Job Description
About OpenSesame
OpenSesame is disrupting the workforce development industry, leveraging an AI-powered marketplace of more than 50,000 skills courses, complemented by assessments, content authoring, curation, personalized learning pathways, and virtual coaching. eLearning is delivered seamlessly through existing enterprise systems and in the flow of work. More than 2,000 companies, including 150+ of the Global2000, rely on OpenSesame to develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces.
Learn more: www.opensesame.com/about
About the Job
We are seeking a Software Engineer based in Canada or Latin America to join our fully remote team and contribute to the growth and success of OpenSesame’s eLearning platform. You will work closely with engineers across the organization and collaborate with teammates through Extreme Programming (XP) practices, including test-driven development (TDD), continuous deployment, and evolutionary design. Your work will help drive product outcomes and contribute to team processes.
As a Software Engineer, you will work across the full stack in both our modern TypeScript, Node.js, and React environment as well as our legacy systems using PHP, Drupal, and Angular. This role is ideal for someone early in their software engineering career who has hands-on professional or project-based experience, a strong understanding of engineering fundamentals, and the motivation to continue growing in a collaborative, full-stack environment.
Performance Objectives
In your first 90 days:
Summary: Get fully integrated into the team’s workflow, develop a high-level understanding of the product and architecture (including legacy systems), and start participating in collaborative development processes.
- Team Integration: Build relationships with engineers on the Marketplace team. Learn team workflows by participating in pairing and mobbing sessions to learn the product and development environment.
- Technical Contribution: Write simple code and debug errors with guidance from senior engineers in the legacy Drupal 7/Angular system and come up to speed on modernization efforts using TypeScript, Node.js, and React.
- Skill Development: Continue to develop your technical skills and begin to apply test-driven development (TDD) and continuous deployment to ensure high-quality, maintainable solutions with the help of senior engineers.
- Follow Team Processes: Engage fully in the team’s agile ceremonies, retrospectives, and discussions. Participate in small sub-teams that use XP practices, including test-driven development (TDD) and pairing/mobbing.
Within 6 months:
Summary: Begin taking on ownership of operational responsibilities, deepen your understanding of the team’s codebase and testing practices, and grow your confidence in delivering and supporting production code.
- System Understanding: Develop a mental model of the Marketplace architecture, including legacy and modern systems, and understand the high-level relationships between key components and dependencies. Have a basic understanding of our infrastructure and Terraform.
- Release & On-Call Experience: Participate in the on-call rotation and pair with a teammate as release captain for a legacy system deployment. Learn how to triage issues based on the mental model of the system that you are developing.
- Collaborative Growth: Continue working closely with peers in pairing and mobbing sessions. Contribute to planning sessions with other engineers to break down complex work into smaller, end-to-end user stories (vertical slices) that deliver value incrementally.
- Test Practices: Apply test-driven development (TDD) and understand the team’s testing patterns and frameworks, including sociable unit tests and narrow integration tests.
By the end of your first year:
Summary: You are comfortable working across the team’s codebase and are beginning to develop deeper expertise in a specific area. You take initiative on small to medium projects, contribute to improving team processes, and apply XP Practices with confidence.
- Codebase Confidence: Troubleshoot and contribute to many parts of the team’s codebase. Begin to develop recognized expertise in a specific area of the software, becoming a go-to contributor for that domain.
- Ownership & Leadership: Volunteer to lead small to medium, well-defined efforts that deliver value to the product. Proactively seek opportunities to improve team workflows and the development system, collaborating with senior engineers or your manager to implement changes.
- Delivering Quality: Apply test-driven development (TDD) and team testing patterns fluently. Use defensive programming techniques—including paranoiac telemetry, unhappy path thinking, and fail-fast principles—to build reliable, maintainable solutions.
- Team Collaboration & Communication: Embrace collective ownership of code, documentation and outcomes, taking pride in shared success and supporting improvements to code written by others. Communicate clearly and respectfully in team discussions, practicing active listening, defending a contrary stance constructively, and building on others’ ideas to foster a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.
Location: This position is open to candidates based in Canada or select Latin American countries. This role is expected to work within U.S.-aligned time zones to support real-time collaboration with our team. We operate as a remote-first company and invest in all-company in-person meetings several times a year.
Performance Driven: We’re looking for self-starters with a track record of delivering excellent results, but we’re highly selective about who we hire. We don’t focus on typical job requirements, instead, we’re interested in specific examples from your past experiences. All positions can be based anywhere in the US, and require up to 15 days of travel per year, with senior management and leadership teams requiring up to 35 days.
Compensation: At OpenSesame, we offer a comprehensive benefits package to employees upon hire, including professional development, ISOs, health insurance, 401(k) matching, and paid time off. We carefully consider a wide range of compensation factors, relying on market data to determine compensation and consider your specific job family, background, skills, and experience. We prioritize pay transparency, fairness, and equity to create a positive and inclusive work environment, regularly reviewing our compensation practices to align with our values and goals.
Equal Employment Opportunity: OpenSesame is an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer that values and welcomes diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of various legally protected characteristics, including criminal history, and strive to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. We prioritize safety and security and may use your information accordingly, and you can contact us for assistance or accommodations during the job application process. For more information on our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives, click here.
Pay Transparency: At OpenSesame, we prioritize pay transparency, fairness, and equity to create a positive and inclusive work environment, regularly reviewing our compensation practices to align with our values and goals. We provide competitive and fair compensation to our employees based on their skills, experience, and performance.
We Care About Your Security: We’ve been made aware of a phishing scam involving individuals impersonating OpenSesame recruiters. All legitimate communication from our team will come from @opensesame.com email addresses. If you receive a suspicious message, please contact us directly at careers@opensesame.com. Your security matters to us, thank you for staying vigilant.
