Staff Software Engineer, Applied AI/ML Products

About Cambiar Education:

We turn innovative ideas into action and impact. We created Cambiar to change the marketplace for education innovation to prove undeniably that every student can succeed and thrive. Cambiar operates at the speed of innovation, propelling 100+ groundbreaking ventures led by founders with unshakeable optimism and courage; building in-house initiatives that serve 27+ million students in areas with the greatest potential for change; and cultivating a formidable community of connected ventures, anchored in our commitment to creating solutions for the most vulnerable youth. Visit us at cambiareducation.org and follow us on LinkedIn.

Role Overview

As Cambiar expands its national portfolio of education innovation initiatives, we are scaling our digital ecosystem—integrating systems, data, and tools and building products that power our mission. We are seeking a Staff Software Engineer, with focus on user facing products leveraging applied AI/ML to join our Technology team as a Key product engineering hire, reporting to the SVP, Technology. This role is critical in building the next generation of our products and internal tools.

You will be a Technical lead/Product engineer skilled at Applied AI development and integrations for user facing products; passionate about using technology to drive positive social impact. In this role, you will take significant ownership of technical projects and building tools and products directly or in partnership with  software  development contractors/vendors and  various Cambiar product teams. The ideal candidate brings deep technical/AI acumen and user-focussed problem solving, combined with the ability to move fast and lay sound groundwork for future scale. This role requires balancing operational excellence with the flexibility and creativity that drive innovation.

What you’ll do:

This role requires hands-on execution, a builder mindset and expertise in AI and software development (esp backend and data systems). You will be building tools and products to enable both internal efficiencies and external products; in partnership with product teams and where relevant dev vendors. You will be accountable for the following:

• AI Product Development: Lead the design, prototyping, development, and deployment of new user-facing products and internal tooling, with a heavy emphasis on leveraging Artificial Intelligence both within the product and in product development. Implement AI applications/integrations and tuning/RAG where needed. Build products/features, starting with MVPs and iterating based on user feedback, while establishing reusable patterns for future development.
• System Architecture, Health & Sustainability: Navigate the balance between lightweight prototyping and principled engineering practices,  aligned with business objectives leveraging both existing or (where needed) helping build new organizational infrastructure and data systems. Support the health and sustainability of the codebase—notice and advocate for patterns that allow code to be flexible, scalable, and approachable to other engineers. 
• Communication, Collaboration & Iteration: While leading and owning AI product development and related aspects, communicate and collaborate closely across multiple roles/stakeholders eg. with Product Management to scope and execute product features per prioritization and roadmap or with Software Development Vendors to design/build/maintain parts of the product. Lean into our value of rapid learning cycles—gathering and improving product per constant feedback.
• Security & Privacy  Champion: Champion security and privacy, including looking for ways to make it easier to safeguard sensitive data and incorporate security best practices. Bring deep kn

This role is for you if:

• You bring 5+ years of product engineering experience with 2+ years of hands-on AI/ML applications and  development ; including developing new web/mobile and AI applications/integrations with rapid iterations. We value proven ability to ship AI features over years of general experience; including leveraging AI for automations and product experience with LLM tools eg. LangChain.
• You possess backend expertise and proficiency in building scalable, robust APIs and systems; including microservices architecture and agile development methodologies.
• You thrive in dynamic, entrepreneurial settings, balancing structure with adaptability and creative problem-solving. You possess a comfort with a startup mindset, taking initiative, and dealing with ambiguity.
• We value both technical and cross-functional collaborative skills, so you should have demonstrated experience in both building and deploying AI-powered user-facing experiences to real users and listening and communicating with curiosity and humility with users and other team members eg. product, data, sales, policy etc
• You are an excellent communicator who can translate and motivate complex technical topics into accessible, actionable insights for diverse audiences.
• You have some core tech/AI skills:  Python, experience with LLM applications (LangChain/similar), and modern web frameworks (AWS/GCP). Nice to have: Experience with our specific stack (Rails, React, PostgreSQL)
• Experience in education, nonprofit, or social impact organizations (EdTech) is a plus.

What you'll get:

• Salary range of $140,000-$170,000 per year depending on experience, location and aligned title
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision benefits
• Paid vacation and sick time, plus organizationally-observed holidays throughout the year
• Access to optional benefits such as 401(k) Retirement Plan, Employee Assistance Program (EAP), HSA/FSA, pet insurance, etc.
• Stipends to partially cover phone and internet costs, home office set-up, and wellness
• Team retreats and meetings during the year to meet your teammates or see our work in-person

Our Core Values:

We’re committed to living our organization's core values:

• CREATE 🌎 We create to make a transformative difference in the world. We are eternally optimistic and develop game-changing solutions.
• LOVE ❤️ We do this work because we believe in the tremendous talent and human potential of all; we seek to discover, engage, and celebrate everyone's