About This Opportunity
This is a UC Santa Cruz employee position working on the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) platform—the online K-12 assessment system used by millions of students across 12 states and territories. SBAC is administratively housed at UCSC Silicon Valley Extension, meaning you’re a university employee whose work serves this multi-state educational consortium.
What you’d actually build: Both internal tools (admin interfaces, content management) and external-facing software (assessment delivery, teacher dashboards, reporting tools). The role is 85% frontend development, 15% process improvement.
SBAC’s mission drives the work:
“A high-quality assessment system can provide information and tools for teachers and schools to improve instruction and help students succeed, regardless of disability, language, or subgroup.”
Why I’m Excited
- Educational Equity at Scale - State assessments reach every student, including those with disabilities and language barriers. My accessibility work directly serves this mission.
- Accessibility Expertise Matters Here - State assessments must be ADA compliant. This isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s legally required—and it’s my strength.
- QA-Integrated Development - The 85/15 dev/process split matches my background. I started in QA and still think in test plans and edge cases.
- Stable, Established Environment - Mature codebase, documented processes, stakeholder-driven priorities. I understand how to work effectively in institutional settings.
- Remote Work - Established remote practices from my current role.
Honest about growth areas: Angular and AWS are new to me, but I have a strong TypeScript foundation and GCP/Docker experience. I’m genuinely interested in learning within a structured environment.
Key Qualifications Match
| Requirement | My Experience |
|---|---|
| TypeScript, CSS | Daily use in frontend development |
| WCAG Accessibility | Led systemic accessibility improvements at CCA |
| QA Test Plans | Started career in QA, now use Playwright for automation |
| Angular | Learning opportunity—strong TypeScript foundation ready to apply |
| AWS | Learning opportunity—have GCP Cloud Run and Docker experience |
| Education Sector | 7+ years at California College of the Arts |
| Technical Documentation | Regular practice documenting systems and processes |