Fast Facts

Timely is seeking a Software Engineer specializing in Core Algorithms to enhance the scheduling and optimization technologies at the heart of our educational product. Joining our early-stage team, you'll play a key role in building systems that improve school scheduling, while shaping a culture of excellence and collaboration in our engineering practices.

Responsibilities: You will lead the architecture and development of the schedule optimizer, collaborate with stakeholders to inform product and data design, and establish engineering best practices for quality feature releases.

Skills: Candidates should have 3+ years of experience in algorithm-driven software systems, proficiency in Python and AWS, strong data modeling and API design capabilities, as well as experience with testing and CI/CD.

Qualifications: Preferred candidates will have experience with optimization technologies, terraform, and knowledge of data science or machine learning platforms.

Location: This is a remote role; however, candidates based in New York City or Boston metropolitan areas are preferred.

Compensation: Not provided by employer. Typical compensation ranges for this position are between $120,000 - $160,000.

Who we are

We founded Timely to build the tool we wish we'd had when we were in schools -- hoping to save hundreds of hours of wasted time while helping schools develop better schedules that enable their academic, budget and staffing priorities. Our solution addresses the needs of school-based employees who toil away building schedules and central office employees who need visibility into them.

The school schedule reflects values and priorities. With 75 to 90% of a district budget dedicated to personnel, there are few questions more paramount than how your staff and students spend their time every day, what positions you need, how many teachers you will hire, and how students will interact with them. Strategic resource allocation across schools, proper access to core courses and electives, and dedicated support to sub-groups begins with the development of a school schedule.

Timely is your home for secondary scheduling featuring AI optimization and support from a team of former educators who know and have lived scheduling. Not only does Timely save time and headache, it unlocks resources so district and charter leaders can build a schedule that aligns with their vision.

About the role

Come work with us as an early engineer building a product that schools and districts desperately want and need to improve the quality of the education they deliver.

We are specifically looking for a software engineer to own the scheduling and optimization technologies that are the foundation of our product offering. You will lead the process of improving the algorithms that run to create a schedule while also contributing to key overlapping areas of the backend architecture, including our core data model and backend services. As an early member of the team, you will also help establish the patterns, architecture, and culture for the engineering team moving forward.

With very positive momentum, early product-market fit, and 7x revenue growth in Timely’s second year, we are looking for a hands-on engineering lead who can anchor the next phase of growth in the app team and the product this team owns.

Roles & Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture and development efforts for the schedule optimizer that sits at the core of the Timely product. Scale this technology to serve an increasing number of schools with high performance.
• Deep dive into the scheduling product domain with stakeholders from product, customer success and business to inform product and data design.
• Contribute to data model iterations to support new schedules across our technology stack, with a particular focus on evolving our optimizer to support these data model changes.
• Establish engineering best practices around production quality, technical debt, discovery, and other workflows that allow the team to ship quality features and learn from customers quickly.
• Combine standards and tools with strong mentorship and feedback to scale the engineering team over time.

What we look for in candidates

• Focus towards algorithm and data heavy software systems. Bonus points for exposure or interest in optimization technologies (MIP/SAT solvers).
• 3+ years of experience building and scaling production systems using the following technologies or their equivalents: Python ecosystem (particularly Pandas, Numpy, FastAPI), AWS cloud architectures, gRPC/REST service communication, nosql and relational databases.
• Experience with production software and the practices that support them: automated testing, instrumentation, CI/CD, etc.
• Experience with data modeling and API design while working within complex domains.
• Strong collaboration skills to work with product, customers and cross-functional team members.
• Excitement to mentor technical team members and establish a culture of deliberate feedback and growth.
• Ability & excitement to step into an early (seed-stage) startup role, with urgency of execution, breadth of responsibilities and opportunities for growth that come with it

Nice to haves:

• Prior experience working with Google OR Tools, Gurobi, or similar optimization toolkits.
• Experience with terraform and related infrastructure technologies.
• Experience with data science and machine learning platforms.
• Experience or interest in team technical leadership driving prompt delivery of high quality features.
• This role is remote, with a preference for candidates in New York City or Boston metropolitan areas.

Benefits we offer

• Comprehensive health insurance: medical, dental, vision, life, short & long-term disability
• Generous time off: unlimited paid time off and 12 weeks of parental leave