheel engineers work closely with product and design, as well as with other areas of the business to deliver a platform that meets our teachers’ & parents’ biggest needs.

Every engineer at Brightwheel is afforded a high degree of ownership and autonomy. We are a lean, fast-moving team and value individuals who can optimize for being impactful while considering both technical and business drivers.

What You'll Do

  • Be a lead on our Activation team - helping ensure our customers are quickly able to get up and running on the brightwheel platform.

  • Expand your understanding of our customers’ needs to deliver software solutions that address those needs.

  • Operate in an agile environment to quickly deliver value to early childhood education centers.

  • Work alongside product, design, and other engineers to scope and implement new features and products.

  • Identify and advocate for new opportunities for technical advancement within the engineering team.

  • Be a steward of quality, scalability, security, and performance. You'll work with other engineers to ensure that we have a solid foundation that serves our customers, and enables the team to continue building a great product. 

  • Design new software systems, or introduce new technologies, as appropriate to support brightwheel’s growth.

  • Share expertise through mentorship across the engineering team

Qualifications, Skills, & Abilities

  • 5+ years of professional experience, preferably in fast-paced early- or mid-stage startups

  • Proficiency in both contributing to and designing APIs using Ruby on Rails or similar technologies

  • Experience with a variety of codebase sizes and ages

  • Proficiency with AWS or other cloud platforms

  • Experience with architecting distributed systems for scalability and reliability

  • Strong verbal and written communication skills for both technical and non-technical audiences

  • Experience with microservice or service-oriented architectures preferred

  • Experience with modern webapps like React.js preferred

  • Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) preferred

  • Experience with, or a strong interest in, leveraging AI to improve engineering efficiency

Candidates with varying backgrounds are encouraged to apply. We do not require prior knowledge of technologies in our stack, only a desire to learn them. At brightwheel you will encounter:

  • React

  • Ruby on Rails

  • PostgreSQL

  • Redis

  • CircleCI

  • Kubernetes

  • AWS managed services

$142,500 - $237,000 a year

Brightwheel is committed to internal pay equity and offers a competitive compensation package, including base salary, equity, and benefits. Our benefits package includes premium medical, dental, and vision benefits, generous paid parental leave, a flexible paid time off policy, a monthly wellness and productivity stipend, and a Learning & Development stipend.

For cash compensation, brightwheel sets standard ranges for all roles based on function, level, and geographic location, benchmarked against similar-stage growth companies. Multiple factors determine final offer amounts, including geographic location, candidate experience, and expertise. If you have questions about the compensation band for your region, please ask your recruiter.

Brightwheel is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment and is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.