Senior Software Engineer, Education

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 operate at the intersection of technology, research, and philanthropy. We pair product development with grantmaking to scale proven teaching and learning practices for the benefit of every learner. We aim to bring learning science into the tools educators and students use every day.

Our work is grounded in a deep belief: when technology reflects the realities of classrooms and the science of how students learn, it can meaningfully strengthen teaching and unlock new possibilities for students. The rise of generative AI offers us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to dramatically accelerate the translation of research insights into practical, classroom-ready tools; tools that honor teachers’ expertise, adapt to students’ needs, and make effective learning practices easier to access, implement, and sustain.

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 teachers and students, 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

As a Senior Software Engineer on the Knowledge Graph Access team, you will help build and scale the API infrastructure that makes the Knowledge Graph accessible to edtech developers across the country. The Knowledge Graph is a structured network of educational datasets — connecting curricula, learning standards, and learning components — designed to help developers build more accurate, learning-science-backed AI products.

The Access team is the gateway between the Knowledge Graph and the broader edtech ecosystem. You will work on production APIs (GraphQL and REST), authentication and permissioning systems, observability infrastructure, and developer-facing tooling that powers partners as they integrate the Knowledge Graph into their products.

With Full General Availability targeted for June 2026 and a growing external partner base, this is a pivotal moment to shape how the Knowledge Graph reaches developers at scale — and to build the kind of open educational infrastructure that has never existed before.

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and maintain the GraphQL and REST APIs that expose Knowledge Graph data to external developers, with a focus on performance, reliability, and developer experience at scale.
• Own and evolve access-layer systems end-to-end: API business logic, rate limiting, pagination, role-based data permissioning, versioning, and observability/logging.
• Build and improve secure, scalable developer onboarding infrastructure — including API key management, tiered access controls, and self-service workflows that reduce manual onboarding overhead.
• Collaborate across pods — with Knowledge Graph Construction, platform engineers, and the Developer Experience team — to align on shared infrastructure, release dependencies, and GA readiness milestones.
• Contribute to a culture of engineering excellence and operational maturity through thoughtful code review, technical documentation, and on-call participation as the team establishes production-grade operations for the first time.

What You'll Bring

• 5+ years of experience building and operating production-grade APIs and backend services, with strong command of REST and GraphQL.
• Hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure and developer access systems, including AWS (API Gateway preferred), Docker, and Kubernetes.
• Familiarity with graph databases (Neo4j a plus) and experience designing systems that involve authentication, rate limiting, tiered permissioning, and observability.
• Strong engineering fundamentals: you write maintainable, well-tested code, reason carefully about system design, and communicate clearly about tradeoffs.
• A collaborative, growth-oriented approach — you thrive in cross-functional environments, adapt as requirements evolve, and care deeply about building infrastructure that serves the public good.

Compensation

The Redwood City, CA base pay range for a new hire in this role is $190,000 - $261,800. 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.

#LI-Hybrid #LI-Onsite