Software Developer (Casper Team) at Acuity Insights

Calgary, Alberta, Canada -

Full Time

Start Date

Immediate

Expiry Date

29 Jul, 26

Salary

155000.0

Posted On

30 Apr, 26

Experience

5 year(s) or above

Remote Job

Yes

Telecommute

Yes

Sponsor Visa

Skills

JavaScript, TypeScript, Meteor, MongoDB, React, AWS, System design, Backend development, Software testing, Production support, Code review, Mentoring, AI tools, Technical stewardship, Performance optimization

Industry

Higher Education

Description

Intermediate or Senior level | Remote within Canada A high-scale product, end-to-end ownership, and real problems to solve. Casper is one of Acuity Insights’ core products, used by hundreds of programs globally to make high-stakes admissions decisions with greater confidence. It helps programs look beyond academic metrics by evaluating how applicants think, reason, and respond in complex situations, consistently and at scale. Casper supports approximately 160,000 applicants each year, with individual test sessions ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 applicants at a time. It’s a system where reliability, performance, and judgment matter in real-world conditions. We’re hiring two Software Developers to join the Casper team: one Intermediate and one Senior. You’ll work on a product with over a decade of production history: stable, widely used, revenue-critical, and actively evolving. As George (Development Manager) puts it, “This isn’t a product you work on from the edges. You’re working on the system itself.” This is not a greenfield role. It’s also not maintenance-only. Some parts of the system are well-established; others need modernization, clearer patterns, stronger testing, and thoughtful technical stewardship. You’ll help keep an important product healthy while building the next capabilities that make Casper more valuable, resilient, and ready for what comes next. As AI reshapes how applicants prepare and respond, Casper is adapting too. The engineering work behind it is becoming more complex, more consequential, and more interesting, from how the team builds software day to day to how the product protects trust and test integrity. What you’ll work on There’s no clean separation between “maintenance” and “new work” on this team. Both matter, and both are shared. In your first few months, your focus will be on upgrade, stability, and reliability work, helping move Casper onto supported versions of key technologies and building a strong understanding of how the system behaves in production. Over time, that balance shifts. You’ll move into more product-oriented work, contributing to how Casper evolves in response to changing market needs. Right away, you’ll likely be working on core upgrade and stability work, helping move Casper onto supported versions of Meteor and MongoDB, improving reliability, and getting familiar with how the system behaves in production. This work is how the team builds the context needed to safely evolve a system at this scale. From there, you’ll move into work that shapes where Casper goes next. That includes things like: Score evolution Rethinking how Casper scores are calculated, processed, and presented, a system that spans multiple services and connects everything from test delivery to program-facing insights. Test integrity in an AI world Designing how Casper detects, deters, and responds to policy violations in an environment where applicants have access to increasingly capable AI tools. Making the product more understandable and defensible Improving how programs interpret results, from analytics to score presentation, so decisions are clearer, more consistent, and easier to stand behind. Supporting more complex program structures Like institutions operating across multiple campuses and geographies, where the product needs to reflect more nuanced real-world use. Some of this work is well-defined. Some of it is still taking shape. You’ll be part of figuring that out. How the team works Casper operates on a shared ownership model. There isn’t a strict separation between parts of the system, everyone contributes across the stack and across domains. That includes core areas like authentication, payments, test delivery, scoring, alerts, and production support. You’ll be part of a team that is collectively responsible for keeping the system running, improving it over time, and responding when things go wrong. The kind of engineering environment you’ll join Casper is built primarily with JavaScript, Meteor, MongoDB, React, and AWS. The system reflects over a decade of evolution, with contributions from many developers over time. You’ll need to be comfortable navigating different patterns and approaches, understanding why things were built the way they were, and improving them thoughtfully. You’ll need to be comfortable reading before rewriting, understanding context before changing direction, and making improvements that move the system forward without slowing the team down. This is a team that values progress over perfection. We’re not trying to rebuild everything. We’re trying to make the system better, step by step, while continuing to deliver. We’re specifically looking for developers who are actively working in JavaScript or TypeScript in production today and can ramp quickly in that environment. This is an AI-first engineering environment. Tools like Copilot, Codex, and Claude are part of how work gets done day to day. We’re looking for developers who already work this way, using AI to explore, build, and iterate faster. This isn’t experimental here; it’s part of the job. “AI isn’t something we’re experimenting with on the side. It’s just part of how we build now.” - George Guja (Development Manager, Casper) For the Senior Developer As a Senior Developer on Casper, you’ll help shape how the team approaches both new work and an existing system that’s already doing a lot. This is not a staff-level architecture role. You’ll contribute to system design, but you’ll also spend a significant portion of your time writing code and improving systems. You’ll spend your time in a mix of building, shaping, and supporting others: contributing to system design and helping the team think through how new work fits into what already exists leading or co-leading more complex backend-heavy initiatives improving code quality and engineering patterns through reviews, pairing, and example strengthening how the team approaches testing and reliability over time defining how the team approaches testing in a mature system (unit, integration, end-to-end) planning and validating production changes, including upgrades and breaking changes mentoring developers who are earlier in their growth For the Intermediate Developer As an Intermediate Developer, you’ll take on meaningful ownership while building deeper context in a system that has real complexity. We’re targeting mid-to-upper intermediate developers, not someone newly stepping up from a junior role. You won’t be working in isolation or just executing tickets. You’ll be working closely with senior developers, contributing to shared problems, and gradually expanding the scope of what you own. Early on, that might look like: owning parts of upgrade and stability work contributing to bug fixes and small improvements working across both frontend and backend building a strong understanding of production behavior Over time, we expect that to grow into: owning larger pieces of work end-to-end becoming a go-to person for parts of the system contributing to how work is shaped, not just implemented What we’re looking for in both roles There are a lot of ways to succeed here, but the developers who tend to do well on this team share a few things in common. They’ve worked on systems that are already in use, where reliability matters and changes have real impact. They’re comfortable stepping into codebases they didn’t write, making sense of them quickly, and improving them without needing to start over. They think in trade-offs. They know when to refactor and when to leave something alone. They care about getting things right, but also about moving things forward. They’re comfortable with backend-heavy work, even if they identify as full-stack. They understand how data flows through a system, how services interact, and what can go wrong in production. They treat testing and quality as part of the system, not something that happens at the end. They’ve either worked with or helped improve testing approaches in real environments. They use AI tools as part of their day-to-day workflow. Tools like Copilot, Codex, or Claude aren’t new or experimental, they’re already integrated into how they explore, write, and refine code. They collaborate directly. They ask questions, share context, and don’t wait for perfect clarity before moving forward. And they care about the outcome, not just the implementation. They want to understand why something matters, not just what needs to be built. On-call & test support expectations Casper includes shared responsibility for supporting live test sessions: 1–2 sessions per month Typically up to ~5 hours Often scheduled between 6–10 PM Eastern Occasionally overnight (1–5 AM Eastern) for international sessions May occasionally include weekends These are planned in advance and shared across the team. How We Support You Transparent compensation. The starting salary for Senior roles is between $145,000 and $155,000 CAD; Intermediate roles range from $120,000 to $142,000 CAD. Final offers reflect experience, scope, market alignment, and internal equity. Learning that grows with you. A $3,000 annual learning budget to invest in your development, whether that’s deepening technical skills, building confidence, or exploring new areas of interest. Shared success. Access to employee stock options, so you share in the value you help create. Remote-first work. Fully remote within Canada, with up to six weeks per year to work internationally. Time to rest and reset. Self-directed vacation (most teammates take 4–6 weeks annually), monthly Acuity Days (a collective Friday off), plus a two-week company-wide closure each December. Comprehensive care. Health benefits from day one for you and your dependents. Future-focused support. A 2% GRSP matching program to help you plan ahead. Support for growing families. A 16-week parental leave top-up beyond EI, available to all parents. What Happens After You Apply We review every application carefully, looking for people who are caring, curious, driven, and resilient. Whether you apply directly, are referred, or connect through a recruiter or hiring manager, you’ll receive equal consideration. We don’t use AI to evaluate applications, though you may be automatically screened out if you don’t meet baseline requirements (e.g. Canadian residency and valid work authorization). In some interviews, AI may help with note-taking, but all evaluations and decisions are made by real humans. Our interviews are two-way conversations. We want to understand your career, abilities, and goals, and help you assess whether this opportunity and team are the right fit for you. Steps in the Process Our hiring process typically takes 2–4 weeks from initial conversation to final decision. Application Review. A real person reviews your application for potential fit. Intro Chat. An informal conversation with our recruiter to explore your career path, goals, and what you’re looking for, while giving you a chance to learn about Acuity Insights. Technical Deep Dive. A conversation with the hiring manager focused on your experience and how you approach real-world engineering problems. This may include discussing systems you’ve worked on, trade-offs you’ve made, and, in some cases, a lightweight practical or collaborative exercise. We’ll share what to expect in advance. Team Conversations. You’ll meet 1:1 with future teammates to assess alignment and ways of working. Decision. The hiring manager reviews feedback and typically makes a decision within 2–4 business days. Offer & Reference Checks. If it’s a match, we move to offer, pending a digital reference check. Life at Acuity Insights We’re a remote-first team of 135+ people who care deeply about our work and about each other. Our culture is intentionally designed. As we’ve grown, we’ve made deliberate choices about how we work together, prioritizing trust, flexibility, and a sustainable pace so people can do meaningful work over the long term. That commitment has been recognized externally. Acuity Insights has been named one of Canada’s Top Small & Medium Employers for the second consecutive year, reflecting our focus on building a strong, people-first environment. Day to day, that shows up in how we collaborate: High trust and autonomy in how work gets done Thoughtful, async-friendly communication across a distributed team Space for deep work, balanced with intentional moments of connection A culture grounded in care, curiosity, and shared purpose As we continue to grow, we’re focused on maintaining that balance, building a company where people can do their best work and grow over time, without losing what makes the environment feel human. About Acuity Insights Acuity Insights builds products that help higher education institutions make better decisions about people, from admissions through to development. Our work is grounded in a simple idea: that people are more than their grades, and that potential can be understood and developed, not just measured. Our Casper situational judgment test (SJT), created by researchers at McMaster University, has been completed by over 1 million applicants and is one of the most widely used open-response SJTs in higher education, backed by nearly 20 years of research. Today, we are evolving our products to better connect assessment, insight, and development, helping institutions not just identify potential, but actively support its growth over time.

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Responsibilities

You will contribute to the maintenance, modernization, and evolution of the Casper product by working across the full stack. Responsibilities include improving system reliability, implementing new features, and participating in on-call rotations to support live test sessions.