[Hiring] Staff Software Engineer @Blackboard

Role Description

We're a small team within Blackboard building a consumer product to verify authenticity of thinking and learning. This is not a feature team — we're actively deploying a completely new product to any institution.

We enjoy moving fast, shipping new and better features, and delighting our end users. Our engineers are architects, reviewers, and product thinkers: people who know how to ship features end-to-end, leverage any and all advantage from AI, assure the quality of work, and make judgment calls when the requirements are still evolving.

On a team this small, there are no handoffs. The person who designs a feature ships it. We're looking for builders who are energized by that scope and opportunity, not overwhelmed by it.

Our team owns this space, is first to market, and is driving an industry-wide paradigm shift. Trust in our product, processes, and people are paramount. We are a team of high-integrity individuals who understand that the integrity tool market is an arms race and we intend to win through technical prowess, policy management, and by influencing the nascent narrative focused on human authentication instead of AI detection.

What You Will Own

• User-facing product interfaces: the core user experience that learners interact with daily
• Secure communications layer: between components of our product server-side, in browser, and client side
• Encryption of sensitive data: ensuring privacy and security of data for and from users
• Storage architecture and schema design for persistent user state — built to evolve as the product grows, with you determining the technical approach as new capabilities are added
• Data access controls and audit logging that satisfy institutional security and compliance requirements, weighing trade-offs across a range of technical and business factors
• End-to-end feature ownership from spec to production — including testing, monitoring, and iteration
• Active use of AI-assisted development tooling to maintain high output without sacrificing code quality
• Contribution to, and growing ownership of, shared component libraries and codebase standards as the team grows
• Stay on the bleeding edge of circumvention tools, best practices, and industry competitors, contributing your findings to help the team maintain its edge

Please include a link to your portfolio/GitHub as part of your application.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in computer science or related field with a minimum of 6 years of relevant experience
• You work natively with AI coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, or equivalent) — not as a curiosity, but as your actual development workflow
• You've shipped products to real users — full-stack, with real accountability for whether they work
• Strong product instincts: you notice when something feels off in the user experience and you fix it, even if it wasn't in your ticket
• You can move fast, make good decisions under ambiguity, and leave the codebase better than you found it
• Fluency in written and spoken English

Requirements

• PhD in computer science or related field (preferred)
• Maximum curiosity to understand the workings and dynamics of technologies and human interactions with them
• Understanding of consumer facing tools, usability requirements, and quality assurance practices
• Demonstrated ability to dissect how tools work, exploits are closed, and loopholes eliminated
• Background in consumer-facing products where user behavior and engagement genuinely matter, and where integrity of the product is of the utmost importance
• Willingness, desire, and drive to get to the root issue and solve it, to leave any matter better than you found it

Benefits

• The expected salary range for this position is $140,000 - $175,000. The range reflects base salary only and does not include additional compensation such as company bonus or benefits.
• Placement within the pay range will depend on a variety of factors, such as experience, skills, internal parity, and location.

Company Description

Blackboard is a leading EdTech company and SaaS provider that delivers the digital environment for transformational teaching and learning. We serve thousands of institutions with the industry's most AI-advanced LMS, Blackboard Ally for accessibility, and institutional effectiveness solutions that put educators and learners at the center. We're an education company that builds technology. Learn more at blackboard.com.