Tech Lead Manager, Student Experience

About Niche

Niche is the leader in school search. Our mission is to make researching and enrolling in schools easy, transparent, and free. With in-depth profiles on every school and college in America, 140 million reviews and ratings, and powerful search tools, we help millions of people find the right school for them. We also help thousands of schools recruit more best-fit students, by highlighting what makes them great and making it easier to visit and apply.

Niche is all about finding where you belong, and that mission inspires how we operate every day. We want Niche to be a place where people truly enjoy working and can thrive professionally.

 

About The Role

We are looking for an experienced Tech Lead Manager who is motivated by building impactful products, growing individuals, and driving a high-performance team. The TLM is the single technical and people leader for our student-facing team within our two sided marketplace.  This team is responsible for our logged-in student experience - guiding students and families through their higher education application and enrollment process.  

 

You will own the professional development, career growth, and performance management of your direct reports, and lead the team's culture, direction, and execution. Jointly with your Product Manager, you will own how the team works and evolve it toward faster delivery and rapid learning.

 

You will stay hands-on in the codebase: taking on inbound technical work directly, owning technical debt in your scope, and carrying enough depth in every project to challenge the technical approach rather than just track progress against it. You act as the primary technical representative for your team. You will also model effective AI-assisted development for your team, and monitor and act on team health.

 

What You Will Do

During the First Month:

• Learn about Niche by meeting with various team members to learn more about our company through our Onboarding meetings
• Build rapport with your direct reports and understand each ongoing project deeply enough to have a real technical opinion on it
• Understand the team's current process (ceremonies, planning, review) as it exists today, before changing anything

Within 3 Months:

• Be a regular, direct contributor to inbound technical work such as bug fixes, compliance work, technical debt, and smaller features
• Make your first joint call with Product on a process adjustment, however small
• Have established a working rhythm for 1:1s, performance conversations, and career development with each direct report

Within 6 Months:

• Demonstrate ownership of a nontrivial technical decision or architectural direction for your team's systems
• Show a track record of catching and correcting technical or product-design issues before they became delivery problems
• Complete a full performance/calibration cycle for your direct reports

Within 12 Months:

• Have led, jointly with Product, a deliberate evolution of your team's process informed by your learnings and experiments
• Be a recognized technical authority for your team's domain, trusted with architectural calls without needing to route them elsewhere
• Have a demonstrated record of balancing hands-on technical contribution with sustained people leadership

 

What We Are Looking For

• Strong, current hands-on software engineering experience.   This role requires writing and reviewing code regularly, not occasionally
• Prior experience owning both technical direction and people management, and a clear readiness to take on both at once
• Comfort operating without a separate Tech Lead to lean on.  You are capable of independently representing the engineering function. 
• Experience with or strong aptitude for AI-assisted development tooling and workflows
• A track record of making pragmatic technical trade-offs under real delivery pressure
• Experience with, or openness to evolving, agile/Scrum-based team processes

Compensation 

Our national target base salary range is $146,000-$183,000, plus participation in our Annual Bonus and Stock Option Program. Base compensation will be commensurate with experience and skills.

At Niche, our Total Rewards Philosophy is centered around creating a workplace environment that attracts, motivates, and retains top talent by providing a comprehensive and competitive rewards package.  This philosophy is built on the principles of performance-based compensation, best-in-class benefits and work-life balance, and employee well-being.

Interview Process

Candidate experience is a top priority for our talent and hiring teams.  We believe in providing a transparent, authentic and comprehensive interview process where you have the opportunity to learn about us while we get to know you and your experience.  The interview process is outlined here:

• Phone Screen with Talent Acquisition Partner - 30 Minutes

• Video Interview with Hiring Manager - 60 Minutes

• Team Interview (cross functional) - 60 Minutes

• Technical Fit Interview -  75 Minutes

• Leadership Interview - 60 Minutes

Why Niche?

• We are a fully flexible workforce empowering our employees to choose to work remotely, in our Pittsburgh office or whatever combination suits you
• Full time, salaried position with competitive compensation in a fast-growing company
• Best-in-class 100% paid employee health plan, including vision and dental and supplemental coverage
• Flexible Paid Time Off Policy
• Stipend that allows you to build your work from home office in a style and function that suits your personal preferences
• Parental leave for all employees (12 weeks fully paid) in addition to short term disability for birthing parents
• Meaningful 401(k) with employer match
• Your ideas and work will make an immediate impact on our company and millions of users
• You will join a team that cares about you, our mission, our work - and celebrates our wins together!

Niche will only employ those who are legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future for this opening.  

We are currently hiring in states where we currently have employees: AZ, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MO, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, DC, WV.

Candidates only.  No recruiters or agencies, please. Sorry, we do not offer relocation assistance.

Niche is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. Therefore, we provide employment opportunities without regard to age, race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry,  marital status, affectional or sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, nationality, sex, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law.

All interviews are being held remotely. If there are preparations we can make to help ensure you have a comfortable and positive interview experience, please let us know.