Backend Software Engineer

About the role

Seesaw is building out its engineering presence in Jordan and looking for a Backend Engineer to join the International Growth team. You will focus on backend systems that improve Arabic language support across AI-powered features, text and assessment pipelines, and future integrations with government SIS/LMS platforms. This position offers ownership over product direction from the start, direct connection to user feedback, and the ability to ship ideas to production within weeks.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Build backend services and pipelines for Arabic-enabled capabilities including AI activity generation, resource conversion, Reading Fluency (Arabic), and Read With Me (Arabic)
• Partner with product, design, and engineering teams to integrate AI/ML models with proper Arabic input/output handling and RTL support
• Create APIs, data models, and asynchronous job workflows that support international expansion and bilingual classroom needs
• Assist with rostering and integration issues alongside Support to maintain reliability for schools
• Shape architecture decisions, technical roadmap planning, and engineering standards for the new Jordan team

Requirements

• 3+ years of backend engineering experience, preferably with Python and AWS
• Solid grasp of Computer Science fundamentals through a CS degree or equivalent experience (bootcamps and non-traditional paths welcome)
• Proven track record designing, developing, and maintaining backend services at scale with knowledge of data models, queueing systems, API boundaries, and production constraints
• Familiarity with modern web technologies and service architectures including REST APIs, RPC frameworks, and asynchronous job pipelines
• Comfort navigating distributed systems, particularly text-processing pipelines, encoding challenges, and language-specific logic such as RTL and bidirectional text
• Ability to write clean, maintainable, self-documenting code and design simple solutions for complex backend problems
• Experience integrating with or consuming ML/AI models through APIs, SDKs, or custom services (OCR, ASR, NLP, TTS are a plus)

Nice to have

• Experience with Flask, DynamoDB, Postgres, Redis, message queues, or backend storage and caching layers
• Background working with AI/ML pipelines around text processing, OCR, speech recognition, or TTS, especially for Arabic features
• Knowledge of localization and internationalization including RTL adaptation, Arabic text shaping, and regional educational workflows
• Familiarity with SAML/OIDC, SIS/LMS integrations, or data interoperability standards like OneRoster and CSV/XLSX/XML export formats
• Skill debugging language formatting issues including encoding, RTL rendering, and Unicode bidirectional text handling
• Strong product sense and empathy for teachers and students in bilingual or Arabic-medium classrooms
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or similar, particularly S3, Lambda, queueing systems, or event-driven architectures

Skills & tools

• Python
• AWS (S3, Lambda)
• Flask
• DynamoDB
• Postgres
• Redis
• Message queues
• REST APIs
• RPC frameworks
• AI/ML model integration (OCR, ASR, NLP, TTS)

Practical notes

• Company participates in E-Verify
• Seesaw serves 25 million educators, students, and families globally
• Work-life balance is prioritized with clear boundaries when off the clock