Playlab
education
SeniorLearningEngineer[LabSchoolsFocus]
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“Senior Learning Engineer [Lab Schools Focus] at Playlab. Skills: AI, learning engineering, coaching, building AI tools. Anchor 4 to 5 Lab Schools. Hold the relationship with each school's founding team across the 24-month partnership, with monthly leader coaching, weekly build sessions, and on-call support through launch”
Industry & Context.
willing to commit to the full 24-month cohort cadence, including four quarterly three-day convenings
What They're Looking For.
Must Have
5+ years of classroom, instructional leadership, or school leadership experience, a senior builder's track record of shipping ambitious AI tools using advanced patterns (multi-step flows, evaluator loops, knowledge grounding, agentic design), experience mentoring or coaching educators with patience and high standards in equal measure, async and remote-first instincts, and can build trust over video and shared docs, confident with prompting and AI app design, and understand how teachers and students actually use AI in real classrooms, curation and documentation craft (build logs, playbooks, walkthroughs, recorded sessions) that genuinely helps others learn, comfortable holding a primary anchor (the lab schools cohort) while flexing into adjacent work as the team's priorities evolve, care for equity and access at the center of the work, willing to commit to the full 24-month cohort cadence, including four quarterly three-day convenings
Nice to Have
Experience leading large-scale instructional technology or PD initiatives across multiple schools, Familiarity with knowledge-graph-grounded AI tools or agentic design patterns, Experience supporting both student- and adult-facing AI initiatives, A network across school-design organizations, lab schools, or AI-in-education nonprofits
What You'll Do.
Anchor 4 to 5 Lab Schools
Hold the relationship with each school's founding team across the 24-month partnership
with monthly leader coaching
weekly build sessions
and on-call support through launch
Co-Steward the Cohort With the Lab Schools Learning Partner
Partner on programming design
phase-by-phase expectations
and the open-source playbook that ships at month 24
Build Bespoke AI Tools alongside teachers and leaders
including custom assessment tools
knowledge-graphed lesson planners
student-facing builders
and family communication apps tuned to each school's pedagogy
Mentor Embedded Regional LEs anchored in NYC
sharpening their craft and helping them grow into senior practitioners
Hold the Rubric for Lab Schools Builds
Define what good looks like across the cohort
and make sure apps shipped through 2027 are open-sourceable from day one
Run High-Trust Coaching through drop-in sessions
and 1: 1 video coaching with the most advanced builders and leaders across the network
Co-Facilitate Quarterly Convenings
Contribute Beyond the Cohort as Needs Arise
Step into adjacent partnerships
cross-team initiatives
or new bets that benefit from senior LE craft
Bring Field Insights Back to Playlab's product
and research teams to shape platform features and shared playbooks
How You'll Work.
Team & Collaboration
Partner closely with the Head of Lab Schools and the Head of Learning Engineering on the shape of the cohort; Co-Steward the Cohort With the Lab Schools Learning Partner; Partner on programming design, convening shape, phase-by-phase expectations, and the open-source playbook that ships at month 24; Mentor Embedded Regional LEs; Co-Facilitate Quarterly Convenings; Contribute Beyond the Cohort as Needs Arise; Step into adjacent partnerships, cross-team initiatives, or new bets that benefit from senior LE craft; Bring Field Insights Back to Playlab's product, engineering, and research teams
Full Job Description
ABOUT PLAYLAB Playlab is a tech non-profit dedicated to helping educators and students become critical consumers and creators of AI. We believe that an open-source, community-driven approach is key to harnessing the potential of AI in education. We equip communities with AI tools and hands-on professional development that empowers educators and students to build custom AI apps for their unique context. Over 40,000 educators have published apps on Playlab, and the impact is growing every day. At Playlab, we believe that AI is a new design material, one that should be shaped by many to bring their ideas about learning to life. If you're passionate about building creative, equitable futures for students and teachers, we hope you'll join us. THE ROLE Playlab seeks a Senior Learning Engineer to anchor our work across the AI Lab Schools cohort: a 13-school, 24-month partnership where teachers and leaders are redesigning teaching and learning around AI. The cohort is among the most ambitious endeavor Playlab has ever taken on. Each of the 13 schools is launching or pivoting a learning model where AI is a core design material. They need a Playlab partner who can hold the technical craft bar across the full arc: discovery, prototype, classroom pilot, scale, and the open-source playbook that ships at month 24 for the rest of the field to learn from. As a senior thought partner to lab school founding teams, you will hold deep, trusted relationships with four to five schools, lead build sessions and coaching, and partner closely with the Head of Lab Schools and the Head of Learning Engineering on the shape of the cohort. You will be the steady technical presence schools rely on, the person who shows up with care, listens before suggesting, and brings craft into every conversation about what to build. This work spans embedded coaching, hands-on building, mentorship of other LEs, and shaping the open-source playbook that opens to the field at month 24. Whether a school is launchi
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