The Role
We're looking for an experienced engineer who is just as passionate about data as they are about engineering. Over the past several years, we have accumulated a vast amount of information on our product, how it's used, and how we can optimize to reach even more teachers and kids. There are challenges that come with having all of this data; we want to make it easy to use, actionable, and to base as many of our decisions on impact and data when possible.
We hope to bring someone onto our team that can not only improve our data infrastructure, but also help improve our data quality by understanding and aligning our production and business intelligence data needs (maybe throwing everything into the same database or table wasn't such a good idea?).
Our current stack is Ruby on Rails, Python, Heroku, and Postgres. As we look towards the future, we're beginning to leverage Snowflake, Looker, Segment, and migrating some of our infrastructure towards AWS. As our first data engineer, you will help us implement new technologies.
You will report to Josiah Brann, our Director of Engineering. We are headquartered in San Francisco and this position is open to both local and remote candidates.
About You
- You don't consider yourself "just an engineer"; you're a problem solver and love being empowered to solve problems. You ask "why", and push the team to look for the best solutions.
- You're excited to learn new technologies.
- You know that having the right tests is more impactful than having many tests.
- You have experience starting projects from the ground up, jumping into existing projects, and scaling up to millions of users.
- You’re part engineer & product thinker. We know the best ideas come from a deep understanding of both domains.
- You have a passion for education and staying curious.
Day-to-day
On any given day, some of the things you will be working on as a Senior Data Engineer:
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Releasing: We deliver features and improvements to our codebase multiple times a day, running our CI/CD pipeline through CircleCI.
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Collaborating: You’re confident working with cross-functional groups and varying levels of technical experience. You know that the best ideas come from balancing multiple viewpoints, and working together with other engineers helps everyone learn and grow.
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Testing: You know that a strong CI/CD pipeline requires a stronger suite of tests. You focus on testing the optimal paths rather than writing tests that might not be useful. There’s a new bug in production? The fix always comes with an associated test.
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Architecting: We trust our engineers not only to execute on ideas, but also to work with our Product Team and internal stakeholders to architect the best solutions. You know that the why is often just as important as the how.
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Learning: You know that the skills you have today are a tool to continue learning, and a growth mindset is important to continued improvement. You hope to be a better engineer, teammate, and person every single day.
At
Mystery.org, we believe it’s important that children stay curious as they grow up. We will ensure that the next generation sees it’s an amazing world we live in, full of possibility and wonder — and that they learn how to figure things out for themselves.
We’ve created Mystery Science, the most widely used elementary science resource in the country. We have teachers signed up from 89% of elementary schools in the U.S. and now 50% of schools use us every month. We’ve created one of the fastest-growing learning resources and a brand that is loved by children and grown-ups alike.
We want children to have the ability to explore anything they are curious about. There are 1 billion children in the world today, and we want to make it possible for them to explore their questions, wherever they are. Over the past decade, the internet has given grownups a new superpower–the ability to instantly explore anything they wonder about--but children have been left behind. So we're collecting every question children ask and creating video explanations and resources for teachers to answer questions that children care about . We think this will be the most important learning tool ever created.
Meet The Team
On your first day at
Mystery.org, you’ll meet a group of 50 people who are passionate about learning and who each love their respective crafts. We were founded by Keith Schacht and Doug Peltz, who started Mystery Science in 2014. They have assembled a team of the best explainers in the world from the Exploratorium, Klutz, Stanford, the Field Museum, and leading private schools. In addition to the core
Mystery.org team, we also collaborate with the passionate, expert team at Discovery Education, our parent company.
We have a strong focus on people which extends to every area of the company. We’re building
the team that we want to work with.
Mystery.org is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to being an employer of choice, not just a good place to work, but a great and inclusive place to work. To that end, we strive to recruit and maintain a workforce that meaningfully represents the diverse and culturally rich communities that we serve. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veteran status or disabled status or, genetic information.
Inspired?
If you are inspired by our mission and passionate about helping teachers succeed and transforming science education for kids, we’d like to hear from you!