Senior AI Specialist

Coursera was launched in 2012 by Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, with a mission to provide universal access to world-class learning. It is now one of the largest online learning platforms in the world, with 175 million registered learners as of March 31, 2025. Coursera partners with over 350 leading universities and industry leaders to offer a broad catalog of content and credentials, including courses, Specializations, Professional Certificates, and degrees. Coursera’s platform innovations enable instructors to deliver scalable, personalized, and verified learning experiences to their learners. Institutions worldwide rely on Coursera to upskill and reskill their employees, citizens, and students in high-demand fields such as GenAI, data science, technology, and business. Coursera is a Delaware public benefit corporation and a B Corp.

Join us in our mission to create a world where anyone, anywhere can transform their life through access to education. We're seeking talented individuals who share our passion and drive to revolutionize the way the world learns.

At Coursera, we are committed to building a globally diverse team and are thrilled to extend employment opportunities to individuals in any country where we have a legal entity. We require candidates to possess eligible working rights and have a compatible timezone overlap with their team to facilitate seamless collaboration. 

Coursera has a commitment to enabling flexibility and workspace choices for employees. Our interviews and onboarding are entirely virtual, providing a smooth and efficient experience for our candidates. As an employee, we enable you to select your main way of working, whether it's from home, one of our offices or hubs, or a co-working space near you.

About the Role

Coursera is seeking a highly skilled and motivated Senior AI Specialist to join our team. This individual will play a pivotal role in developing and deploying advanced AI solutions that enhance our platform and transform the online learning experience. The ideal candidate has 5–8 years of experience, combining deep technical expertise with strong leadership and collaboration skills.

This is a unique opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects in AI/ML, including recommendation systems, predictive analytics, and content optimization. We’re looking for someone who is not only a strong individual contributor but also capable of mentoring others and influencing technical direction across teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Deploy and customize AI/ML solutions using platforms such as Google AI, AWS SageMaker, and other cloud-based tools.

• Design, implement, and optimize models for predictive analytics, semantic parsing, topic modeling, and information extraction.

• Enhance customer journey analytics to identify actionable insights and improve user experience across Coursera’s platform.

• Build and maintain AI pipelines for data ingestion, curation, training, evaluation, and model monitoring.

• Conduct advanced data preprocessing and cleaning to ensure high-quality model inputs.

• Analyze large-scale datasets (e.g., customer reviews, usage logs) to improve recommendation systems and platform features.

• Evaluate and improve the quality of video and audio content using AI-based techniques.

• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering, and data teams to integrate AI solutions into user-facing applications.

• Support and mentor team members in AI/ML best practices and tools.

• Document workflows, architectures, and troubleshooting steps to support long-term scalability and knowledge sharing.

• Stay current with emerging AI/ML trends and technologies, advocating for their adoption where applicable.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related technical field (required). Master’s or PhD preferred.

Experience

• 5–8 years of experience in AI/ML development with a strong focus on building production-grade models and pipelines.

• Proven track record in deploying scalable AI solutions using platforms like Google Vertex AI, AWS SageMaker, Microsoft Azure, or Databricks.

• Strong experience with backend integration, API development, and cloud-native services.

Technical Skills

• Programming: Advanced proficiency in Python (including libraries like TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn). Familiarity with Java or similar languages is a plus.

• Data Engineering: Expertise in handling large datasets using PySpark, AWS Glue, Apache Airflow, and S3.

• Databases: Solid experience with both SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL (MongoDB, DynamoDB) systems.

• Cloud: Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP) and tools like Vertex AI, SageMaker, BigQuery, Lambda, etc.

Soft Skills & Leadership Attributes (Senior Engineer Level)

• Technical leadership: Ability to drive end-to-end ownership of AI/ML projects—from design through deployment and monitoring.

• Collaboration: Skilled at working cross-functionally with product managers, engineers, and stakeholders to align on priorities and deliver impactful solutions.

• Mentorship: Experience mentoring junior engineers and fostering a culture of learning and growth within the team.

• Communication: Clear communicator who can explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

• Problem-solving: Proactive in identifying challenges and proposing scalable, maintainable solutions.

• Adaptability: Comfortable working in a fast-paced, evolving environment with changing priorities and goals.

 

#LI-SP2

Coursera is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer and considers all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected class.   If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process, please contact us at accommodations@coursera.org.   For California Candidates, please review our CCPA Applicant Notice here. For our Global Candidates, please review our GDPR Recruitment Notice here.   #LI-Remote