Senior Manager, Engineering, Knowledge Graph

Learning Commons; Redwood City (CA); Hybrid; USD 241,000 - 331,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) match

Paid time off to volunteer

Family-forming benefits

Relocation support

Job summary

Learning Commons is seeking a Senior Engineering Manager for the Knowledge Graph team to lead the strategy, development, and operation of a foundational knowledge platform powering AI-enabled educational experiences. You will guide engineers building large-scale graph infrastructure, ingestion pipelines, and developer access tools.

You will collaborate with product managers, researchers, and educators to connect learning science with curriculum standards and classroom workflows in a scalable

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience.
• Deep technical expertise in data engineering, knowledge graphs, search and retrieval, or AI/ML infrastructure.
• Vision and pragmatism to drive adoption of AI systems within engineering and across Learning Commons.
• Strong technical judgment, communication skills, and ability to balance long-term platform investments with near-term delivery.
• Passion for education and building mission-driven technology for teachers and students.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Knowledge Graph platform, including graph infrastructure and data pipelines.
• Define and drive the technical strategy and roadmap for educational content integration.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, Learning Science and Partnerships teams to improve data and platform infrastructure.
• Establish engineering practices across architecture, reliability, security, and ops, fostering collaboration.
• Support growth through mentoring and developing engineering leaders.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Data engineering

Knowledge graphs

AI/ML infra

Job description

Learning Commons aims to scale proven teaching and learning practices to benefit every learner by building AI infrastructure that better connects the way students learn to the tools they learn with.

The Team

At Learning Commons, we pair technology with grantmaking to scale proven teaching and learning practices to benefit every learner. We aim to translate what learning science tells us about how students learn best into classroom practice. With the advent of generative AI, that translation work can be accelerated and scaled to have a greater impact.

Our mission is to bring learning science into the tools used every day by teachers and students, ensuring that technology reflects the realities of classrooms and strengthens teaching and learning.

In today’s fragmented edtech landscape, school districts are often left piecing together products that don’t always align with curricula or instructional needs. While AI holds enormous potential to support educators, it can only deliver on that promise when grounded in research, high-quality educational data, and expert evaluation. That’s why we’re building open, public-purpose infrastructure — datasets, rubrics, and resources — that help raise the standard for educational tools and create more consistent, impactful learning experiences for all students and teachers.

The Opportunity

Educators are using AI-based tools to generate lesson plans, create classroom materials such as tests and assignments, and help differentiate instruction for students. At Learning Commons, we are inspired and excited by the possibilities and promise of AI to accelerate the availability of research-backed practices at scale. We are actively and thoughtfully exploring how to incorporate AI into products in close partnership with researchers, experts, and educators.

As the Senior Engineering Manager for the Knowledge Graph team, you will lead the strategy, development, and operation of our foundational knowledge platform that is powering AI-enabled educational experiences. You will guide a team of engineers building large-scale graph infrastructure, ingestion pipelines, and developer access tools that connect learning science, curriculum standards, instructional resources, and classroom workflows into a cohesive ecosystem.

You will partner closely with product managers, applied AI researchers, learning scientists and external education experts to develop systems that improve how educational content is organized, discovered and delivered. This role combines technical leadership, people management, organizational influence, and strategic thinking in service of building open infrastructure that advances teaching and learning.

As a Senior Engineering Manager on the team, you will lead a cross-functional team of software engineers, data engineers and AI/ML experts.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and manage the high-performing team responsible for the Knowledge Graph platform, including graph infrastructure, dataset ingestion pipelines, and AI-powered retrieval capabilities.
• Define and drive the technical strategy and roadmap for integrating educational content, learning science research, curriculum standards into scalable knowledge systems
• Collaborate with Product, Design, Learning Science and Partnerships teams to drive forward our high-quality data and platform infrastructure
• Establish strong engineering practices across architecture, reliability, security, and operational excellence while fostering a collaborative and inclusive team culture
• Support team and organizational growth through hiring, mentoring, and developing engineering leaders and senior technical talent.

What You’ll Bring

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, including experience leading and scaling high-performing engineering teams
• Deep technical expertise in at least one of: data engineering, knowledge graphs, search and retrieval systems, or AI/ML infrastructure
• The vision and pragmatism to drive widespread adoption of AI systems within engineering and across Learning Commons
• Strong technical judgment, communication skills, and ability to balance long-term platform investments with near-term product delivery
• Passion for education and building mission-driven technology that supports teachers and students through our build partners.

Compensation

The Redwood City, CA base pay range for a new hire in this role is $241,000 – $331,100. 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.

This position may be eligible to participate in our discretionary annual performance bonus program. Bonus eligibility and targets are determined in accordance with our total rewards philosophy and may vary by role.

Better Together

As we grow, we’re excited to strengthen in-person connections and cultivate a collaborative, team-oriented environment. This role is a hybrid position requiring you to be onsite for at least 60% of the working month, approximately 3 days a week, with specific in-office days determined by the team’s manager. The exact schedule will be at the hiring manager's discretion and communicated during the interview 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.

• Provides a generous employer match on employee 401(k) contributions to support planning for the future.
• 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

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.