Site Reliability Engineer

Position:

The Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) at CharacterStrong is entrusted with the development and maintenance of scalable, reliable, and efficient site reliability and performance systems, ensuring optimal uptime and swift issue resolution. This role focuses on automating operations, deployments, and scaling processes, while proactively identifying and resolving infrastructure vulnerabilities and deployment issues. SREs take ownership of the Developer Experience (DevEx), collaborating with engineers to optimize service performance and reliability. They play a key role in conducting incident response drills, monitoring system performance, and creating monitoring systems for the team. SREs also champion high availability, performance, and disaster recovery planning, while advocating for system improvements and best practices. This role requires a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, 3 years of SRE experience, proficiency in AWS services, container orchestration tools, and strong problem-solving skills.

CharacterStrong’s Background & Mission:

CharacterStrong is a fast-paced, tech education company that makes PreK-12 digital, social-emotional learning curricula and offers professional learning opportunities to support schools with implementation. There’s currently a team of about 60 full-time employees, several part-time employees, and over 30 trainers collaborating to bring this work to life. Our mission is to create a more loving world by equipping educators with tools to teach the critical social, emotional, and character skills necessary to foster a more empathetic, connected, and generous world.  At CharacterStrong, you will have the opportunity to make a positive impact on education, both in the United States and internationally. CharacterStrong employees offer their innovativeness, dedication to excellence, and compassion to help produce transformational curricula and training for educators.  

CharacterStrong’s Company Values:

• We Practice Kindness - Exercising inclusion, care, and empathy with others, balancing honesty with compassion when having courageous conversations and engaging in kindness towards self.
• We Produce Excellence - Producing timely, quality results and consistently asking the question, “How can we make this 1% better?”
• We Take Ownership - Taking the initiative to drive work forward, demonstrating responsibility when things do not go according to plan, and being proactive in closing identified gaps.
• We Problem Solve - Identifying issues, analyzing for understanding, and taking action to implement the best possible solution.

Site Reliability Engineer Responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain scalable, reliable, and efficient site reliability and performance systems, ensuring optimal uptime and efficient resolution of any issues.
• Automate operations, deployments, and scaling processes.
• Identify, analyze, and resolve infrastructure vulnerabilities and application deployment issues.
• Take ownership of the Developer Experience: Identify and implement ideas to improve the overall DevEx
• Collaborate with engineers to optimize service performance and reliability.
• Conduct incident response drills and post-mortem analysis.
• Monitor system performance and troubleshoot issues. 
• Create monitoring systems for the team to have easy access to potential issues in various areas of our site(s) and services. 
• Ensure high availability and acceptable levels of performance of mission-critical resources.
• Develop disaster recovery plans and participate in service capacity planning.
• Implement automation tools for system health and performance monitoring.
• Update and maintain documentation of configuration and troubleshooting procedures.
• Advocate for system improvements and best practices.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 3 years of experience in a Site Reliability Engineer or similar role.
• Experience with AWS cloud services, DynamoDB, and Elasticsearch. Pulumi and Playwright experience a plus.
• Knowledge of container orchestration tools (Kubernetes, Docker with AWS Lambda and Serverless functions).
• Familiarity with network protocols and theory.
• Experience with monitoring and alerting tools.
• Considerable knowledge and experience with common web developer skills, including Rest APIs, React, HTML, CSS, Typescript or JavaScript (nodeJS) experience, Serverless Technology, Tools, Debugging, Basic Graphic Design, Back end and Databases, Hosting Services, Libraries and frameworks, SEO, CI Pipelines such as Github Actions
• Proven track record in implementing innovative design theories and coding best practices.
• Strong problem-solving and communication skills.
• Experience with configuration management tools.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment.
• Knowledge of database management and NoSQL.
• Commitment to continuous learning and improvement.

Other Duties:

• Performs other duties as assigned.

Salary & Benefits

• Starting Salary $100,000 - $125,000, commensurate with experience
• Ability to work remotely 
• Annual bonus based on company performance
• New laptop computer, AirPods, and other needed equipment
• Annual Individual Budget for Professional Development of $1,000
• 401k Plan after 12 months of Employment 
• Medical Insurance, Dental Insurance, Vision 
• Paid Parental Leave after 12 months of employment for eligible employees
• 10 Paid Vacation Days, 8 Paid Sick Days, 14 Paid Company Holidays

CharacterStrong views diversity and the unique ways team members establish connections with our student and educator populations as an asset. Our goal is to ensure we have a team at CharacterStrong that reflects the diverse student population we serve.

CharacterStrong is an equal-opportunity employer. We provide for fair treatment of all employees based on merit. In accordance with applicable law, race, color, creed, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, and pregnancy-related conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and transgender status), marital status, religion, age, disability, genetic information (including testing and characteristics), service in the military, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local law does not affect employment opportunities or practices such as hiring, promotion, development opportunities, pay, or benefits. CharacterStrong complies with all applicable federal, state, and local labor laws.