Senior Manager, AI

Paper is reimagining student support by partnering with K-12 districts to extend the reach of every educator. From 24/7 tutoring, writing feedback, math practice, career and college readiness, and AI solutions, we give students the personalized support they need to succeed. With GROW high-impact tutoring, we deliver targeted small-group instruction that accelerates learning, supports multilingual students, and eases teachers’ workloads. Trusted by 500+ districts across 40 states, and backed by investors IVP, Sapphire Ventures, Framework Capital, Reach Capital, and more, Paper is on a mission to help every learner thrive with scalable, data-driven solutions that drive real results.

Job Description

We are seeking an experienced Machine Learning Manager to lead a team of ML engineers and data scientists. This team is responsible for developing and operationalizing AI solutions (trained and prompt-based) that power critical product features across our platform. As Senior Manager, you will drive project execution, own delivery for AI/ML initiatives, and mentor a group of engineers and ML specialists. You’ll closely partner with Product, Data, and Engineering teams to ship effective, scalable, and ethical AI solutions for millions of learners and educators.

Key Responsibilities:

• Technical Leadership: Oversee the design, implementation, and deployment of AI-powered features, including model training and prompt-based frameworks (e.g., leveraging LLMs). Guide best practices for AI development, MLOps, and system integration.

• Team Management: Grow, mentor, and manage a talented team of ML engineers and data scientists. Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performance work environment.

• Project & Stakeholder Management: Ensure timely and rigorous delivery of AI initiatives. Work with Product and Engineering leads to define requirements, plan roadmaps, estimate effort, and prioritize work.

• Innovation & Quality: Encourage experimentation, rapid prototyping, and continuous improvement. Ensure robust evaluation and monitoring of AI solutions.

• Scale & Reliability: Partner with DevOps and Developers to build scalable, reliable, and cost-efficient AI services.

• Ethics & Compliance: Champion best practices for responsible AI (privacy, fairness, safety). Stay abreast of regulatory requirements and lead compliance efforts for AI solutions.

What We’re Looking For:

• Experience:

  • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, or related field.

  • 7+ years of experience building production-grade AI/ML solutions, with 3+ years in a formal team leadership or management role.

  • Demonstrated success delivering both trained (supervised, unsupervised, etc.), prompt-based (LLM-powered, few-shot, etc.), and multi-modal AI systems.

  • Demonstrated expertise in model evaluation—designing and implementing both manual review protocols and automated test suites.

• Technical Skills:

  • Hands-on expertise in Python and common AI/ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face, OpenAI, LangChain, etc.).

  • Deep understanding of end-to-end ML lifecycle: data ingestion, model training, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring.

  • Experience operationalizing LLMs and integrating prompt engineering workflows.

  • Proven experience designing, training, and deploying multi-modal models leveraging diverse data sources (text, image, audio, video).

• Leadership:

  • Excellent mentorship, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

  • Proven ability to lead with empathy, clarity, and accountability.

• Delivery:

  • Track record of managing cross-functional projects from ideation to production.

  • Ability to align technical vision with business impact in a fast-paced environment.

• Preferred:

  • Experience in EdTech or education-related domains.

  • Familiarity with regulatory and ethical considerations in ML model evaluation.

The annual salary range for this position is $195,000 - $220,000 USD or $160,000 - $190,000 CAD, plus equity. Please note that the final offer amount is determined by multiple factors, including geographic location as well as candidate experience, and may vary from the amounts listed above​.

What is it like to work at Paper? You will:

• Be joining a remote-first company with a collaborative, mission-driven culture working together to write the next chapter of Paper!

• Have opportunities to connect in person throughout the year, even while working remotely day-to-day.

• Be part of an exciting new era of growth, with fresh leadership, a bold product vision, and a redefined charter.

• Thrive in a fast-moving, build-from-scratch environment where agility and critical thinking guide decisions, collaboration is built on trust and healthy challenge, and every team member takes ownership to deliver real customer impact and grow every day.

Additional Benefits:

• Comprehensive & competitive compensation, health benefits, retirement plan, stock options, and more.

• In addition to vacation days, we provide Paperites with sick days and 4 extra weeks off - including statutory holidays, Paper Days throughout the year, and a full Paper Week from Dec 25 to Jan 1.

• A $500 stipend to set-up your workspace and $100 monthly stipends to support with on-going workspace needs.

• We support growing families with generous paid parental leave.

• Unlimited access to tutoring and educational support for children of Paper employees.

You’ll be joining a team of mission-driven builders who care deeply about equity in education, and who thrive in a culture of ownership, velocity, and continuous learning. If you’re energized by challenges, inspired by impact, and ready to help lead a high-growth business through its next phase, we’d love to meet you.

We believe diverse teams build better products and we are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Paper does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender orientation, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, marital status, or military status.

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