AI Learning Scientist

It is Kira Learning's mission to harness transformative AI technologies to make world-class teaching and learning accessible to everyone. Kira is a rapidly growing startup backed by top-tier Venture Capital funds including New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Andrew Ng's AI Fund, and Primavera. We live in a world where technology is rapidly changing the educational experiences of students and teachers everywhere, and we have the opportunity to shape how this change takes place.

As an AI Learning Scientist at Kira, you will help ensure that the AI features we build are pedagogically sound and actually move student outcomes. AI is reshaping what classrooms and student learning looks like, and you will help define what high-quality learning looks like in this new era. You will partner with our product and engineering teams to ground our AI systems in evidence-based learning science, and you will help ensure that what we build improves student outcomes.

This is a full-time position that frequently requires flexibility outside regular business hours for launches, incidents, or collaboration across time zones. We have offices in San Francisco and New York City. We ask that employees work from one of the two locations, and come into the office 4 days a week (Wednesdays WFH).

What You'll Do

• You will partner with product and engineering teams to ensure our student-facing AI features, such as our AI tutor, are pedagogically sound and genuinely improve learning outcomes.

• You will ground our AI features in evidence-based instructional strategies, including scaffolding, worked examples, retrieval practice, and adaptive feedback.

• You will help shape how we measure student understanding and progress over time, working closely with the AI team on personalization and mastery.

• You will partner with product and curriculum teams on standards alignment, skill progressions, and the cognitive demand of the work students do on Kira.

• You will contribute to how we evaluate the quality of our AI systems, including automated evaluations and human review.

• You will represent Kira's pedagogical approach to external audiences, including district administrators, researchers, and partners, through written materials, conference talks, and customer conversations.

What We Are Looking For

• You have a strong working knowledge of K-12 instruction, including curriculum standards, assessment design, and the realities of classroom practice.

• You have experience designing and evaluating learning interventions, ideally with quantitative methods such as randomized studies, quasi-experiments, or rigorous observational designs.

• You are comfortable working with technical teams and can engage substantively with topics like machine learning evaluation, recommendation systems, or psychometrics.

• You communicate clearly in writing and verbally, and you can move between research-grade precision and product-friendly summaries.

• You are excited about applying AI to education and have a thoughtful, evidence-based view on what it can and cannot do well.

• You have a degree in learning sciences, educational psychology, cognitive science, or a closely related field.

Preferred

• You have classroom teaching experience in a K-12 setting.

• You have worked in an edtech product environment or at a research-practice partnership.

• You have published research on AI tutors, intelligent tutoring systems, mastery learning, or adaptive assessment.

• You have experience with MTSS, response to intervention, or other tiered support frameworks.

• You have hands-on experience running pilots or efficacy studies with school districts.

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation and equity. For applicants in the US, the salary range for this role is $130,000 - $180,000 depending on relevant considerations like professional experience and related skill sets.

• Medical, dental, vision and life insurance, including a medical insurance plan with 100% coverage of employee.

• DoorDash credit for lunch daily.

• Wellhub Membership: 100% company-paid access to premium gym networks (Orangetheory, SoulCycle), 60+ wellness apps (Headspace, MyFitnessPal, Apple Fitness+), and 1:1 coaching sessions spanning fitness, mental health, nutrition, and sleep.

• Pet friendly office 🐶.

Equal Employment Opportunity Employer

At Kira, we are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information (including characteristics and testing), military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Kira believes that diversity and inclusion among our employees are critical to our success as a company, and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool. Selection for employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need.

Background Check

Kira will make a conditional job offer in line with local, state and federal laws, and a subsequent criminal, education, and employment history background check will then be issued.