ABOUT THE ROLE
We are building the platform that L&D teams use to procure, configure, and deliver premium executive education to their people, entirely inside the tools those people already use. This is a founding-level engineering hire on a product moving from validated prototype to full-scale production.
You will own the full stack of a multi-tenant SaaS platform with three connected surfaces — an L&D Admin console, a Customer Success (CSM) console, and an embedded Learner experience. Two pillars sit at the centre of the role: the backend of the entire platform — the APIs, services, data model, workflows, and event pipelines every surface runs on — and the client HR-tech integration layer that lets Emeritus plug into any customer's identity and learning stack in an afternoon rather than a quarter. You'll build both, and you'll also ship the product surfaces that sit on top of them.
This role requires an L&D / EdTech / HR-Tech engineering background. The integration layer is one of the most differentiating part of this product. We need someone who has already shipped LMS, SSO, and HRIS integrations in production — who knows why a SCIM deprovisioning race condition orphans accounts, what breaks an LTI 1.3 launch, and how completion data actually lands on a learner's LMS transcript — so they can lead this work from day one rather than learn it on the job.
What you'll do
This is a broad, senior role across two core pillars — backend platform engineering and the client integration layer — plus the product surfaces on top.
1 · Backend platform engineering (core mandate)
- Services & APIs — design and build the backend services and APIs the whole platform runs on — clean, well-typed, versioned contracts consumed by the L&D Admin, CSM, and Learner surfaces.
- Data model & multi-tenancy — own the core data model and persistence layer for a multi-tenant system, with strict tenant isolation and privacy guarantees for customer employee data.
- Workflow & business logic — build the engines behind catalogue configuration, procurement, approvals, cohort assignment, coaching allowances, and enrolment — the stateful workflows that move a customer from purchase to people learning.
- Real-time state & notifications — design the event and notification model that keeps the three personas in sync, so an action in one console updates the others live.
- Async & event pipelines — background jobs, queues, and event-driven pipelines (provisioning, completion sync, usage roll-ups) that stay correct and idempotent under load.
- AuthN / AuthZ & security — authentication, role-based access, secrets and credential handling, and audit — for a platform holding enterprise identity and completion data.
- Reliability, performance & observability — own uptime, latency, and correctness; set the testing strategy, CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, logging, and metrics bar as the platform scales across customers.
2 · Client HR-tech & LMS integration layer (core mandate)
- SSO & identity — SAML 2.0 and OIDC against enterprise IdPs (Okta, Azure AD / Entra ID, Google Workspace, Ping). Design role mapping, session pass-through, and just-in-time provisioning so learners never see an Emeritus login screen.
- LMS integration — LTI 1.3 deep-linking and connectors for Cornerstone, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday Learning, Docebo, Canvas / Instructure, and 360Learning, so Emeritus programmes appear as a native tile inside the customer's LMS.
- Directory provisioning — SCIM 2.0 auto-provisioning and deprovisioning from customer directories, including group-to-cohort mapping and reconciliation that leaves no orphaned accounts.
- Completion & records sync — xAPI / LRS event pipelines (enrolled → started → milestone → completed) that post back to the customer's LMS transcript, keeping their system of record and compliance dashboards accurate.
- HRIS connectors — employee, role, and org-hierarchy sync against Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, and Oracle HCM to drive cohorts, eligibility, and reporting.
- Integration framework — build a reusable, standards-first connector framework (SAML / OIDC / LTI / SCIM / xAPI) with tenant-scoped configuration, secret management, observability, and a self-serve setup flow the L&D Admin can complete without engineering hand-holding.
3 · Product surfaces
- Ship the L&D Admin, CSM, and embedded Learner experiences end to end — from catalogue configuration and procurement through cohort management, assignment, and enrolment.
- Translate a high-fidelity, brand-precise UI into a performant, accessible production front end (React / Next.js, TypeScript).
What we're looking for
Must-have
- 8+ years building and operating production web applications, with real depth on the backend as a full-stack engineer.
- Strong backend engineering — API and service design, data modelling, and relational databases (Python / FastAPI or an equivalent typed backend), including async / event-driven work (queues, background jobs, pipelines) that stays correct under load.
- Direct L&D / EdTech / HR-Tech domain experience — you have shipped and maintained integrations for an LMS, HRIS, or learning platform in production. This is a hard requirement, not a preference.
- Hands-on depth with the enterprise integration standards — SAML 2.0, OIDC / OAuth 2.0, LTI 1.3, SCIM 2.0, and xAPI.
- Sound instincts for multi-tenant SaaS: tenant isolation, secrets and credential handling, authz, and data privacy for customer employee data.
- Capable modern front end (React / Next.js, TypeScript) — enough to own product surfaces end to end, even if your centre of gravity is the backend.
- Comfortable owning systems end to end in an ambiguous, fast-moving, zero-to-one environment.
Nice-to-have
- Prior experience integrating with Cornerstone, SuccessFactors, Workday, Docebo, Canvas, or 360Learning specifically.
- Experience running an LRS or building xAPI pipelines, and familiarity with SCORM / AICC legacy standards.
- GCP experience (Cloud Run, Cloud SQL, Pub/Sub, Redis) and Terraform / IaC.
