Head of Engineering

EdLight is searching for a Head of Engineering!

Help us build an AI that classifies misconceptions in student work!

TLDR;

We refuse to be ordinary, so neither is this job description! At EdLight, we believe in keeping it real. You'll own the entire technical operation that powers a platform trusted by teachers fighting on behalf of ALL kids. This isn't maintenance work. This is frontier work. You'll take our AI system from proof-of-concept to production across new subjects and grade bands. If you're a builder who thrives in ambiguity, cares deeply about educational equity, and want to lead technical work without the bureaucracy, we want to hear from you!

EdLight is seeking an exceptional technical leader to join our team as Head of Engineering. You will own EdLight's entire technical operation—directing our external engineering partners, maintaining and expanding our AI system, and ensuring the product can scale to new subjects and grade bands without the CEO in the loop. If you are passionate about machine learning, dedicated to building products that serve educators, and thrive in a fast-paced, innovative environment, we want to hear from you!

EdLight's technology sits at the intersection of computer vision, natural language processing, and real classroom practice. Teachers depend on our AI to see their students' thinking. We need a leader who can:

• Master our entire codebase and AI architecture from day one
• Scale the system to new subjects and grade bands independently
• Work effectively with external engineering teams without micromanagement
• Make technical decisions that balance innovation with reliability
• Translate complex technical work to non-technical stakeholders and grantors

This role is technical and strategic. You will be the person who ensures that EdLight's technology keeps pace with our mission.

Year-One Outcomes

• Seamless transition. By August 1, you have full command of the codebase, architecture, and all four AI sub-systems (PII Detection, Assignment Pre-processing, Insights Extraction, Ember). Zero loss of product functionality during transition.

• Subject expansion to production. By December 31, you take at least one existing proof-of-concept (ELA or Algebra) from prototype to production-ready, defining and executing the technical path to get there.

• Vendor independence. By September 1, you've established a working rhythm with our external engineering partners such that execution does not require CEO involvement. Your direction is enough.

• Model performance visibility. By October 1, observability infrastructure (Datadog, WandB) is maintained and accessible to non-engineering team members. The Teaching & Learning team can audit model performance without engineering involvement.

• Technical roadmap delivered. By November 1, you deliver a written technical roadmap for 2027 that leadership can share with grantors and the board. It includes subject expansion plans, infrastructure priorities, and ML capability development.

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Own the full lifecycle of our product, from requirements modeling to system architecture, implementation, testing, documentation, deployment, and monitoring.
• Direct external engineering partners and contractors with clarity, knowing what to review, when to push back, and what questions to ask.
• Maintain and expand our four AI sub-systems (PII Detection, Assignment Pre-processing, Insights Extraction, Ember) to handle new subjects and grade bands.
• Define and execute the technical path for bringing proof-of-concepts into production.

Machine Learning & Model Development

• Take ownership of original ML work. This isn't applying frameworks—it's building models that can handle messy, unstructured, real-world inputs like handwritten student work.
• Improve model performance and reliability through thoughtful experimentation and deployment.
• Maintain model observability so the Teaching & Learning team can audit performance without engineering involvement.
• Push the frontier on what our system can do and where it can expand.

Strategy & Communication

• Develop and communicate a clear technical roadmap for 2027 that board members, grantors, and leadership can understand and act on.
• Translate technical decisions and tradeoffs clearly to the CEO and external stakeholders.
• Partner closely with the Teaching & Learning team on curriculum alignment and model auditing.
• Write and speak about the work in a way that builds trust and confidence.

Technical Mastery

• ML model development and deployment (original work, not just applied frameworks)
• Computer vision and image processing
• Multimodal AI systems
• LLM integration, self-hosting, and fine-tuning (litellm, vllm, SgLang, HuggingFace, Unsloth)
• Python (uv)
• API implementation (FastAPI)
• MLOps (WandB, Weave)
• System observability (Datadog, structlog)
• Full-stack development (Django, React)
• Code version control (git, GitHub)
• Automated testing (pytest, locust)
• Cloud infrastructure (AWS, Modal)
• Agile methodologies (Scrum, Jira)
• System documentation (Notion)
• Contractor and vendor management

Leadership & Mindset

• Comfortable with ambiguity. You have built things from early stage before.
• Does not need a large infrastructure or team to be effective. Gets things done.
• Can direct external contractors without micromanaging.
• Communicates technical work to non-technical leadership with clarity and confidence.
• Genuinely cares about educational equity and understands why this work matters.

Preferred

• Handwritten input analysis
• Grant and research paper writing
• Google Material Design or similar design systems
• EdTech domain experience (nice to have, not required)

• Compensation: $192,000 - 200,000, commensurate with experience and equity.
• Employment: Full-time employee, US-based preferred, EST/CST time zone required.
• Start date: As soon as possible, ideally with overlap through June 30 for transition support.
• Culture: If you are searching for a close-knit team of coworkers driven by educational accessibility and technical excellence, we hope that you reach out!

Here at EdLight, our mission is to make great teaching easy. We are a team of lifelong educators who come together each day to provide a solution that allows teachers to gain insight from handwritten student work in real time, while ensuring that the work that students do each day is seen and valued.

EdLight was built around three key insights:

1. A lack of attention to student work is one of the great injustices of education. Anti-racist education requires honoring the intellectual and emotional energy that Black, Brown and marginalized students put into their work.
2. Student outcomes have been reduced to data without depth from online assessments.
3. There currently exists no database of common misconceptions or exemplar responses that could accelerate the development of teacher expertise as it relates to equitable, data-informed pedagogy and communication.

We are a digital platform that allows teachers to score, sort, and share their students' handwritten work from any device, anywhere. This bolsters communication and collaboration across all educational stakeholders including teachers, students, parents, coaches, and leadership teams.

Our application process

If you are interested in this role, please reach out to hiring@edlight.com with your resume. Selected candidates will be invited to discuss the technical landscape, share examples of prior work, and meet with the team before an offer of employment is extended.