Senior Software Engineer, Data

Our AI team is where a lot of that gets built: applying advanced AI to real problems in learning, and turning research into product capabilities that educators and students use every day.

We're building the data platform behind our AI features: the models, pipelines, and services that hold the data those features depend on. This role owns it in production.

You’ll design the data models, build the services and pipelines that keep them current, and ensure they remain reliable as usage and complexity grow. This is backend and data engineering for systems where getting the structure of the data right is the core challenge.

You'll work alongside data scientists and applied AI engineers who build on what you own, and with our infrastructure team on deployment and operations.

What You'll Do

• Own the data models and storage architecture behind our AI systems, across relational, graph, and retrieval-oriented data
• Build and operate the APIs, backend services, and pipelines that keep that data current and accessible
• Design reliable ingestion and update workflows, including incremental processing, schema changes, and safe backfills
• Own data correctness, query performance, and scalability as volume and complexity grow
• Turn prototypes into production-ready data services, scoring workflows, and retrieval components
• Diagnose production issues and improve reliability, observability, and operational efficiency

What You'll Need

• Six or more years of experience building and operating production backend, data, or distributed systems
• Strong production Python and SQL, including experience building APIs, designing schemas, optimizing queries, and working with large or complex datasets
• Deep experience with relational data systems and strong judgment about when graph or other specialized databases are the right choice
• Experience building reliable ingestion and update pipelines, including incremental processing, data-quality checks, schema changes, and safe backfills
• Experience designing production services with clear API contracts, versioning, error handling, and performance considerations
• Hands-on experience deploying and operating services in AWS using containers, CI/CD, monitoring, and production debugging tools
• Strong engineering practices around testing, code review, observability, documentation, and maintaining systems that other teams depend on

It Would Be a Bonus If You Had

• Deep experience operating a graph database in production, including traversal performance and query tuning at scale
• Experience with versioned, bitemporal, or event-sourced data systems
• Experience with vector search or semantic retrieval components (pgvector, OpenSearch, Pinecone, or similar)
• Experience with multi-tenant data design and per-tenant isolation

Onsite Collaboration Requirement: This role requires working onsite on Tuesday and Wednesday, with Thursday strongly encouraged as part of our company’s in-person collaboration model.

Why Join Us

Join us and help shape the future of education by turning cutting-edge AI into reliable product capabilities.

At Instructure, we're on a mission to help educators and students learn together, anytime, anywhere, and however works best. You'll join our research-driven team tackling education's biggest challenges with cutting-edge technology.

We value diversity, creativity, and passion, and invest in our teams through mentorship, hack weeks, internal conferences, and a culture where innovation thrives. Here, you'll have the chance to build the next generation of LMS features that make a real impact on students and teachers, and do it in a collaborative, supportive environment that encourages experimentation and growth.

• Competitive compensation, plus all full-time employees participate in our ownership program - because everyone should have a stake in our success.
• Flexible work culture. Our remote, hybrid and in-office collaboration spaces vary by role, team and location.
• Generous time off, including local holidays and our annual “Dim the Lights” period in late December, when teams are encouraged to step back and recharge based on departmental needs.
• Comprehensive wellness programs and mental health support
• Learning and development resources, including professional development tools and tuition reimbursement, to support your growth
• The technology and tools you need to do your best work
• Motivosity employee recognition program
• A culture rooted in inclusivity, support, and meaningful connection

All employees must pass a background check as part of the hiring process. To help protect our teams and systems, we’ve implemented identity verification measures. Candidates may be asked to verify their legal name, current physical location, and provide a valid contact number and residential address, in accordance with local data privacy laws.