Staff AI Platform Engineer

Packback’s mission is to empower every student to be fearlessly curious and find their unique voice.

These few words shape everything we do at Packback from the smallest decision to the largest. Over the last decade since our company’s founding, our team has seen first-hand the power of giving students intentionally designed spaces in their learning experience to be autonomous and curious. We have also seen the incredible benefits of using AI technology to shorten feedback loops and help students revise their work before they submit.

Packback is a pedagogy partner that uses technology as a “means to an end” to shorten feedback loops for students and instructors, improve writing and critical thinking skills, and cultivate student-centered, trust-based educational learning environments.

Who we are:

Packback team members are passionate, mission-driven lifelong learners. Many of us spent time as educators in classrooms and have experienced first hand just how draining the day to day of educating can be. We have seen the gap between the most and least prepared students grow wider every year. The pressure to close that gap has once rested directly on our shoulders, and we understand the enormous cost of addressing that gap, and also not addressing that gap.

Some of us were intrinsically motivated students, the “teacher’s pets” who never want to stop learning. Some of us were the distracted or unmotivated students who wished their instructors would have adopted the pedagogy behind Packback. But all of us share a passionate commitment to our purpose.

Reach – Our platform, Packback Questions, is used by more than 10 thousand educators and 1.5 million students, who collectively author more than 10 million posts a year. You will be a part of building a platform that has a huge impact on inspiring curiosity in students.

Training – We offer opportunities for learning and mentorship. We value people who like to wear many hats. You can get involved with the front end, back end, infrastructure and data functions.

Ownership – Packback is a rapidly growing company. You will have responsibility for bringing innovative features to market while working closely with the product team.

Want to learn more about engineering at Packback? Check out our docs repo on Github.

Staff AI Platform Engineer

Packback is looking for an AI Platform Engineer to support our mission to awaken and fuel the lifelong curiosity in every student. As an AI Platform Engineer at Packback, you will be building features that empower students and professors to have a better learning experience.

Packback’s A.I.-powered platform is used by educators in K-12 and higher education to help their students fall in love with the subject matter, drive personalized learning, and most importantly, quantify and improve student critical thinking skills.

Key Job Duties Include:

• Leading and mentoring a team of engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Providing strategic direction and oversight for the development of our data infrastructure and Python APIs that power Packback’s AI.
• Architecting and implementing advanced algorithms, leveraging Packback’s unique dataset to build new features that enhance the learning experience.
• Collaborating closely with cross-functional teams, including product managers, to align AI initiatives with business goals.
• Championing best practices in software engineering, code quality, and technical documentation, ensuring the scalability and maintainability of our systems.

Why You Should Work at Packback:

Reach – Our platform, Packback Questions, is used by more than 10 thousand educators and 1.5 million students, who collectively author more than 10 million posts a year. You will be a part of building a platform that has a huge impact on inspiring curiosity in students.

Training – We offer opportunities for learning and mentorship. We value people who like to wear many hats. You can get involved with the front end, back end, infrastructure and data functions.

Ownership – Packback is a rapidly growing company. You will have responsibility for bringing innovative features to market while working closely with the product team.

Want to learn more about engineering at Packback? Check out our docs repo on Github.

Requirements:

We’re looking for somebody who is excited to work on our backend, infrastructure, and data codebases. To succeed, you should have experience working with web frameworks (we are migrating toward FastAPI, but mainly care that you are a great developer), have a strong grasp of data management fundamentals, and have experience developing production data processing systems throughout the entire lifecycle.

Additionally, We’re Looking For:

• Hands-on experience throughout the AI lifecycle: data transformation, feature engineering, and model deployment
• Experience interacting with, deploying, and fine-tuning large language models
• A solid understanding of the principles of machine learning and AI
• Excellent SQL skills and experience with ETL/ELT data modeling processes
• Demonstrated experience doing backend web development using a modern web framework

It’s great if you have:

• Experience working on highly scalable cloud infrastructures
• Comfort with Linux/UNIX systems
• Startup or small company experience
• Experience in managing and deploying Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform.

Our commitment to diversity

Working in the Education Technology space, it is an ethical necessity for us to build a diverse and inclusive team in order to better consider the needs of our audience’s wide range of backgrounds and educational experiences. We provide regular training on topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion to all employees.

We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Perks of working at Packback:

A culture that you can be proud to build: We work hard at building an inclusive culture of curiosity and continuous learning at Packback. In any role at Packback, being a good steward of our values and using them to inform decisions and communication can make an enormous impact on the business.

Work-life balance: Packback offers an unlimited vacation policy. Team members are encouraged to take time off for volunteer opportunities. Our engineering team is fully remote, and provides flexibility and support for working wherever makes the most sense for you.

Competitive Salary and Benefits: The salary range for this position is $160-180k annually + bonus. We set clear expectations for professional growth and offer an annual learning and development stipend.

Benefits:

Health & Wellness:

• Medical Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• 401(k) with a 50% employer match
• Stock options
• Disability Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Commuter Benefits
• Generous Parental Leave up to 12 weeks
• Family Medical Leave
• Unlimited Time Off

Additional Perks:

• Access to premium membership to One Medical
• Calm subscription
• Monthly Dashpass subscription by DoorDash

Please Note:

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S without the need for sponsorship. Packback does not offer visa sponsorship for this role.

Currently we are only able to hire from these states: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KY, MA, MS, MI, MN, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TX, VT, VA, WA, and WI.