Kodable
Kodable teaches kids to code before they can read! Built for ages 4-10, kids learn the ABCs of coding while practicing resilience, grit, and maintaining a growth mindset. Currently used in over 190 countries and more than 50% of US Elementary schools, we give kids everything they need to succeed in the 21st century.
Why join us?
Kodable was founded to fill a gap in education currently affecting over 250 Million kids around the world. Every child should have the opportunity to learn about computer science early in life, and not enough do. Our mission is to make programming education accessible to everyone, and we'd like you to join us.
We've reached over 50% of US elementary schools, and kids in over 190 countries around the world primarily from word of mouth. We have a team full of top-tier educators from Harvard, Teach for America, Leapfrog, Microsoft and more, because we believe in putting educators first.
Less meeting, more doing! We have a big focus on personal accountability, which means we spend less time trying to micro-manage and more time focusing on building and executing. Because we're a remote-first company, you're always given the freedom to choose how you'd like to structure your day and what you'd like to work on. Results are what matter, and we practice that every day.
Engineering at Kodable
The Kodable engineering department operates with a heavy emphasis on self-management and accountability. We utilize a pretty standard scrum workflow but focus on limiting meetings to give you more time to actually code. You're given a lot of freedom to decide how you want to work, and ultimately held to the standard you set for yourself. We're not going to tell you how long something is going to take - but we're going to count on you to finish it when you say you will.
Engineers are encouraged to own multiple areas of the product; if you're working on something and see a bug - go ahead and fix it! If something doesn't look right on the dashboard, tweak the CSS instead of just passing if off to someone else or putting it in a never-to-be-done wishlist
project.
Client side we use Unity for our game and React for our teacher dashboard. On the backend we use Ruby for our API and PostgreSQL for our database. Most things are hosted on Heroku with some AWS S3 and Lambda jobs sprinkled in for flavor.
As one of the biggest names in early childhood coding education, we're always developing new, better ways for kids around the world to learn about computer science. We already support tens of millions of kids with a very small team of developers, so there's always new challenges there. You could be helping manage server loads for hundreds of thousands of concurrent users, or you might be working on helping our educator team implement a better way to teach functions to seven year olds in the classroom. There's always a new, unique challenge waiting around the corner!
Hundreds of thousands of kids use Kodable every week, and we process millions of data points on their progress. You could architect our progress reporting system from scratch to handle this volume and deliver summary progress reports to teachers and parents.
We've spent years iterating on our product quickly to find product market fit. Now that we're reaching scale, we know it's time to invest more in our architecture. We want someone that can approach building new features for our API and Dashboard with a startup mindset (meaning executing quickly) but with an eye towards quality. This means you will be free to think of ways to reimagine large parts of our codebase to set us up as we scale to tens of millions more kids in the next few years.
Working at Kodable
The Kodable team is full of bright, ambitious people who are passionate about their jobs. Everyone at Kodable believes in what we're doing, and it shows in their work. You’ll join a product team with over 50 years of experience from places like Microsoft, Leapfrog, Harvard and Scientific Learning. Every member of the team has a voice in making Kodable great.
Kodable is remote-first but we have a strong culture offline as well with quarterly off-sites and a stylish office in sunny San Diego, CA. We have a tight-knit online culture with discussions of movies and tv, trivia challenges, and impromptu happy hours. We keep everyone in the loop with daily 15-minute status meetings and weekly demos. Everything is documented in Slack and Slab for later review.
Our Values
Mission-driven
Everyone that works at Kodable believes in our mission to make Computer Science education accessible to everyone.
Focused
We focus on the things that are of the highest value, rather than outliers and shiny objects. We work smarter, not harder.
Communicative
We listen to our users, each other, and our instincts. We speak honestly and directly with each other, even when that conversation might be difficult or controversial. We have the courage to vocalize our concerns or question actions inconsistent with our values.
Resilient
We persevere when face with adversity (and when you're at a startup there's a lot of it). We don't let challenges affect our attitude and we proactively adapt to new situations.
Innovative
We are clever in the way we tackle problems. We're excited to look at what has been done in the past and find ways to do it better.
Accountable
We strive to produce work that makes ourselves and our colleagues proud, not just what we were required to do.
We're self motivated and don't wait to be told what to do, or that that something could be better.
Growth Minded
We are always striving to better ourselves, both professionally and personally. We're never afraid to learn and contribute outside of our area of expertise and we never stop learning.
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Travel
We're a remote first company, so travel wherever and whenever you like! The only thing we ask if you actually live in a location that matches with the major US timezones.
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Gym/Fitness
Physical and mental wellbeing is a big part of our culture. We offer a gym stipend up to $100/mo per employee.
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Generous Vacation
We have an unlimited vacation policy that everyone is encouraged to use.
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Beautiful Office
Located right in the heart of Little Italy in sunny San Diego, we maintain a collaborative workspace for everyone to drop in and enjoy whenever they'd like. Even if you don't live here, it's a great excuse to visit America's Finest City :)
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Company Retreats
Since we're a remote-first company, we plan semi-regular company retreats in fun places for everyone to hang out and work together for a few days.
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Flexible Hours
One of the best things about a remote company is you can choose how you want to spend your day. We maintain a standing meeting at 9am PST, and have a general expectation of availability, but you're welcome to go to the gym at noon or get your errands done before rush hour traffic.
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Health Insurance
We cover 100% of health, vision, dental, and life insurance.
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401(k) Contribution
We offer a 401(k) plan but do not offer a 401(k) match at this time.
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Women-led company
One of our founders is female and our company was founded on the belief that both girls and boys can be equally successful in Computer Science.
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Social impact driven
Our mission is to teach every child in the world about computer science, regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic background.
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Work from Home
We're a remote-first company so you can work from home, a coffee shop, or a beach. The world is your office!
External Links
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/gudmundsen/2015/09/27/how-get-kids-start-coding/72736670/
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/cartercoudriet/2018/11/13/30-under-30-education-2019-the-masterminds-shaping-the-future-of-learning-access-and-careers/?sh=59c85f262fcb
- https://www.techrepublic.com/article/kodable-gets-kids-programming-before-they-can-read/
- https://www.technowize.com/best-coding-apps-for-children-in-2020/
- https://phys.org/news/2017-12-google-celebrates-years-kids-coding.html
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