Lead Instructor, The AI Engineer Certification (10-Week Program)

Job Title: Lead Instructor, The AI Engineer Certification (10-Week Program) Location: Remote, accepting applications globally Our Location: Columbus Ohio, United States Work Type: Contract Pay : Contract, $7500 USD, 50% on June 30, 2026, 50% on August 31, 2026 Time Commitment: ~10-12 hours/week for 10 weeks, potential for renewal AI Makerspace (AIM) is on a mission to create the industry-standard certification for people who want to become production AI Engineers. We are dedicated to fostering a learning environment that encourages individual growth, community connection, and competence building with Large Language Models at the open-source edge. Job Purpose As the next Lead Instructor for The AI Engineering Certification, you will play a critical role in the success of the course! You will serve as the primary face of the cohort, as well as a key member of the technical team, where your opinions will be highly valued across programs and cohorts. Responsibilities: Live Instruction • Teach two 2-hour sessions per week, demoing application builds corresponding to v1.0 Curriculum Curriculum Excellence • Work with Course Operations Lead to ensure that run of show and session sheets are updated and improved prior to each session and pre-session rehearsal • Author and version-control a dedicated set of slides according to an established weekly deadline cadence that students can use as reference material to complete assignments, building on previous slide decks • Coordinate delivery with your Coding Co-Instructor weekly up to and including full rehearsals of the session Make it Easy • Respond to student DMs and tags in Discord within 24 hours (during the week) and by Monday for weekend tags • Host 1 office hour weekly Practical AI Education • Model best practices for AI Engineering in the industry by drawing on your deep experience and expertise in building, shipping, and sharing in your specific domain(s) of practice • Balance the demands for high-level performance with a supportive community feel during every classroom session • Champion Certification & Demo Day success for students throughout the cohort & attend Demo Day presentations How you will be reviewed Your role is unique as the chief facilitator of the entire cohort, as well as the subject matter expert on all things conceptual. You should, guided by the Course Operations Lead, stay abreast of the overall performance metrics of the cohort (e.g., homework submission rates, attendance rates, and what students are saying about their experience in the course in office hours and within their breakout rooms). To be successful, you must constantly embrace “I don’t know” and model the values that have made AI Makerspace a place where students come to transform into production AI Engineers. • 📚 Practical AI education • 🏗️ Building, 🚢 Shipping, and 🚀 Sharing • 🍋 Make it Easy • 🫴 Give First mentality • 🛣️ Embrace "I don't know" Skills / Qualifications: • Technical expertise in AI Engineering, including primary design patterns and AI production development methodologies • Production experience working with real AI Engineering teams • A love of teaching and learning • you are the destination that many of your students will aspire to; you must enjoy helping them get there • Stage presence : You are the leader of the cohort and will be on the stage more than anyone else throughout the 40+ hours of in-class time. Class will begin, transition, and end with you. • Mission-driven community member — actively supports and advances the AI Makerspace vision to empower the people who build AI systems to create real value for themselves, their families, their companies, and the world • Tool and communications proficiency — confident using Zoom, Discord, GitHub, and related collaborative or live-coding tools. • Instructional fluency — skilled at providing excellent explanations and instructions for activities; able to manage diverse classrooms. • Nice-to-have extras — prior work in coding bootcamps / adult technical educat