IT Specialist

We're a small, high-performing, diverse, tight-knit team with a mission to radically improve mainstream science education at schools. By creating the best science lessons in the world, coupled with intuitive tools that allow teachers to take advantage of the latest pedagogies, we’ve already helped millions of students in Australia get excited about science.

Stile is used in 1 in 3 Australian secondary schools, with around 45% of year 7-10 students subscribed. That’s quite some reach, and it’s a responsibility we take extremely seriously. When you join our small team, you have a unique opportunity to have a massive impact on the future of science education.

We need your help!

We're looking for a new Information Technology Specialist, reporting to our Head of Business Systems Engineering. As we grow our team in Melbourne, Australia and move into bigger and better offices, and as we expand our Portland, Oregon office, and grow into new US states, we need someone to run herd on our IT needs.

You will own, maintain, and scale our internal technology. Your mission at Stile is to create a seamless and productive working environment for all Stilists. If you’re someone who loves optimising things around them–who loves leaving things better than you found them and has a knack for IT problem solving, this role is for you!

Make IT awesome

We're looking for a fast learner who loves tinkering with tech, and building reliable systems. From improving the security of staff devices, to administering our office network, to researching and deploying the best teleconferencing equipment money can buy, we need you to take ownership of every part of our IT infrastructure. With mentorship from experienced software engineers, system architects, IT managers, and networking specialists, you'll have a unique opportunity to grow your skills in a fast pace environment where quality matters more than anything else.

Do your best work

You'll be working with a world class team of engineers, and passionate educators, and you'll get to build the best possible solutions to their problems. We have:

• A highly-motivated and talented team with experienced engineers, and passionate new starters
• A genuine commitment to the professional development of staff through training, coaching, mentorship opportunities, regular feedback and increasing responsibility
• Quality over quantity: we're pragmatists, but we already have an established business that's here for the long term, so maintenance matters more than up-front build time. We'd rather build it right than live with something broken.
• Enormous respect for our employees’ work-life balance reflected in our parental leave policy, individual flexibility and sustainable project pace
• A mission that drives our company, and a strong sense of ethics in everything we do
• A culture of asking ‘how should this work?’ rather than ‘what's easiest?’
• Extremely thorough test coverage, extensive use of live configuration and feature switching, and a rigorous CI and merge queue process that delivers provably working code rapidly
• High standards: we love solutions that Just Work, and are prepared to spend the effort to build them
• Stile is owned and led by engineers. Our CEO, CTO, and founder/majority-owner/chair — Alan Finkel — are all engineers, and understand what it takes to build something great. Great engineering gets noticed, and rewarded

About You

• You’re great at using technology, and are the go-to support for everyone around you. You’re a great communicator. You can easily communicate technical information to those with a wide array of technical skills, but also to those who don’t know much about tech at all
• You delight in helping others, and you often go out of your way to do so. You love to see others succeed.
• You keep up with latest trends in tech for fun. You know who was recently hacked, and have an opinion about the latest and greatest products
• You’re empathetic. You have the ability to put yourself in the shoes of an employee who is struggling to solve a problem and may be stressed as a result
• You've got great security instincts: you love thinking about how to break into every system you see
• You're meticulous about your personal security. You've used a password manager for years, all your accounts have MFA enforced, and you've got a favourite scheme for generating strong, memorable passwords. You know exactly where all of your personal data is securely backed-up
• You know a port from a packet, or can learn it so fast that it makes no difference. You've yet to encounter a problem that you can't Google your way out of.

We’re open to hiring anyone from a self-taught grad to someone with decades of experience as long as you love solving problems for people, and making technical solutions which Just Work.

Requirements

We’re a together-first company. There is so much benefit to in-person collaboration when you’re trying to build Cool New Stuff. Practically, this means we like our teams in the office at least once a week, and preferably more. As the person responsible for our office IT systems, we’d really like you in the office 4 days per week on average (though we don’t mind people working remotely for short stints) so that you’re available to your and other teams. Beyond this, we’re flexible - work from wherever suits you.

How to apply

Sound interesting?

Great! We want to know more about you, so read the details below then click apply and ensure you provide that cover letter to show you’re great at following the details.

• A cover letter addressed to Daniel Rodgers-Pryor (no more than a page) explaining why you're going to smash this role out of the park.
  Include a paragraph on which Behaviours of an Effective Stile-ist most resonate with you or which you disagree with and why.
• Your resume

Got questions about our hiring process? You can find the answers here. We can't wait to hear from you!