Software Engineer, Part-time

About aiEDU

The AI Education Project (aiEDU) is a growing 501(c)(3) non-profit that creates equitable educational experiences to excite and empower learners everywhere with AI literacy. We educate students-especially those disproportionately impacted by artificial intelligence and automation-with the conceptual knowledge and skills they need to thrive as future workers, creators, consumers, and citizens. Join us to make a difference in education and help shape a brighter future for today's and tomorrow's learners.

About the Role 

We are looking for an experienced engineer to build the technical foundation for aiEDU's external-facing products.

Our programming is generally live and cohort-based, but we've begun prototyping web-based products to support the tens of thousands of educators and partners in our programs each year. Our goal is to build quickly using current AI-assisted development tools and processes, without compromising quality or security.

Working with our product managers, Senior Lead of Data and Impact, and VP of Operations, you'll define the quality standards our products must meet, develop our shared technical infrastructure, own the security and integrity of our systems and data, and serve as first responder when problems arise.

You'll also make the rest of the team more technically capable - advising on engineering and security best practices, setting practical guardrails that let colleagues keep experimenting responsibly, and strengthening the technical judgment of the people around you.

⭐Role Details

• Location: This part-time, non-exempt position can be done on a flexible schedule remotely from anywhere in the U.S. with access to high speed internet.
• Compensation: This is a part-time role at $150 per hour, up to 25 hours per week. 
• Benefits: This position is part-time and not eligible for benefits. 
• Start date: We’d like a candidate to start as soon as possible after receiving an offer, though there is some flexibility.

Your Responsibilities (percentages fluctuate during the year and over time):

Product quality & process

• Working alongside our PMs, ensure all external-facing products meet quality standards for reliability, accessibility, error handling, performance and security. 
• Define the bar that new features/ products must clear before they go live, and review changes to production systems and externally facing products before release. 
• Build shared resources - e.g., templates, authentication patterns, environment setup - that PMs or other team members can reuse for new product or feature development. Set up the basic infrastructure for new launches, including monitoring, alerts and backups. 
• Advise our team on when something shouldn't ship or should be retired. Keep track of what we’ve launched and shut down what is no longer used. 

Security & Data Management

• Audit aiEDU’s externally facing products for security vulnerabilities; scope and implement remediations. 
• Harden backend configurations across our Supabase and Vercel environments, and own credential and secrets hygiene. 
• Establish and maintain our GitHub organization’s security posture.
• Serve as first responder for security incidents, including triage, remediation and documentation.
• With our Sr. Lead, Data & Impact, know and document where our data lives and design and enforce controls across our data systems, including audit logging and appropriate backup, retention and deletion practices.
• Support our VP of Operations to evolve our compliance and data safeguards, and ensure appropriate documentation to meet partner requirements.

Technical mentorship

• Establish lightweight, realistic guardrails for AI-assisted development that allow non-technical team members to build and experiment with AI tools without putting the organization at risk. 
• Write and maintain plain-language documentation and runbooks that a non-engineer can actually follow.
• Raise the technical judgement and ability of the people around you - the goal is to build a team that is more technically literate and competent a year from now, not one more reliant on you.

About You 

Before reading, please remember that there is no such thing as a "perfect" candidate. If you are on the fence about applying because you are unsure whether you are qualified, we would strongly encourage you to apply. Share your relevant experiences in a thoughtful cover letter!

You might be a great match for this role if you have:

• 3-5 years of software engineering experience with some back-end, infrastructure and security engineering experience. 
• Full-stack fluency sufficient to take someone else’s working prototype and make it production-grade for relatively simple, web-based products. 
• Experience working with AI-assisted development workflows. 
• Hands-on experience modern securing production databases (e.g., Supabase or similar), including access control design. Supabase or comparable platforms preferred.
• Working knowledge of modern web hosting platforms (Vercel, Netlify, or similar) and how to configure them securely.
• Practical experience with credential management, API security, and authentication.
• Demonstrated ability to explain technical concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders and write documentation that teams will understand and use.
• Comfort operating with autonomy in a small organization and good judgement about what’s worth fixing now vs. later. 
• Nice to have: familiarity with the education sector and student data privacy requirements. 

Equal Employment Opportunity

The AI Education Project is an equal opportunity employer. We believe that building and empowering a diverse team is a strategic imperative in our work, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law.  This policy applies with regard to all aspects of employment, including hiring, promotion, compensation, eligibility for benefits and termination. In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification