Principal Software Engineer I - Backend FS

At Curriculum Associates, we believe in the potential of every child and are changing the face of education technology with award-winning learning programs like i-Ready that serve a third of the nation’s K–8 students. For more than 50 years, our commitment to making classrooms better places, serving educators, and supporting accessible learning experiences for all students has driven the continuous improvement of our innovative programs. Our team of more than 2,500 employees is composed of lifelong learners who stand behind this mission, working tirelessly to serve the educational community with world-class programs and support every day.

Essential duties / responsibilities :

Investigate, troubleshoot, and resolve software issues to ensure system stability and reliability.

Maintain and enhance existing applications by optimizing performance, addressing technical debt, and implementing necessary updates.

Develop and deploy new features, improvements, and enhancements in alignment with business requirements.

Collaborate with architects and senior engineers to design and implement scalable, efficient, and maintainable solutions.

Operate with a continuous improvement mindset, conducting code and design reviews, and leveraging modern development tools to improve quality

and productivity.

Develop and maintain automated unit and integration tests to support system reliability.

Ensure seamless collaboration between support and development efforts within an Agile environment.

Advocate for technology upgrades to keep infrastructure robust and scalable.

Communicate technical updates, issues, and solutions across teams.

Participate in mentorship and proactive learning to enhance both functional and technical expertise.

Required Job Skills and Abilities :

Expertise in Java (J2EE, Spring Boot Microservices) with experience in maintaining and developing enterprise applications.

Good working knowledge in React Front-end development and integration

Strong debugging and troubleshooting skills, particularly in production environments.

Solid understanding of software development and support best practices, Agile methodologies, and Scrum workflows.

Strong communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate technical concepts.

Nice to have

Experience with PHP in a LAMP stack environment.

Experience in AWS cloud-hosted environments.

Background in the EdTech industry

Required Education and Experience : Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related field (preferred).

15+ years of experience in backend-focused full-stack development, with a primary focus on backend technologies and some front-end exposure