Progress Lead

Stellic; San Mateo (CA); Hybrid; USD 210,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and equity

Annual international retreats

Health insurance coverage 99%

401(k) and commuter benefits

Job summary

Stellic is seeking a Progress Lead to own the Degree Progress product direction and the team responsible for it. You will translate SAT-solver outputs into reliable student-facing experiences, collaborating with the algorithms team to ensure correct, scalable results.

You’ll lead engineering excellence, mentor juniors, and shape testing infrastructure to validate complex degree requirements across diverse universities.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend engineering experience at scale.
• Proven track record delivering reliable, explainable results.
• Experience building testing frameworks for complex logic.
• Comfort with asynchronous/event-based architectures.

Responsibilities

• Own Degree Progress systems end to end from compute to user-facing experiences.
• Partner with algorithms to ensure seamless integration between compute and product.
• Design and implement purpose-built testing frameworks.
• Ensure correctness and reliability across edge cases.
• Drive engineering priorities in collaboration with product teams.

Skills

Backend engineering

System design

Testing frameworks

Asynchronous systems

Communication skills

Tools

Django

Angular

React

Remix

Python

SQL

AWS

Job description

Set students’ lives on a trajectory they’ll be proud of

Every decision a student makes during their education can leave a lasting impact on their future. Together, we can help them bring the right decisions into focus.

There are over 235 million students in higher-ed, each with a path that will let them move forward in the world with purpose. We have the opportunity to make the path easier to see and follow. It’s a big endeavor, but we’re fully committed to it.

Innovation for students, by (former) students

We started Stellic when we were college students wanting to get the most value out of our education. The tools available to help us were outdated and confusing, even then. But with effort and insight from other students and professionals on campus, we’re now redefining the role of tech in schools across the world.

We approach our work with curiosity, a drive to grow, and a desire to learn.

You own the mission

We take full ownership of our work and its impact. We focus on outcomes, not just tasks, and always drive the mission forward.

You drive for 10x

We focus on what makes the biggest difference and deliver experiences that raise the bar and bring true delight.

You lead with heart

We think about the people on the other side and act with empathy, integrity, and care for how our work makes others feel.

Our commitment to you

• Market-aligned compensation packages, with equity
• International team retreat each year
• 99% covered health, dental, and vision
• Resources for professional growth
• Parental leave for all parents
• Flexible PTO
• 401(k) and IRA plans

TEAM SPOTLIGHT

“Startups are hard, but what keeps me going is the impact. Stellic is that rare place where cutting‑edge tech meets real‑world educational impact. That kind of purpose makes all the difference.”

Head of Product

TEAM SPOTLIGHT

“Owning a major feature early on helped me grow faster than I ever thought was possible. You’re trusted here, and that pushes you to step up.”

Maham Shoaib Patel Frontend Engineer

TEAM SPOTLIGHT

“I gave up on a minor I really wanted because I couldn’t figure out how to do it. That frustration is why Stellic exists—to help students make better, informed decisions.”

Cofounder

TEAM SPOTLIGHT

“The company retreat was the best crash course in Stellic’s culture. I felt inspired being around people who genuinely care and want to make a real difference.”

Eric Wengenroth Regional Director, University Partnerships

Tech Lead, Progress

Location

This role is hybrid/in‑office preferred in San Mateo, California, with remote flexibility considered case by case.

Employment Type

Full time

Compensation

• Estimated base salary $210K - $260K Offers Equity

At Stellic, total compensation packages are tailored to each candidate and take into account job‑related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, training and current market conditions.

Stellic is growing! We're looking for a Progress Lead to own the technical direction of our Degree Progress product. We're evolving from a search‑based system to a SAT solver–driven architecture, and we need a technical leader who can operationalize that algorithmic power into a product that students and universities can genuinely trust.

ABOUT US

We're building a future where every student can move through their education with clarity, confidence, and purpose. Our platform transforms the student experience, giving them the tools they need to make the right decisions about their degree plans, track their journey, and build an education and career path that's truly their own.

Stellic is a fast‑growing startup backed by leading social impact investors, partnering with top institutions like Cornell, Columbia, UVA, and Ohio State to support over 1 million students across 7 countries. As we scale to serve more universities worldwide, we remain deeply committed to this mission, driven by our values, and committed to building a high‑performance team that's here to make a lasting difference on both students' lives and higher education.

STELLIC ENGINEERS

Stellic engineers combine a rare blend of curiosity, creativity, and business acumen with the ability to deliver pragmatic solutions at high velocity with uncompromising quality. Our mission is to help students, and our engineers always have that in mind as they are building.

THE PROGRESS TEAM

The Progress team owns Stellic's Degree Progress product, which enables students and administrators to track progress toward degree requirements and academic goals. The team is split across two closely related areas:

Compute: focuses on the underlying algorithm and correctness of results

Product: focuses on applying, validating, and presenting those results in a reliable and intuitive way

This role leads the entire team, working in close partnership with our algorithms lead. The team's primary focus right now is improving the scalability and reliability of the system, with a heavy emphasis on building purpose‑built testing frameworks to validate complex and highly variable degree requirements.

ABOUT YOU

You've built systems where correctness isn't negotiable — where the output needs to be right, explainable, and testable across a massive range of edge cases. You think deeply about validation, debugging, and what it means to deliver reliable outcomes in complex domains. You're as comfortable partnering with an algorithms lead as you are setting technical direction for your own team.

AS OUR PROGRESS LEAD, YOU WILL OWN

Degree Progress systems, end to end: Own the systems that orchestrate and operationalize results from the SAT solver into user‑facing experiences — applying, validating, and presenting degree progress outcomes in a way that students and advisors can trust.

Algorithm-to-product integration: Partner closely with our algorithms lead to ensure seamless integration between compute outputs and product behavior across the full range of edge cases that complex degree requirements introduce.

Purpose-built testing frameworks: Design and implement testing infrastructure specifically built to validate complex and highly variable degree requirements — one of the team's biggest current investments.

Correctness and reliability: Ensure the system delivers reliable, explainable outcomes across edge cases, with clear guarantees around performance and behavior.

Technical prioritization: Drive alignment on engineering‑driven priorities alongside product priorities.

Engineering excellence: Drive engineering excellence by defining and mentoring on best practices, design patterns, and code quality.

TO BE SUCCESSFUL, YOU SHOULD HAVE

5+ years of backend engineering experience operating at scale, with a track record of leading complex implementations as a technical lead

Strong intuition for designing systems that produce correct, explainable outcomes in ambiguous or edge‑case‑heavy domains

Experience building or working with purpose‑built testing frameworks for validating complex business logic

Ability to reason about and debug systems where correctness verification is non‑trivial

Expertise building highly optimized, robust systems at scale

Deep experience with backend engineering using high‑level programming languages and frameworks

Comfort with asynchronous / event‑based architectures

Clear and effective communication skills for collaborating with product, design, and customer‑facing teams

Deep curiosity, customer empathy, and commitment to engineering as a craft — and a desire to mentor junior developers

OUR CURRENT TECH STACK

While we plan on introducing new technologies and capabilities, and potentially migrating away from current ones, here is the general shape of our current stack:

Languages: Python, SQL

Frameworks: Django, Angular, React, Remix

Version control: Git (GitHub)

Cloud: AWS

Deployment: AWS CodeDeploy

Observability & Analytics: Sentry, Grafana, Prometheus, PostHog, Metabase

Both single and multi‑tenant architecture

WHY YOU'LL LOVE WORKING AT STELLIC

Shape the future of higher education at a company leading the transformation of student success.

Work alongside an ambitious, mission‑driven leadership team building something meaningful.

Own a piece of the journey with competitive salary, meaningful equity and a culture of excellence, speed and ownership.

Thrive in a flexible, outcome‑driven culture built on trust and autonomy.

Exceptional benefits, including health insurance with Stellic covering 99% of your premium and 75% for dependents.

401(k), commuter benefits, and annual international retreats in incredible locations.

Stellic is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Our company values diversity and believes diverse teams make innovation possible. We encourage all qualified applicants from any race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or other characteristics to apply.