The AI/ML Engineer - School (K-12) delivers AI solutions tailored to K-12 educators, students, and administrators. You will build production AI features that save teachers time on lesson planning and grading, provide personalized support to students, and do so under the strictest compliance and safety standards of any education segment. This role is unique because K-12 demands more than technical skill - it demands sensitivity to child safety, FERPA compliance, COPPA considerations, and the realities of how teachers actually work. The ideal candidate has shipped K-12 or consumer-safe AI features before and understands that in this domain, 'safe by default' is table stakes. Key Responsibilities K-12 AI Feature Development • Build AI tools for teacher lesson planning, worksheet creation, and content adaptation • Develop AI-powered grading, feedback, and formative assessment features • Create age-appropriate student support, tutoring, and help experiences • Build administrator analytics and early-warning systems for student intervention • Integrate AI capabilities into the Cengage School product ecosystem Compliance & Child Safety • Ensure FERPA, COPPA, and state-level student data privacy compliance in every feature • Implement child safety guardrails, content filtering, and age-appropriate AI behavior • Partner with Governance on policy enforcement for minors and classroom contexts • Handle parent, district, and state-level data privacy and audit requirements • Build transparency and explainability into AI features used with minors Optimization & Impact • Optimize features based on teacher usage data and feedback • Measure teacher adoption rates, time saved per educator, and classroom impact • Partner with curriculum and learning science teams on efficacy measurement • Iterate rapidly while maintaining compliance posture at every release • Maintain documentation and engineering runbooks for all deployed features Required Qualifications • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field • 4+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 2 years focused on AI/ML • Strong proficiency in Python with experience building production ML or LLM systems • Hands-on experience with modern AI APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock) • Strong understanding of FERPA, COPPA, and education data privacy requirements • Experience building AI systems with safety, content filtering, and guardrails • Solid software engineering fundamentals including testing, CI/CD, and system design • Excellent judgment on child safety and age-appropriate design decisions Preferred Qualifications • Prior experience building AI features for K-12 or consumer-safe environments • Background in EdTech with direct teacher or classroom exposure • Familiarity with state-level student data privacy regulations (SOPIPA, New York Ed Law 2-d) • Experience with content moderation, red-teaming, or AI safety evaluation • Familiarity with agentic AI frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex) • Experience with accessibility standards (WCAG, Section 508, DOJ accessibility) Tools & Technologies You should be comfortable with many of the following: • Languages: Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, SQL • AI/ML: OpenAI API, Anthropic API, AWS Bedrock, LangChain, Hugging Face • Safety: Content moderation APIs, custom guardrail systems, red-team frameworks • Cloud: AWS (Lambda, ECS, SageMaker, Bedrock), Azure OpenAI • Data: Snowflake, Databricks, Postgres, Redis • DevOps: Docker, Terraform, GitHub Actions, CI/CD pipelines Key Competencies • Child Safety First - makes conservative design choices when minors are involved • Compliance Rigor - builds FERPA/COPPA compliance into every feature from the start • Teacher Empathy - understands the realities of classroom workflow and time pressure • Shipping Mindset - delivers features on cadence while maintaining compliance posture • Technical Craft - writes clean, tested, production-grade code • Collaboration - partners effectively with product, legal, and curriculum teams What We Offer • Opportunity to shape AI at scale across a global learning company • Direct impact on business outcomes, product, and workforce productivity • Access to cutting-edge AI tools, platforms, and technologies • Collaborative team environment focused on innovation and continuous improvement Compensation At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. Click here to learn more about our Total Rewards Philosophy. The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location. Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range. In this position, you will be eligible to participate in the company's discretionary incentive bonus program. This position's bonus target amount, which is not guaranteed and is dependent on individual performance and overall company results among other factors, is provided below. 10% Annual: Individual Target $101,900.00 - $163,000.00 USD