Staff Software Engineer, Education

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was founded by Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg in 2015 to help solve some of society’s toughest challenges — from eradicating disease and improving education to addressing the needs of our local communities. Our mission is to build a more inclusive, just, and healthy future for everyone.

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 tools, practices, and measures designed to foster whole-child outcomes. We leverage 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 is what sets us apart from other education funders. Take a closer look at the highlights and significant milestones of CZI’s first eight years of education work. 

The Opportunity

Education is transforming through AI and knowledge technologies. At CZI, we're building Edu Graph, an innovative knowledge graph platform that will help connect and organize educational content, standards, and curricula to enable more personalized and effective learning experiences. We're seeking a talented Staff Software Engineer to join our AI Resources team and lead the development of Edu Graph, a large-scale, open knowledge graph that contains a broad education ontology, including curriculums and standards.  Edu Graph will serve as a foundational component for educational technology developers and help improve learning outcomes for students across the country.  The graph includes imported data sets and knowledge abstracted from structured and semi-structured sources. We're seeking a talented Staff Software Engineer to join our AI Resources team and lead the development of Edu Graph, which will serve as a foundational component for educational technology developers and help improve learning outcomes for students across the country.

This role offers a unique opportunity to apply knowledge graph expertise to solve complex technical and educational challenges. You'll collaborate with a diverse team of engineers, data scientists, and education experts to build and scale a knowledge graph that will power the next generation of educational tools. Our ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in knowledge graphs with a passion for using technology to improve education and the ability to drive technical decisions that will shape the future of our platform.

What You'll Do

• Lead the way: Drive the technical architecture and development of Edu Graph, making key design decisions that will impact how we represent educational relationships between curricula, standards, and learning resources.
• Connect the dots: Design and implement scalable data pipelines to integrate diverse educational data from various sources, including curriculum providers and standards organizations.
• Optimize for performance: Own the development and optimization of our graph database infrastructure (currently Neo4j), ensuring high performance, reliability, and scalability.
• Empower the ecosystem: Help create and maintain APIs that enable educational technology partners to integrate and utilize Edu Graph data seamlessly.
• Ensure data integrity: Develop tools and frameworks for data quality assurance and graph validation.
• Unlock the power of AI: Collaborate with AI/ML teams to enable advanced capabilities like intelligent content recommendations and standards alignment.
• Bridge the gap between technology and pedagogy: Partner with product and education teams to translate pedagogical requirements into effective technical solutions.

What You'll Bring

• Knowledge graph expert: Demonstrated software engineering experience with proven expertise in knowledge graph development and graph databases (e.g., Neo4j).
• Data pipeline pro: Strong experience building reliable data pipelines and ETL processes to handle diverse educational data sources.
• Cloud and systems savvy: Experience with cloud infrastructure and distributed systems to ensure scalability and performance.
• Programming proficiency: Proficiency in Python, Java, or similar languages commonly used in data engineering.
• Ontology architect: Experience designing taxonomies and ontologies for representing entities and relationships within knowledge graphs.
• AI/ML enthusiast: Experience applying Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), and Large Language Models (LLM) for content understanding and knowledge extraction.
• Team player: Strong collaboration skills and the ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams.
• Technical leader: Experience mentoring other engineers and driving technical decisions.
• Passion for education: A genuine desire to leverage technology to improve learning outcomes for all students.

Compensation

The Redwood City, CA base pay range for this role is $214,000 - $321,000. 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 employer match on employee 401(k) contributions to support planning for the future.
• Annual benefit 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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