Help Build ASEAN's Most Effective Coding Portal
The Pain (Read This Carefully)
We're growing fast, but our product team is running into familiar problems:
- We have ambitious features (AI coding buddy, gamified XP system, lesson engine) but not enough engineers who can execute well.
- Our CMS-driven pages work, but we need someone who understands headless architecture and can turn designer files into real components.
- We have multiple products LMS, Jobier, bootcamp portal, and the infra needs to scale while staying easy to maintain.
- We need engineers who think, not just code. People who can weigh DigitalOcean vs Vercel vs DO Droplet, or Payload CMS vs custom.
- And because we're in edtech, we need someone who cares about the students, not just the stack.
If we keep hiring just React coders, we'll move slowly, ship inconsistently, and fail to deliver on the high-quality learning experience we promise.
That's why this role exists.
Why This Role Exists
Sigma School is building a learning portal for ASEAN : interactive coding, AI-assisted teaching, XP systems, quizzes, projects, and job pathways.
We need an engineer who can:
- take a feature from idea research decision build deploy
- work well with designers, curriculum team, product team
- care deeply about user learning outcomes
- improve the architecture continuously
- help build a system that students rely on every day to change their careers
This is a product-driven engineering role.
Not wait for a ticket.
Not pixel-perfect React coder.
We want someone with opinions, ownership, and curiosity.
What Success Looks Like (Actual Expectations)
In 612 months, you should be able to say:
- I built core parts of the learning portal: lessons, coding exercises, course flows, dashboards, AI features.
- I improved our architecture so adding new modules is fast, not painful.
- Our LMS is stable and smooth students get fewer errors, more joy.
- Marketing can ship landing pages without engineering help because I built good CMS blocks.
- I can explain the pros & cons of any tech choice we make.
- I helped students understand coding through documentation, occasional teaching, or debugging.
Success is measured by impact on learning, not lines of code.
What You Will Own
You will own parts of:
1. The Learning Portal
- Interactive lesson UI
- Session logic, progress tracking
- CodeMirror integration
- XP & gamification systems
- AI tutor (explanations, hints)
2. Jamstack + CMS Development
- Payload/Headless CMS setup
- Marketing page blocks
- Dynamic page generation
- SEO performance
3. Infrastructure on DigitalOcean
- Droplets
- Managed DBs
- Spaces
- Backups & deployments
4. Product Thinking
- Write clear proposal docs (Here's the problem options tradeoffs recommendation)
- Make architectural decisions with strong reasoning
- Balance speed vs maintainability
5. Student & Learning Support (Not main job, but important)
- Debug tough student issues
- Help curriculum team design real-world backend projects
- Share insights with instructors
- Occasionally run office hours or give technical guidance
What You Must Be Good At
We don't care about CV buzzwords. We care about this:
1. Strong Frontend & Full-Stack Fundamentals
- React, Next.js, TypeScript
- Tailwind + shadcn/ui
- Node.js backend
- API design
- Postgres basics
- CI/CD logic (simple pipelines)
2. Researching & Reasoning
You enjoy researching:
- Should we use App Platform or Droplets
- Is Payload CMS or Strapi better for our use case
- Is serverless ideal or not for LMS workloads
You must be able to think and explain clearly.
3. Communication
If you can't explain why you chose a tool, you can't ship in our environment.
You'll write:
- proposals
- architecture notes
- async updates
- documentation
4. Passion for Education
This is non-negotiable.
You must love seeing people:
- learn
- break through
- switch careers
- become software engineers
If you only care about code, and not the student's learning journey, this isn't for you.
5. Continuous Learning
We need someone who learns faster than the company grows.
AI, devtools, Jamstack trends, DX improvements, you stay updated.
Do Not Apply If
This will save your time and ours.
Do NOT apply if:
- You want rigid instructions instead of autonomy
- You don't enjoy thinking through architecture and tradeoffs
- You hate writing or documenting decisions
- You dislike education or mentoring others
- You want a purely engineering role with no product thinking
- You don't like learning new things constantly
- You're looking for a corporate environment with layers of approvals
We're a startup building something meaningful.We don't have space for low-ownership behaviour.
How to A pply
Proceed here: sig1.co/apply-job & include:
- A short note about why you care about education
- A few sentences on a technical decision you're proud of
This role directly shapes how future developers in ASEAN learn to code.
If that excites you, we should talk!
