Senior AI Engineer
College Board – Technology – BigFuture Student
Location: This is a fully remote role. Candidates who live near CB offices have the option of being fully remote or hybrid (Tuesday and Wednesday in office).
Type: This is a full-time position
About the Team
BigFuture is committed to empowering all students to take the right first step after high school, reaching over 7 million students each year as the leading free resource for college, scholarship, and career exploration. The BigFuture Student team builds and maintains the full breadth of BigFuture student products like BigFuture School a mobile app & bigfuture.org including but not limited to College Search, Scholarship Search, Career Search, dashboards, checklists, and community features so that students can confidently discover, define, and pursue their unique paths. We work in an agile, collaborative environment that values creativity, curiosity, and problem-solving, delivering clean and sustainable solutions that scale to meet the needs of millions while reducing technical debt. Engineers on our team not only code, but also mentor, document, and partner with product and design to shape solutions and influence the direction of our work. We thrive on learning from each other, raising risks early, and finding simplicity in complexity, all while celebrating shared successes and growth. Together, we are mission-driven technologists who take pride in building products that positively transform the educational and career trajectories of students nationwide.
About the Opportunity
This is a chance to have a direct hand in building the future of BigFuture, the most widely used college and career planning platform for students both in the mobile and web ecosystems. As a Full Stack Engineer on this team, you are a leader, collaborator, and innovator. You have a strong interest in understanding our stakeholders and leveraging new technologies to support them. We’re looking for a Senior AI Engineer to design and build next-generation user experiences powered by Generative AI. You’ll work across architecture, data, and product design to implement LLM-driven tools that personalize, automate, and enhance our users’ journeys. This role blends deep technical expertise with creativity and a product mindset — ideal for someone passionate about applying AI to real-world impact. From day one, you’ll be encouraged to mentor teammates, influence technical decisions, and help simplify complex problems so that students and educators experience fast, reliable, and meaningful tools. Beyond building products, this role offers you the opportunity to elevate engineering practices, explore emerging technologies like AI, and grow into a trusted technical leader whose work impacts millions of students each year. You are not shy about taking on new work you may not have done before while owning all phases of prototyping including requirements definition and analysis, application design, coding, reviewing, testing, deploying, and support. You are eager to lead by example as well as more formally through peer collaboration, coaching and mentoring.
In this role, you will:
Design and Development (60%)
Design and deliver high-quality software that is scalable, secure, and reusable—leveraging modern technologies, proven design patterns, and cloud-native practices to power BigFuture’s core tools.
Collaborate with product owners, architects, and stakeholders to uphold the highest engineering standards and translate big ideas into impactful, student-facing solutions.
Break down new product capabilities into actionable, verifiable technical changes that move quickly from concept to reality.
Design and implement solutions to allow rapid testing of innovative concepts using the latest technologies, typically React web apps
Create sharable documentation, both technical and non-technical
Exercise discretion in prototyping: investing time to make sure the most important things work well, and working with the team to mock or minimize less important features
Maintain clean code and strong engineering standards such that when prototypes are greenlit for further development, the project is easy to build upon
Continuously develop the skills required to work with this rapidly developing technology
Team Operations & Success (30%)
Participate in, or lead Agile SCRUM ceremonies (Sprint Planning, Grooming, Daily SCRUM, Demo) by contributing to team deliverables and driving alignment, focus, and momentum across sprints.
Elevate team performance by giving and receiving thoughtful code reviews, mentoring peers, and helping solve complex technical challenges.
Assist in resolving production issues with urgency and precision, ensuring a smooth and reliable user experience.
Model discipline in adhering to development standards, security practices, and CI/CD principles while helping the team move fast without compromising quality.
Continuously grow your skills and embrace a poly-skilled environment where everyone contributes beyond their specialty.
Serve as an organizational Subject Matter Expert on implementing Generative AI applications
Work with our Enterprise Architecture team to review and/or establish implementation patterns involving Generative AI tools
Advise on, and where feasible, create tools and infrastructure that will enable teams to safely deploy Generative AI tools
Learning & Sharing (10%)
Keep abreast of developments in GenAI capabilities and implementations
Share knowledge of new developments with the team via chats, meetings, and presentations when appropriate
Serve as an advisor to internal teams developing staff education around Generative AI
About you, you have:
Hands-on experience with LLM frameworks and APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic).
Experience fine-tuning or prompting large models for specific user or domain contexts.
Understanding RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architectures, embeddings, and vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, AWS OpenSearch).
Familiarity with prompt engineering, few-shot learning, and context management techniques.
Familiarity with Python skills (FastAPI, Flask, or Django) and comfort working with TypeScript/JavaScript for front-end integrations.
5+ years of Software engineering experience designing, building, testing, and managing scalable web applications in cloud-hosted environments
2–3+ years working with LLMs, NLP, or applied ML systems.
Enthusiasm for learning new technologies, especially in the fast-moving GenAI space
Expertise in developing responsive, accessible UIs with JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS, and HTML
Strong knowledge and hands-on experience with back-end technologies such as Node.js and/or Python
Experience with asynchronous programming and event-driven messaging patterns
Strong knowledge of AWS services (e.g., Lambda, SNS, SQS, S3, Step Functions, IAM, KMS, API Gateway, CloudWatch, DynamoDB)
Experience with relational and NoSQL databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redshift, DynamoDB)
Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments
Strong analytical thinking, structured problem-solving, and practical decision-making skills
Effective communication and documentation skills
Proficiency in reviewing and improving code structure and architecture for testability, maintainability, and scalability, with hands-on experience in JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Node.js, Next.js, APIs, and AWS Serverless technologies (Lambdas, DynamoDB, S3, CloudWatch, etc.).
Strong problem-solving skills, working collaboratively with team members to identify and resolve issues, and partnering with Product Owners to prioritize backlog.
Proven ability to pitch new ideas and implement improved systems and processes, delivering excellent results.
Effective communicator and able to provide actionable feedback, mentor team members, and participate in interviews to evaluate engineering talent.
Bachelor's degree in computer science, Machine Learning, or related engineering fields
Ability to travel 3-5 times a year to our Reston, VA office.
All roles at College Board require:
A passion for expanding educational and career opportunities and mission-driven work
Authorization to work in the United States for any employer
Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions and a comfort learning and applying new digital tools independently and proactively.
Clear and concise communication skills, written and verbal
A learner's mindset and a commitment to growth: welcoming diverse perspectives, giving and receiving timely, respectful feedback, and continuously improving through iterative learning and user input.
A drive for impact and excellence: solving complex problems, making data-informed decisions, prioritizing what matters most, and continuously improving through learning, user input, and external benchmarking.
A collaborative and empathetic approach: working across differences, fostering trust, and contributing to a culture of shared success.
About Our Process
Application review will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days.
While the hiring process may vary, it generally includes resume and application submission, recruiter phone/video screen, hiring manager interview, performance exercise such as live coding or whiteboarding sessions, a panel interview, a conversation with leadership and reference checks.
What We Offer
At College Board, we offer more than just a paycheck—we provide a meaningful career, a supportive team, and a comprehensive package designed to help you thrive. We’re a self-sustaining nonprofit that believes in fair and competitive compensation, grounded in your qualifications, experience, impact, and the market.
A Thoughtful Approach to Compensation
The hiring range for this role is $150,000 to $163,000
Your exact salary will depend on your location, experience, and how your background compares to others in similar roles at the College Board.
We aim to make our best offer upfront—rooted in fairness, transparency, and market data.
We adjust salaries by location to ensure fairness, no matter where you live.
You’ll have open, transparent conversations about compensation, benefits, and what it’s like to work at College Board throughout your hiring process. Check out our careers page for more.
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