AI Engineer (Applied ML + LLM Systems)

About the client: 
Our mission is to advance global learning. Through innovative virtual instruction and highly trained tutors, we deliver catalytic student achievement across the country. We are developing an AI-powered system that enhances our ecosystem across the board and we primarily service schools, districts, community based organizations, and states throughout the United States. Air Tutors is an online tutoring company that works with students in K12 and and adult learners as well.

Working Condition : 20 hours a week of commitment. the engineer will be based in Cairo, and accommodate a reasonable local working schedule while ensuring approximately 3-4 hours of daily overlap with our engineering team in Utah 

Job Description

We are seeking an AI Engineer with strong experience in applied machine learning and large language model (LLM) development to help build the next generation of Air Tutors.
We want an engineer who is motivated to grow, continually refine their skills, take increasing ownership of their work, and help solve problems rather than simply wait for solutions or detailed specifications. We are looking for an individual who wants to grow with us!

This role will work closely with our CTO, research partners, and instructional design teams to architect, train, evaluate, and deploy AI systems that:

● Improve tutors’ real-time instructional decision-making
● Align approved materials in various libraries/catalogues and district curriculum maps
● Generate student, classroom, and system-level insights
● Support parent engagement and educator evaluation processes statewide
Creativity, curiosity, and independent problem-solving are critical. Feature requests may begin as high-level objectives rather than fully defined specifications. The engineer in this role should be comfortable translating those objectives into clear requirements, identifying unanswered questions, proposing implementation approaches, and moving work forward with increasing independence.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities
AI Model Development & Integration
● Design, train, fine-tune, and evaluate LLM-based systems that assist tutors during live sessions.
● Build models to synthesize tutoring session transcripts and extract insights.
● Architect pipelines mapping AI outputs to state-provided instructional materials.
Data Engineering & Infrastructure
● Develop data ingestion pipelines for libraries and district resources.
● Implement evaluation frameworks for student-level challenges and tutor-identified needs.
Product & Feature Development
● Own end-to-end implementation of features.
● Build real-time AI hint/explanation engines for tutors.
● Translate high-level product objectives into concrete technical requirements and implementation plans.
● Identify open questions, technical risks, dependencies, and tradeoffs before and during development.
● When encountering a blocker, investigate the issue, identify potential solutions, and recommend a path forward whenever possible.
● Take increasing ownership of projects from problem definition → requirements → proposed solution → implementation → testing → delivery.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
● Work with instructional experts to ensure outputs align with teaching practices.
● Collaborate with research partners.
● Support implementation and coherence frameworks.
● Communicate proactively about progress, timelines, blockers, changes in availability, and potential delays.
● Work effectively across time zones and within a small, fast-moving team where consistent communication is essential.

Qualifications

Required
● 4+ years ML or applied AI engineering experience
● Experience with large language models
● Expertise with Python ML ecosystems
● Experience building production AI systems
● Excellent communication skills
Preferred
● NLP experience in education
● Familiarity with HQIM or K–12 systems
● Rails experience or willingness to learn
● Background in tutoring, teaching, or edtech
Nice to Have
● Experience integrating existing frameworks into another
● Work with transcript/audio analysis
● Understanding of responsible AI and FERPA
● Love for education and supporting students
How You Work
Because we are a small, fast-moving team, how you approach your work is as important as your technical ability. We are looking for someone who:
● Takes ownership: You don't need every step defined for you. You help turn objectives into requirements, surface unanswered questions, and determine what needs to happen next.
● Is proactive: When something isn't working, you don't simply report the problem and wait. You investigate, consider possible solutions and tradeoffs, and recommend a path forward.
● Wants to grow: You actively seek feedback, refine your technical skills, learn new approaches, and want your responsibilities to increase as your capabilities grow.
● Communicates consistently: You provide visibility into progress, timelines, blockers, availability, and changes that could affect the broader team.
● Is comfortable with ambiguity: You can take a high-level product or business objective and help transform it into something that can actually be built.
● Exercises good judgment: You can make reasonable decisions independently while recognizing when a decision should be discussed or escalated.
● Thinks beyond the ticket: You want to understand why something is being built and how it will be used—not simply complete the assigned task.
● Follows through: You take responsibility for commitments and communicate early when something may prevent you from delivering them.
We do not expect someone to arrive knowing everything. We do want someone who wants to learn quickly and become increasingly independent. As you become familiar with Air Tutors and our team, the expectation is that you will take greater ownership of feature specification, technical decisions, and problem-solving.