GreatSchools is an independent, nonprofit organization that improves education by inspiring parents to get involved. We empower parents with information and tools so they can choose the best school for their children, support their children's education, and improve schools in their communities.
Parents choose GreatSchools' Webby award-winning site, GreatSchools.org, to connect with each other - to find the right schools, to share stories and advice, and to get their parenting questions answered. In the past year alone, more than 35 million people - including one-third of American families - visited the site. With hundreds of thousands of ratings and parent reviews about schools across the country, GreatSchools.org is the paramount parent-to-parent education community.
GreatSchools is supported by foundations and corporations, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Robertson Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation.
Unless otherwise specified, all of our open positions are headquartered in our San Francisco, CA office.
Sorry, we do not offer relocation assistance.
We are an equal opportunity employer and actively seek to recruit a diverse workforce.
Positions Available:
Sr. Writer/Producer (contract position)
Software Engineer
Spanish Speaking QA Engineer
QA Engineer
Web Front-End Engineer (contract position)
Sr. Writer/Producer - contract position
We are looking for an experienced writer/producer for College Bound, a new online e-learning program aimed at guiding low-income parents in the education of their child.
We are looking for an experienced and enthusiastic Sr. Writer/Producer to create exciting story-based, e-learning content for adult learners. The interactive content consists of video, animation and audio and will help parents develop the knowledge and skills that they need to guide their children to college, beginning at an early age.
The Sr. Writer/Producer will be primarily responsible for researching, conceptualizing, writing, and producing interactive content for College Bound. This position combines high-level creative responsibilities and research skills with project management and production responsibilities, and reports to the Lead producer. Strong writing and editing skills are a must.
Responsibilities:
Instructional/Creative Design:
- Synthesize a body of educational research into key points and practical tips a parent can use every day with his/her child.
- Create engaging, research-based ideas/scripts/visuals.
- Write and edit character-based scripts for interactive animated "lessons."
- Edit and collaborate on ideas/scripts/visuals produced by other team members.
- Work with educational experts to ensure the quality of each lesson.
Oversight and Project Management:
- Responsible for overseeing the production process and working with a variety outside vendors (including development partners, production studios, video/audio producers) to ensure the highest quality possible.
- Responsible for developing the overall project schedule for each lesson, as well as managing to that schedule.
- Manage production of lesson(s) within budget requirements.
Position Requirements and Related Experience:
Writing:
- 3+ years experience developing character-driven short pieces, be it on screen or in magazines
- Experience editing magazines - online and in print - a plus.
- Narrative/fictional/commercial script writing experience highly desired.
Producing:
- 2+ years experience managing/producing creative projects - particularly technology driven projects
- Experience working with outside vendors (i.e. audio studios, video producers, animators)
Other:
- Experience in education a plus (i.e. teaching, creating educational materials)
- Experience working with low-income parents a plus
Required Skills:
- Strong narrative sensibility
- Strong editor who can craft and package and hone a story
- Strong writing skills
- Strong research skills
- An ability to conceive original ideas with a creative flair
- Strong project management skills
- Ability to multi-task, manage time, prioritize tasks and work under pressure
- Excellent attention to detail while able to maintain a high-level overview
- Flexible and able to work in a fast-changing, demanding environment
- Strong familiarity with interactive technologies
How To Apply:
Please email a cover letter, résumé and salary requirements to jobs+producer.gs@greatschools.org with
"Sr. Writer/Producer" in the subject line. Resumes without cover letters will not be considered.
No calls please.
Software Engineer
We're looking for a very bright and talented engineer with a passion for test driven development and open-source software to help us continue to deliver high-quality, high-value software solutions using agile methodologies. If you are a Java web application developer, have experience with AJAX, and aren't satisfied until your XHTML validates, then you're the kind of person we're looking for!
Primary Responsibilities:
- Full-cycle application development
- Web application development using Java, JavaScript/AJAX, and CSS
- Collaboration with non-technical colleagues to define user interaction, functionality and system requirements
- Sole development resource responsible for application design and/or development on small to mid-size projects
- Continuous process improvement
- Participation in architecture discussions and code reviews
Required Experience and Qualifications:
The ideal candidate will have a B.S. in Computer Science or equivalent degree and excellent problem-solving skills. We prefer a work experience that includes:
- 5-7 years experience designing and developing robust, scalable web applications
- Solid experience with Java, J2EE, Perl, XML, MVC, ORM, AJAX, and MySQL
- Proficient in front-end development using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- Experience with Groovy/Grails
- Experience with JQuery
- Experience with CVS, Subversion or Git
- Passion for new technology and problem solving
- Enthusiasm to work collaboratively within a team
How To Apply:
Please email a cover letter including salary requirements and résumé to jobs+softwareeng.gs@greatschools.org with
"Software Engineer" in the subject line. Resumes without cover letters will not be considered.
No calls please.
Spanish Speaking QA Engineer
We are aiming to serve both Spanish and English speaking parents in the future and we're looking for new team members who may be able to help in that effort.
The QA Engineer will serve as an integral member of a small test team, writing and executing functional and/or gray-box testing of web-based products against a bi-weekly release schedule. The QA Engineer will be an integral part of our transition to a Spanish language site and will be expected to test user flows and content in both English and Spanish. In addition, you will keep abreast of new testing and QA industry developments and make recommendations on how to leverage these technologies towards improving the testing of existing products and the development environment.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Write and execute test plans/test cases, incorporating black and grey box testing, based on functional and technical requirements
- Perform functional, regression, scalability, performance and system testing, as needed
- Verify application data against SQL and XML data sources
- Develop effective defect reports
- Evaluate new QA tools and contribute to improving the current QA processes
- Participate in defining product planning, development, testing and release processes
- Work closely with engineering and product management teams; escalate issues in a timely manner
- Participate in engineering team meetings and provide feedback during various development phases
- As needed, support QA Lead in writing, documenting and implementing automated test scripts and testing tools
Required Experience and Qualifications:
- 5+ years QA experience in a US company
- MUST be fluent in Spanish, both written and spoken
- High quality standards, thorough attention to detail, and a passion for delivering quality products
- Experience with black box and manual testing for web applications
- Experience with browser compatibility testing of web applications, and knowledge of browser compatibility issues
- Familiarity with basic UNIX/Linux commands
- Experience writing and executing SQL queries and working with relational databases
- Knowledge of current web technology standards (XHTML, JavaScript, CSS and Flash for example) and the tools to debug them
- Experience with collaboration tools, including issue/defect tracking tools and wikis
- Experience writing, executing, and maintaining automated test frameworks and scripts for Java and Web applications, especially with tools like TestComplete, Silk or Selenium
- Thorough knowledge of QA methodologies, practices and policies and understanding of both agile and other SDLC methodologies
- Must be able to communicate effectively in English, with strong written and verbal communication skills
- BS/BA in Computer Science or equivalent combination of education and experience
Desired Experience and Qualifications:
- Familiarity with Omniture and testing Omniture implementations
- Experience testing video files and Flash applications
- Scripting skills (VB script, Shell, Perl, ANT, etc) and experience using software version control systems such as CVS
- Familiarity with J2EE application servers such as Resin or Tomcat
- Familiarity with virtualization products such as VMWare
- Familiarity with user story approach to defining feature requirements
- Experience in e-learning and/or a passion for education
How To Apply:
Please email a cover letter including salary requirements and résumé to jobs+spanishqa.gs@greatschools.org with
"QA Engineer" in the subject line. Resumes without cover letters will not be considered.
No calls please.
QA Engineer
The QA Engineer will serve as an integral member of a small test team, writing and executing functional and/or gray-box testing of web-based products against a bi-weekly release schedule. In addition, you will keep abreast of new testing and QA industry developments and make recommendations on how to leverage these technologies towards improving the testing of existing products and the development environment.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Write and execute test plans/test cases, incorporating black and grey box testing, based on functional and technical requirements
- Perform functional, regression, scalability, performance and system testing, as needed
- Verify application data against SQL and XML data sources
- Develop effective defect reports
- Evaluate new QA tools and contribute to improving the current QA processes
- Participate in defining product planning, development, testing and release processes
- Work closely with engineering and product management teams; escalate issues in a timely manner
- Participate in engineering team meetings and provide feedback during various development phases
- As needed, support QA Lead in writing, documenting and implementing automated test scripts and testing tools
Required Experience and Qualifications:
- 3 - 5+ years QA experience in a US company
- High quality standards, thorough attention to detail, and a passion for delivering quality products
- Experience with black box and manual testing for web applications
- Experience with browser compatibility testing of web applications, and knowledge of browser compatibility issues
- Familiarity with basic UNIX/Linux commands
- Experience writing and executing SQL queries and working with relational databases
- Knowledge of current web technology standards (XHTML, JavaScript, CSS and Flash for example) and the tools to debug them
- Experience with collaboration tools, including issue/defect tracking tools and wikis
- Experience writing, executing, and maintaining automated test frameworks and scripts for Java and Web applications, especially with tools like TestComplete, Silk or Selenium
- Thorough knowledge of QA methodologies, practices and policies and understanding of both agile and other SDLC methodologies
- Must be able to communicate effectively in English, with strong written and verbal communication skills
- BS/BA in Computer Science or equivalent combination of education and experience
Desired Experience and Qualifications:
- Familiarity with Omniture and testing Omniture implementations
- Experience testing video files and Flash applications
- Scripting skills (VB script, Shell, Perl, ANT, etc) and experience using software version control systems such as CVS
- Familiarity with J2EE application servers such as Resin or Tomcat
- Familiarity with virtualization products such as VMWare
- Familiarity with user story approach to defining feature requirements
- Experience in e-learning and/or a passion for education
How To Apply:
Please email a cover letter including salary requirements and résumé to jobs+qa.gs@greatschools.org with
"QA Engineer" in the subject line. Resumes without cover letters will not be considered.
No calls please.
Web Front-End Engineer (contract position)
Our development team is looking for a very bright and talented front-end engineer to work on the next generation of GreatSchools.org. We're looking for someone with a passion for performance, elegance, and cross-browser compatibility. This position will be responsible for working with interaction architects, graphic designers, and other engineers to implement a new site design and user experience.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Create attractive and fast front-ends for our consumer site using your sophisticated knowledge of XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript/AJAX
- Collaborate closely with other engineers and non-technical colleagues to define, design, estimate, and ship new functionality and features
- Create mark-up conventions and standards based on industry best practices in order to improve page performance
- Slice and dice design compositions as needed
Required Experience and Qualifications:
The ideal candidate will have a B.S. in Computer Science or equivalent degree and excellent problem-solving skills. The ideal candidate will have the following:
- 5+ years experience designing and developing robust, scalable web applications
- Recent experience and strong competence in page development using XHTML 1.1, HTML5, and CSS
- Deep understanding of the intricacies of rendering across browsers IE version 6-8 on Windows, Firefox 3, and Safari
- Front-end site optimization experience and strategies
- Solid experience in JavaScript programming with emphasis on jQuery
- Proficient working with Adobe Fireworks, PhotoShop, Illustrator, and Flash
- Experience working in an Integrated Development Environment
- Experience with java server pages and JSTL
- Experience with CVS, Subversion or Git
- " Passion for new technology and problem solving
- " Enjoy collaborating on tasks with team members
How To Apply:
Please email a cover letter including salary requirements and résumé to jobs+frontend.gs@greatschools.org with
"Web Front-End Engineer" in the subject line. Resumes without cover letters will not be considered.
No calls please.
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