Tech Lead Manager, Education

Engineering Manager · Lead · Full Time

San FranciscoUSD 325k – 405k1w ago
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Role

What you'll do.

OpenAI is seeking a hands-on Tech Lead Manager to lead a team of senior full-stack engineers building AI-native learning experiences within ChatGPT's Education platform. This role uniquely combines technical execution, product leadership, and people management, requiring you to architect education-focused features while managing senior engineers and collaborating across research, go-to-market, and product teams. You'll drive strategy and execution for ChatGPT Edu and related education initiatives, translating learning science research into transformative product experiences for students and educators.

Responsibilities

  • Team Leadership and Management: Lead and manage a team of three senior full-stack engineers, providing technical direction, mentorship, career development, and performance feedback. Establish team culture, conduct 1:1 meetings, and foster an environment where senior engineers can do their best work while maintaining accountability to organizational goals.
  • Technical Architecture and Implementation: Design and develop product experiences for ChatGPT Education, ChatGPT for Teachers, and AI-native learning workflows. Write and ship production code alongside your team, maintaining hands-on technical expertise while setting architectural patterns and establishing engineering best practices for the product pod.
  • Research Partnership and Data Integration: Partner closely with research teams on field studies, randomized control trials (RCTs), classifier development, data pipelines, and cognitive-outcome measurement. Translate research methodologies into engineering solutions that enable data-driven product decisions and learning science validation.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Drive execution across product, engineering, research, go-to-market, and education partner teams. Serve as a bridge between technical implementation and broader organizational goals, facilitating communication and alignment across diverse stakeholders with competing priorities.
  • Product Strategy and Roadmap Definition: Define product strategy, priorities, and delivery plans for the education product pod. Operate like a General Manager for your focused product area, balancing technical feasibility, user impact, and business objectives while translating consumer learning insights into broader ChatGPT improvements.
  • Consumer Learning Integration: Collaborate with Consumer Learning and model teams to translate education-specific insights into behavioral improvements and product enhancements across ChatGPT. Ensure education domain expertise influences broader platform capabilities and contributes to company-wide learning initiatives.

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Full-Stack Software Engineering

    Proven experience architecting and building scalable full-stack systems. Comfortable with modern web technologies, APIs, databases, and cloud infrastructure. Ability to make sound technical tradeoffs between performance, maintainability, and time-to-market.

  • Large-Scale Systems Architecture

    Experience operating in and designing systems for large, complex technology organizations. Understanding of scalability challenges, distributed systems concepts, and how to build products that serve millions of users while maintaining reliability and performance.

  • Data Pipelines and Analytics

    Experience building or collaborating on data pipelines, ETL processes, and analytics infrastructure. Ability to bridge product requirements with data infrastructure needs, enabling research teams to conduct rigorous measurement and analysis of learning outcomes.

  • Product Engineering

    Track record of translating product requirements into technical solutions and making architectural decisions that enable product success. Comfort with rapid iteration, A/B testing frameworks, and data-driven product decisions.

Education

  • Computer Science or Related Field

    Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent professional software engineering experience. Strong foundational knowledge of computer science principles, algorithms, and system design.

Experience

  • People Management

    Several years of direct management experience leading engineering teams. Demonstrated ability to hire, develop, and retain talented engineers; provide constructive feedback; and create psychological safety while maintaining high performance standards.

  • Senior Engineer Leadership

    Experience leading and influencing senior-level individual contributors. Ability to establish credibility, provide clear technical direction, and earn the respect of highly skilled engineers through deep technical knowledge and sound judgment.

  • Cross-Functional Influence

    Proven ability to influence and align stakeholders across product, design, research, and go-to-market teams without direct authority. Strong communication skills and diplomatic approach to resolving competing priorities and perspectives.

  • Product Strategy and Ownership

    Experience defining and executing product strategy for a focused product area or pod. General Manager mindset with ability to balance technical execution, user research, market fit, and business metrics.

Skills

Required

  • Team Management and Leadership

    Demonstrated ability to build and manage high-performing engineering teams, with focus on developing senior engineers and maintaining technical credibility with direct reports.

  • Technical Depth in Modern Development

    Deep expertise in contemporary software engineering practices, full-stack development, and ability to architect systems that scale. Comfortable with JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, or similar modern languages.

  • Strategic Thinking and Product Sense

    Ability to think strategically about product direction, evaluate tradeoffs between features and technical debt, and operate with General Manager mentality for a product area.

  • Cross-Functional Communication

    Excellent communication skills with ability to translate between technical and non-technical audiences, influence without authority, and align diverse teams around shared goals.

  • Hands-On Execution

    Comfort remaining deeply technical while managing, writing code, participating in architecture decisions, and unblocking technical challenges alongside your team.

Preferred

  • Education and Learning Science Domain Knowledge

    Nice to have

    Background in education technology, learning science, cognitive science, or education product development. Understanding of pedagogical principles and how technology can improve learning outcomes.

  • AI and Language Model Product Experience

    Nice to have

    Experience building products on top of large language models or generative AI systems. Understanding of LLM capabilities, limitations, and best practices for creating delightful user experiences.

  • Research-Driven Product Development

    Nice to have

    Experience building products that integrate research insights, data pipelines, and user-facing experiences. Comfort working with research teams, understanding experimental design, and translating findings into product changes.

  • B2B and Consumer Product Scaling

    Nice to have

    Experience launching B2B products (like institution-focused education offerings) that subsequently scale into broader consumer workflows. Understanding of different go-to-market strategies and how to maintain product consistency across segments.

  • Startup and Large Organization Environments

    Nice to have

    Track record working effectively in both startup environments (rapid iteration, resourcefulness) and large technology companies (process, scale, complexity management).

  • Distributed Team Leadership

    Nice to have

    Experience managing geographically distributed engineering teams and maintaining team cohesion, communication quality, and execution rigor across time zones.

Tech stack

Languages

JavaScript/TypeScriptPythonSQL

Frameworks

ReactNext.jsFastAPI or Flask

Databases

PostgreSQLRedisVector Databases

Tools

Git and GitHubDocker and KubernetesCI/CD PipelinesMonitoring and Analytics ToolsProject Management and Collaboration

Other

OpenAI API IntegrationEducational Data StandardsA/B Testing and ExperimentationResearch Infrastructure

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·USD 325,000 – 405,000

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Equity and Stock Options

    Significant equity grants providing ownership stake in OpenAI, aligning your success with company growth and long-term value creation in the AI industry.

  • Comprehensive Health Coverage

    Medical, dental, and vision insurance covering you and your family. OpenAI partners with leading providers to ensure comprehensive healthcare access.

  • 401(k) Retirement Plan

    Employer-matched 401(k) retirement savings plan to support long-term financial planning and wealth building.

  • Unlimited PTO and Wellness

    Flexible time-off policy recognizing individual needs, plus comprehensive wellness programs including mental health support and fitness benefits.

  • Professional Development

    Investment in continuous learning through conference attendance, training programs, and opportunities to work on cutting-edge AI technology and publish research.

  • Generous Parental Leave

    Comprehensive parental leave policies supporting work-life balance and family planning for all employees.

  • Commuter and Relocation Benefits

    Support for commuting needs and relocation assistance for candidates joining from outside the Bay Area.

  • Educational Sabbatical

    Opportunities for paid sabbaticals or educational leaves to pursue learning, research collaborations, or personal development initiatives.

Process

Interview steps.

  1. 01

    Initial Screening Call

    Recruiter phone screen (30 minutes) to discuss your background, interest in education and AI, and alignment with the Tech Lead Manager role. Expect questions about your team management experience and technical background.

  2. 02

    Manager Phone Screen

    Technical conversation (45 minutes) with the hiring manager to dive deeper into your leadership philosophy, hands-on technical capabilities, and experience managing senior engineers. Be prepared to discuss specific examples of product decisions and team growth initiatives.

  3. 03

    Technical Design Interview

    Collaborative session (60 minutes) where you'll discuss system design, architecture, and technical approach to building education-focused features. May involve whiteboarding or architecture discussion for a hypothetical learning platform scenario.

  4. 04

    Product and Strategy Discussion

    Conversation (60 minutes) exploring your product sense, strategic thinking, and ability to balance user needs with technical execution. Discuss your experience with product launches, prioritization frameworks, and cross-functional collaboration.

  5. 05

    Executive Leadership Round

    Meeting (45 minutes) with senior leadership or the Head of Education to discuss your vision for the role, thoughts on AI in education, and how you approach driving execution across complex organizations. Demonstrate strategic thinking and genuine passion for education impact.

  6. 06

    Team Fit Round

    Conversation (45 minutes) with one or two of your potential direct reports to ensure technical credibility, management style compatibility, and collaborative working relationship alignment with the engineering team.

  7. 07

    Reference Checks and Offer

    OpenAI conducts reference calls with previous managers and collaborators, followed by a comprehensive offer including base salary, equity, and benefits package.

Full posting

Original listing.

About the Team

OpenAI’s Education team is building products that advance how people learn with AI. The team works across higher education institutions, K-12 districts, and country-level partnerships, including applied research on how AI affects learning and cognitive outcomes.

The team owns owns ChatGPT Edu, ChatGPT for Teachers, and related product/research work. The team partners closely with go-to-market, research, Consumer Learning, and model teams to turn education-specific insights into product experiences that can improve ChatGPT more broadly.

Some of our recent work:

About the Role

We’re looking for a hands-on Tech Lead Manager to lead and manage a team of senior full-stack engineers building AI-native learning experiences in ChatGPT. This person will combine technical execution, product judgment, and people leadership: they will write and ship code, manage engineers, and help shape the product direction for how students and Educationcators use AI.

In This Role, You Will

  • Lead and manage a team of three senior full-stack engineers.

  • Build product experiences for ChatGPT Education, ChatGPT for Teachers, and AI-native learning workflows.

  • Partner with research teams on field studies, randomized control trials, classifiers, data pipelines, and cognitive-outcome measurement.

  • Collaborate with Consumer Learning and model teams to translate education insights into broader ChatGPT behavior and product improvements.

  • Drive execution across product, engineering, research, go-to-market, and partner teams.

  • Help define product strategy, priorities, and delivery plans for a new product pod.

You Might Thrive In This Role If You

  • Have several years of direct people-management experience with engineers.

  • Are still highly technical and comfortable doing IC engineering work.

  • Have strong product sense and can operate like a GM for a focused product area.

  • Can lead senior engineers with credibility and clear technical direction.

  • Are effective at cross-functional influence, communication, and project management.

  • Are genuinely interested in education, learning science, and how AI can improve learning outcomes.

  • Have experience operating in a large, complex technology organization.

Nice To Have

  • Experience in education, learning products, learning science, or edtech.

  • Experience across both larger technology companies and startup-like environments.

  • Experience building products that connect research, data pipelines, and user-facing product experiences.

  • Experience with B2B products that can later scale into broader consumer workflows.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.

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