Senior Director, Engineering and AI, Education

The Team

At CZI, we pair technology with grantmaking to equip educators, families, and students with tools that integrate high-quality research, practices, and content to unlock the full potential of every student, no matter who they are or where they live. From program conception to software feature design, we center our work on student and educator voices to help educators address the day-to-day challenges in their classrooms. 

Since 2015, our grant investments have helped catalyze new education tools, classroom practices, and measures of student success designed to foster whole child outcomes. We leveraged technology to provide research-based practices in products that help teachers connect with students and tailor learning experiences to individual student needs.

At our core, we are builders, and our unique builder philanthropy approach sets us apart from other education funders. A look back on the highlights and significant milestones of CZI’s first eight years of education work can be found here.

The Opportunity

This is an excellent opportunity for an outstanding technical leader, inspired by CZI’s mission, with a passion for the potential of technology to enable organizations to operate effectively, including accelerating scientific progress and applying technology to transform education.

As a Senior Director of Engineering and AI focusing on AI and technology development, your role will be to spearhead and guide the development of cutting-edge technologies and solutions. You will lead the identification of key challenges and opportunities in AI applications, fostering innovation and efficiency improvements in existing processes while creating novel solutions. Your responsibility extends to formulating and driving the education team’s overarching vision and strategy for AI and technology development.

The ideal candidate for this position will have a demonstrable history of successfully developing and implementing strategic plans for pioneering AI/ML and technology products, leveraging data and customer insights to inform and refine technology decisions. This individual will be proven to work collaboratively with internal teams and external partners, effectively aligning efforts to meet business objectives and customer needs. The candidate should excel in navigating complex, ambiguous environments, demonstrating a strong capability in driving projects to completion and focusing on impactful outcomes rather than mere outputs. This role demands a passion for scaling up technology initiatives, a talent for leadership in the ML/AI domain, and an unwavering commitment to achieving ambitious goals.

What You'll Do

• Leadership and Team Management: Provide engineering and data science teams with leadership, mentoring, and management. Focus on developing and sustaining robust, scalable AI capabilities.

• Cross-functional collaboration: Through our partnerships with researchers and educators and the work of our software team, we can create educational tools that better integrate research, practices, and content.
• Technical Vision and Strategy: Develop and implement a strategic roadmap for our education’s long-term vision—technical platform, ensuring alignment with our technological vision and objectives. Drive continuous innovation and the adoption of AI technologies to elevate product experiences.
• Technical Excellence: Uphold a standard of technical excellence, ensuring adherence to best practices in software development, machine learning, and platform architecture.
• Trust and Security: Cultivate a culture of trust and ethical AI practices, leading a team committed to deploying secure, state-of-the-art AI solutions that strictly comply with global data protection and privacy standards.
• Team Management and Mentorship: Lead a team of over 50+ engineering and data science professionals, managing resources, timelines, and project scopes. Provide mentorship to foster a collaborative and productive environment.
• Problem-Solving: Utilize AI/ML solutions to address complex, real-world challenges, applying theoretical knowledge to create and improve practical, impactful products and services; we can create educational tools that better integrate research, practices, and content. 
• Team Development and Recruitment: Focus on recruiting, hiring, and developing a skilled team to meet organizational needs, ensuring they have the required expertise and capabilities.
• Partner Collaboration: Collaborate with educators, administrators and partner organizations to develop frameworks, data foundations, and architectures supporting our strategic vision.

What You'll Bring

• Extensive Leadership Experience: Over 10-15 years in technology leadership roles, including experience leading engineering and data science teams, showcasing a successful track record in guiding and managing sizable, multifaceted technology teams and a passion for solving challenging problems in education. 
• Expertise in ML and AI: A deep understanding of machine learning and AI, building infrastructure, services, and scalable technology stack.
• Communication and Interpersonal Skills: Exceptional communication ability; fosters effective collaboration and empathy with diverse organizational and external stakeholders. Ability to engage and motivate a distributed, mission-oriented technical team.
• Business Acumen and Strategic Alignment: Proficient in aligning technology strategies with the organization's broader business goals and objectives, demonstrating strong business insight.
• Analytical and Problem-Solving Proficiency: Robust analytical skills coupled with the ability to solve complex technology challenges effectively.
• Multidisciplinary Team Experience: A history of working with and understanding the unique needs of organizations and teams across multiple disciplines, showing a commitment to appreciating cultural, structural, and technical diversity.

Compensation

The Redwood City, CA base pay range for this role is 323,000 - 485,000 New hires are typically hired into the lower portion of the range, enabling employee growth in the range over time. Actual placement in range is based on job-related skills and experience, as evaluated throughout the interview process. Pay ranges outside Redwood City are adjusted based on cost of labor in each respective geographical market. Your recruiter can share more about the specific pay range for your location during the hiring process.

Benefits for the Whole You 

We’re thankful to have an incredible team behind our work. To honor their commitment, we offer a wide range of benefits to support the people who make all we do possible. 

• CZI provides a generous 100% match on employee 401(k) contributions to support planning for the future. 
• Annual funding for employees that can be used most meaningfully for them and their families, such as housing, student loan repayment, childcare, commuter costs, or other life needs.
• CZI Life of Service Gifts are awarded to employees to “live the mission” and support the causes closest to them.
• Paid time off to volunteer at an organization of your choice. 
• Funding for select family-forming benefits. 
• Relocation support for employees who need assistance moving to the Bay Area
• And more!

Commitment to Diversity

We believe that the strongest teams and best thinking are defined by the diversity of voices at the table. We are committed to fair treatment and equal access to opportunity for all CZI team members and to maintaining a workplace where everyone feels welcomed, respected, supported, and valued. Learn about our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. 

If you’re interested in a role but your previous experience doesn’t perfectly align with each qualification in the job description, we still encourage you to apply as you may be the perfect fit for this or another role.

Explore our work modes, benefits, and interview process at www.chanzuckerberg.com/careers.

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