TL;DR (too long; didn't read): Help us protect and evolve the technical integrity of the Komodo platform. This is a critical hire for our engineering team, focusing on translating product intent into robust, high-impact software that improves the lives of students and staff in schools globally.
Why Komodo now?
Komodo is helping schools across the world lead with wellbeing through insight, education, and a platform built to scale.
You’ll work in a growing global EdTech business with real traction
You’ll work on meaningful problems that affect young people
You’ll have a clear scope to evolve you career
You’ll have access to ESOP
At a glance
Role title: Senior Software Engineer
️ Role level: Senior (E3)
Reports to: Chief Product Officer
Start date: April 2026
Location: Christchurch, NZ (Hybrid)
Hours: Full-time, permanent
Why This Role Exists
As we continue to scale, the complexity of our systems grows. We need a Senior Software Engineer who brings deep technical judgement and systems thinking to our product initiatives. You aren't just here to ship features; you are here to anticipate downstream impacts, manage technical debt, and ensure our platform remains reliable as it evolves. You will fill a vital gap in our backend capability while contributing across the full stack.
What You'll Own
Technical Ownership: Own the end-to-end implementation of product initiatives, from initial design considerations through to deployment and post-release follow-up.
Architecture & Design: Contribute to architectural decisions, proposing approaches that balance immediate customer value with long-term maintainability.
Engineering Practice: Help evolve our testing, deployment workflows, and code review standards to increase delivery confidence across the team.
Production Stability: Lead the investigation and resolution of production issues, identifying root causes and implementing durable fixes rather than quick patches.
Quality & Peer Review: Conduct thorough peer code reviews to raise the quality bar and ensure our codebase remains clean and well-tested.
Collaboration: Work closely with the Product and Customer Experience teams to share risks, trade-offs, and progress, ensuring technical decisions are made with full context.
What Success Looks Like
First 90 days:
You have a deep understanding of our architecture.
You are leading the technical execution of mid-sized features.
You have established a rhythm of providing high-quality, timely code reviews.
You have delivered your first sets of tickets/features that directly impact customers.
At 6-12 months:
You are a go-to person for complex technical challenges.
You have significantly improved our automated testing or deployment workflows.
You are consistently delivering work with minimal regressions.
About You
Must haves:
At least 8 years of professional experience building and scaling customer-facing web applications.
You use AI as a core part of your everyday workflow to automate the routine and free up your time for higher-level strategic work.
Experience architecting systems for a global user base.
Experience with some of our Technology Stack
A track record of taking ownership of complex features from concept to production.
You possess an investigative mindset and insatiable curiosity for solving problems. You have a willingness to go beyond the code to solve real-world problems, including engaging directly with customers or staff to investigate and resolve complex technical issues.
A natural drive to understand the "why" behind a system’s behaviour, paired with the persistence to uncover root causes rather than just fixing symptoms.
Nice to haves:
Prior experience working within the education or healthcare sectors, or an understanding of the data privacy and security standards (like GDPR or COPPA) that come with them.
Experience working alongside Product teams in feature design.
Experience mentoring intermediate or junior developers.
Expected Challenges
We believe in radical transparency to ensure you have a realistic job preview. Here are the key challenges you should expect:
Startup life isn't always polished. You will encounter legacy code that needs refactoring, shifting product priorities, and the pressure of resolving production issues that directly affect school operations.
We are a small, highly integrated team, which means we don’t have room for engineers who want to "hide behind the code". You will be expected to collaborate deeply with product and success teams, contribute to the "why" behind features, and take a visible role in solving customer problems. This role requires high engagement and a willingness to be seen and heard across the business.
How We Work
We are committed to a flexible, high-trust environment.
Location and Collaboration: This is a full-time, permanent role based in our Christchurch, NZ office. We are an office-first team with a strong culture of in-person collaboration.
Responsible Autonomy: We trust our team to manage their time responsibly and offer flexibility. You will have the autonomy to decide how you get the work done, provided the needs of our customers and the wellbeing of our teammates are always at the forefront.
Learning and Candour: We have a strong culture of continuous improvement and encourage giving and receiving feedback in a considerate way. Proactiveness is a necessity.
How to Apply
Interested? Apply via the link and tell us why this role with Komodo speaks to you.
We know from research that people, especially women and those from under-represented groups, often hesitate to apply unless they meet close to every listed requirement. If this role sounds like it could be a good match, even if you do not tick every box, we would still love to hear from you.
We sometimes use artificial intelligence tools to support parts of our hiring process, such as helping us review applications or understand experience at scale. These tools simply assist our team and they never replace human judgement. Every decision about progressing or hiring a candidate is made by real people. If you would like to understand how your data is used as part of this process, you’re welcome to get in touch with us.
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