Desmos
Interaction Developer: Graph Specialist
At Desmos, we’re on a mission to help every student learn math and love learning math. Our free tools and activities are used by tens of millions of students and teachers around the world. We recently launched a middle school curriculum that blends both paper and digital tasks to support social classrooms, invite mathematical creativity, and provoke wonder. We are now developing a high school curriculum and revising our middle school curriculum based on feedback from teachers and students.
Two features are central to our digital lessons: 1) animated, interpretive feedback on a student’s mathematical ideas and 2) intuitive, delightful interactions designed to encourage creativity, exploration, and observation. These animations and interactions often look like they were authored in an animation editor, but they were actually created in our very own graphing calculator using a combination of custom artwork from our visual design team and mathematical expressions.
We’re seeking individuals with at least three years of K–12 classroom teaching experience who will join other members of our curriculum team in brainstorming and creating these graph-based interactions. You’ll also join us in the work of learning about systemic inequity in education, and identifying and attending to the needs of marginalized and excluded communities in order to build engaging and effective lessons that support all students.
This role is a great fit for you if you enjoy spending significant time in the Desmos graphing calculator; have strong opinions about what makes an interaction intuitive, delightful, and visually appealing; and can help us understand the perspectives of people who are historically excluded in mathematics, education, or technology. You love learning new things, relish a challenge, and take satisfaction not only in elegant solutions, but also in the creative journey along the way.
On your first day, you should show up ready to:
- Create simple animations and interactions.
- Demonstrate proficiency in the Desmos graphing calculator with lists, parametric equations, polygons, restrictions, and sliders.
- Provide constructive feedback for existing animations and interactions.
What you’ll learn more about after you’re hired:
- Our philosophies for technology, design, pedagogy, and equity.
- Advanced techniques and admin-only tools for using the Desmos graphing calculator to develop complex animations and interactions.
- How to use our Computation Layer language to connect Desmos graphs to other components in the Desmos Activity Builder.
- How to optimize the performance of graphs so that they’re smooth and fast on new and old hardware.
- Our workflow for developing a new unit of lessons, from initial brainstorming all the way to final release.
- The processes and tools we use to organize our work.
Within your first month you’ll:
- Introduce yourself on Slack to your new coworkers!
- Participate in group brainstorming sessions with other members of the curriculum team to imagine contexts and interactions for new lessons.
- Build graph-based animations and interactions for new lessons with the support of another interaction developer. You’ll receive and implement feedback from other team members to improve and polish your graphs.
- Provide constructive feedback on existing lessons, offering ideas for improving the animations and interactions. You’ll offer feedback in written form and also via video chat because conversation is a natural way humans think together.
- Create diagrams using the Desmos graphing calculator to support the development of our print-based curriculum resources (e.g., paper practice sets, guided notes, etc.).
- Join current interaction developers in steadily leveling up the team’s graphing skills by sharing best practices, discussing challenging problems, and reviewing animations and interactions in existing lessons.
Within your first three months you’ll:
- Contribute to the development of the curriculum by creating new interactions for lessons. This will include interactions you’ll adapt from your colleagues’ ideas and interactions you’ll adapt from your own ideas. You’ll continue to support and be supported by the rest of the curriculum team throughout your tenure at Desmos.
- Identify ways that our equity principles can further inform our approach to curriculum development, both in terms of the products we make and the processes we use to make them.
Within your first year you’ll:
- Work with a small team to revise an existing unit of our middle school curriculum.
- Explore the boundaries of what’s possible with our technology and offer feedback to the product and engineering teams to help drive future development of the tools we use to build our curriculum.
- Participate in a classroom visit (virtually, if necessary) to watch students learning from one of the lessons you helped develop!
- Take plenty of time off. We do our best work when we take time to recharge!
FAQs
Q: What is the application deadline?
A: The priority application deadline is Sunday, February 27 to be included in the first round of review. Applications will continue to be accepted on a rolling basis until the role is filled.
Q: I’m currently in my third year of teaching. Does this count as “three years of experience”?
A: Yes.
Q: What is the start date for this position?
A: Any time between now and August 1, 2022, depending on availability of the successful candidate.
Q: Where is Desmos located?
A: Our team is fully remote and works across many time zones with a single goal: to help every student learn math and love learning math.
Q: What grade level(s) will I help build?
A: You will join us in developing our high school curriculum (Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2) and/or revising our middle school curriculum (Math 6–8).
Q: How much experience do I need to have with Desmos Activity Builder or Computation Layer?
A: Experience with these tools may be helpful, but is not required to apply. You’ll learn more about Activity Builder and Computation Layer after you’re hired, and you’ll collaborate with other members of our curriculum team in using these tools throughout your tenure at Desmos.
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Desmos is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Furthermore, we believe that diversity leads to stronger teams, better products, and more successful companies. Come join us as we tackle the hard problems we love and build an enduring company in the process.
Learn more about our company and then apply! You can learn more about the benefits that come with this role at desmos.com/careers.
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