Learning Engineer [Lab Schools Focus]

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.

Playlab seeks a Learning Engineer to support 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 the most ambitious thing 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 Playlab partners who can carry the technical craft 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 an embedded thought partner to lab school founding teams, you will hold trusted relationships with two to three schools in your region, run build sessions and coaching, and work closely with the Senior Learning Engineer anchoring the cohort. You will be a 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, contribution to shared playbooks, and growing your practice alongside a team of senior practitioners. Whether a school is launching a brand new model or pivoting an existing program toward AI, you will help them through that work with tools that fit their pedagogy and a partnership that fits their pace.

While the lab schools cohort is the anchor of this role, Playlab is a small, fast-moving team, and we expect this person to flex into adjacent work as opportunities and needs emerge. That might look like supporting a partnership outside the cohort, contributing to a cross-team product or research initiative, helping shape Playlab's broader Learning Engineering practice, or jumping in on something none of us see coming yet. We're looking for someone who treats the lab schools work as their through-line and is energized, not thrown, by the other shapes the work might take.

You'll also bring insights from the field back to our team, shaping how we improve the platform, learning materials, and partnership models.

Support 2 to 3 Lab Schools. Hold the relationship with each school's founding team across the 24-month partnership, with monthly leader check-ins, weekly build sessions, and on-call support through launch.

Partner With the Senior LE in Your Region. Work alongside the Senior Learning Engineer anchoring the cohort to deliver consistent technical support across your assigned schools and contribute to phase-by-phase programming.

Build Bespoke AI Tools alongside teachers and leaders, including custom assessment tools, lesson planners, student-facing builders, and family communication apps tuned to each school's pedagogy.

Contribute to the Open-Source Playbook. Document builds, capture patterns from your schools, and feed insights into the playbook that ships at month 24 for the field.

Run Coaching Sessions through drop-in office hours, async build support, and 1:1 video coaching with builders and leaders at your schools.

Co-Facilitate Quarterly Convenings. Three days every quarter for 24 months, supporting build sessions and hosting office hours alongside the broader Lab Schools team.

Grow Your Craft through regular practice with senior LEs, build reviews, and ongoing mentorship from the Head of Learning Engineering.

Contribute Beyond the Cohort as Needs Arise. Step into adjacent partnerships, cross-team initiatives, or new bets that benefit from LE craft. We'll set expectations together so the lab schools work always stays the anchor, while leaving room for the kind of flexibility a small, ambitious team requires.

Bring Field Insights Back to Playlab's product, engineering, and research teams to shape platform features and shared playbooks.

• Have 3+ years of classroom, instructional coaching, or school-based experience and a deep respect for how hard the work of teaching is.

• Have a track record of shipping AI tools and a hunger to grow into more advanced patterns (multi-step flows, evaluator loops, knowledge grounding, agentic design).

• Have experience supporting educators with patience and high standards in equal measure.

• Have strong async and remote-first instincts, and can build trust over video and shared docs.

• Are confident with prompting and AI app design, and understand how teachers and students actually use AI in real classrooms.

• Have solid documentation craft (build logs, walkthroughs, recorded sessions) that helps others learn.

• Care for equity and access at the center of the work.

• Are willing to commit to the full 24-month cohort cadence, including four quarterly three-day convenings.

• Experience supporting instructional technology or PD work across multiple classrooms or schools

• Familiarity with knowledge-graph-grounded AI tools or agentic design patterns

• Experience supporting both student- and adult-facing AI initiatives

• Connections to school-design organizations, lab schools, or AI-in-education nonprofit

• Are comfortable holding a primary anchor (the lab schools cohort) while flexing into adjacent work as the team's priorities evolve.s

Real Impact: Your work directly supports how 13 lab schools use AI to redesign teaching and learning, and what the field learns from them.

Craft and Growth: Build alongside senior practitioners, contribute to the open-source playbook that opens to the field at month 24, and grow your own practice in a team that takes craft seriously.

Mission-Aligned Team: Join a small, passionate group committed to equity, creativity, and joyful learning, backed by the Gates Foundation, Google, CZI, and the Schwab Foundation.

Flexible Work: Remote-first with autonomy and a strong culture of collaboration.

Competitive Pay & Benefits: Includes salary, healthcare, retirement, generous time off, and opportunities for professional growth.