Head of Engineering

Playlab Inc.

Job Overview

Location

Remote

Job Type

Full-time

Full Job Description

📋 Description

• Lead and grow Playlab's engineering team to accelerate the mission of empowering educators and students as creators of AI, not just consumers, by building equitable, open-source AI tools used by over 60,000 educators globally.
• Drive technical excellence and team effectiveness through hands-on leadership in infrastructure and systems design, ensuring engineers can do their best work with clear priorities, fast feedback, and space to innovate.
• Partner with the CTO, Head of ML, and cross-functional leaders in product, design, research, and education to align engineering efforts with real user needs from classrooms worldwide and shape a technical strategy that integrates AI into software development workflows.
• Foster a high-trust, remote-first engineering culture by coaching engineers through 1:1s, career development, pairing, and code reviews, while diagnosing individual needs to tailor support for growth into technical and leadership roles.
• Scale the engineering team from ~10 to 20 engineers this year through intentional hiring, onboarding, and team structuring, while maintaining speed, coherence, and a strong sense of mission in a distributed environment.
• Champion security, privacy, and responsible AI practices as the team scales globally, ensuring sensitive education data is protected and systems are built with safety and ethics at their core.
• Help evolve engineering processes and culture for a growing remote team — identifying what works, removing bottlenecks, and introducing AI-assisted practices to improve velocity and quality without sacrificing creativity or experimentation.
• Serve as a thought partner to the leadership team, not just on technical execution but on organizational effectiveness, helping point out changes that accelerate Playlab’s mission of transforming education through AI.

🎯 Requirements

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 5 years in engineering leadership or team management during periods of rapid growth and change
• Deep technical expertise in infrastructure and systems design, including proven experience architecting, building, and operating production systems at scale (e.g., Kubernetes, AWS, Terraform)
• Demonstrated ability to develop engineers and build diverse, inclusive teams — with a track record of mentoring individuals to grow technically and professionally

🏖️ Benefits

• Opportunity to double the engineering team and shape how technology is built for AI in education, with much of the work headed toward the public domain for broad societal impact
• Direct, ongoing engagement with educators and students in real classrooms — ensuring engineering decisions are grounded in authentic user needs, not abstract personas
• Mission-driven work at a nonprofit focused on equity, creativity, and enabling educators and students to be active agents in shaping the future of education with AI
• Remote-first flexibility with autonomy, strong collaboration culture, and competitive compensation including salary, healthcare, retirement, and generous time off
• Access to professional growth opportunities and the chance to work with cutting-edge tools like Python, TypeScript, Remix/React, Node, Postgres, Neo4J, Vector Databases, and Airflow

Skills & Technologies

Python

TypeScript

React

Node.js

PostgreSQL

Remote

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Playlab Inc.

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About Playlab Inc.

Playlab Inc. is a San Francisco–based education technology company that builds AI-powered tools for teachers and students. Its platform lets educators create, share, and remix interactive lessons and AI tutors without writing code, integrating with Google Classroom and other LMSs. Founded in 2022 by former Google and Stanford team members, the company focuses on lowering the barrier to personalized learning experiences while keeping humans in the loop for safety and quality.

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