Careers at Education Horizons

Hi, my name is Chris Khalil and I love Design!

For the last 20 years I’ve learned and worked at some of Australia’s largest companies, helping change and build how customers experience different products and services.

I joined Education Horizons because I want to use my skills to help young people thrive. I really like the idea of making it easier for all of the unsung professionals in education to keep schools running. I am learning more and more about how these people often work long hours in complex environments, with any number of distractions each day. For me, even small smart changes in our products can make a huge difference to their joy at work and their impact.

I also love that every day we talk to teachers, children, parents, school administrators and others about their work. You never hear the same story twice! Each person brings a unique perspective and experience that helps us learn more about how we can create brilliant experiences for them. More than that, these conversations really charge our team up to do our best each day. This makes coming to work a real joy for me.

I love the team at Education Horizons. I am consistently struck by how kind, considerate and caring everyone is – for each other and for the people we create products for. I’m proud that what we do really makes a difference. I think this is what people mean when they talk about purpose-led work – and we get to live it every day, together.

Please reach out if you’d like to learn more about the Design team and our approach to helping schools succeed every day.

In the last 2 years, Education Horizons has steadily been moving to a permanent flexible work environment so that it’s the new norm for their employees. Even before COVID, Education Horizons had started to accommodate flexible work arrangements. As a team member, I have the choice to have a work-life balance through flexible arrangements which break with the traditional norm of the rigid 9 to 5, five-day week. I know this firsthand because I was one of the very first team members to discuss working a compressed workweek as well as working remotely.

What has this meant for me? It means the hours I used to spend in traffic are now productive working hours in my compressed 4-day week. Having the freedom to decide on the flexible arrangement which best suited me clearly demonstrates the company trusts and values me as a team member. In return, my loyalty to the company has increased and my commitment to clients has never been higher. At a personal level, I now feel like I have enough time to meet the needs of all 3 generations of my family and for my own life. I believe it’s the best work-life balance I have ever had in my 30-year working career.

Consultant, Finance Specialist

The best thing about my job? The people, no question about it. My team are all fantastic and the software they produce is world-leading. When I think back to where we started and the challenges we have faced along the way, I feel incredibly proud of their achievements.

I joined the company in 2008 as a web developer. A year later, and as the team grew, I became Web Development Team Leader. In 2016 I became Development Manager and assumed responsibility for both the Windows and Web development teams. More recently, in 2021, I became Engineering Manager and I now lead the developers and testers as well as overseeing the delivery of the Engage product suite.

As a leader I try to encourage my team to explore problems and find creative ways to solve them. I offer guidance when needed but every member of the team is afforded trust and empowered to make decisions. I think this is a key factor in having such a settled team and a culture where people feel supported. It is important to me that ‘We do what we say’ and ‘We play and succeed as a team’. As a team our purpose is to create great software but as people, we aim to be helpful, supportive, and approachable.

I have been lucky enough to meet some of the staff who work in Engage schools. I love walking into a classroom and seeing Engage open on their computers. It reinforces the importance of what we do as a development team. Our software runs their school, and we have to ability to make a tangible difference to their day-to-day productivity. I get huge satisfaction from listening to a teacher’s problems and then finding a solution that will save them time and allow them to focus on their students, after all, a school should prioritise learning over paperwork. Engage’s ability to send quick, secure, paperless, communications to teachers, students and parents; an online form builder and self-service extra-curricular activity and parents’ evening booking are all examples of how we can reduce admin work in Engage schools.

I believe it is important to take a step back from time to time and realise that what we do really matters. Every day we help schools succeed.