Lead Engineer (Backend)

Darsel is a free supplemental learning platform intended for students with limited internet access. It is also designed to supplement K–12 education systems in resource-constrained environments. It allows students to…

Location: Remote
Company size: 10–50
Posted: 1w ago
Via: Yc

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Lead Engineer (Backend) · Darsel

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Job title: Lead Engineer (Backend)
Job location: Remote
Job listing URL: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/darsel/jobs/OD1LMNV-lead-engineer-backend
Job description: **1. Are you mission-driven and passionate about education and impact?** We’re an EdTech nonprofit, and we’re fixing a global learning crisis. Six in ten students around the world are failing math, and the majority (1 billion) can’t access modern EdTech solutions due to data and device constraints… so we developed a chatbot ( SMS, WhatsApp, FB Messenger) which can help K12 students learn math in low-resource settings. It’s a simple and accessible frontend with a powerful learning engine in the backend. Thousands of students are already using Darsel to learn math (in Jordan, India and Nigeria). We have RCT evidence proving that it works, and a lot of user love from students and teachers. Our waiting list has countries, not customers - and we’re on a clear & sustainable path towards impact at a global scale. **2. Can you build a world-class API-first backend?** Our tech stack is mostly **Python** Lambda functions and **MySQL** databases on **AWS**. You’d be responsible for all of it, and your role would combine backend with devops and data science responsibilities. Current priorities include: - Launching and documenting a public API with authentication - Building new backend functionality (especially around data retrieval and analysis) to support frontend development - Optimizing MySQL database configurations and access patterns - Designing and implementing data science workflows, focused on automating quality assurance and content scoring - Building and testing ML models to improve our content matching algorithm - Professionalizing our software development practices (test cases, staging environments, standardization, etc.) - Making sure that all systems scale efficiently alongside our impact (probably 10-100x over the next year) **3. Are you excited about joining a small and global remote-only team?** You’ll be able to work from anywhere, with a lot of control over your schedule. You’ll work directly with the founder (acting CTO), but must be able to manage your own schedule and work independently in an effective way. Moreover, as the most senior engineer, you’ll be expected to support (and potentially manage) Darsel’s junior engineers. **If you answered “Yes” to all three questions, we’d love to talk!**

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