Director of Scientific Education & University Partnerships
Location
United States + 1 moreAll locations: United States, Canada
Posted
6 days ago
Salary
Not specified
Seniority
Lead
No structured requirement data.
Job Description
Role Description
We're on a mission to advance education in science and technology, and this role is central to that mission. We're looking for someone who is passionate about education, technically grounded, and ready to lead the adoption of AI-powered simulation workflows across universities and research institutions.
You'll be the bridge between our platform and the academic world, designing strategy, building partnerships with faculty, running workshops, and showing the next generation of engineers and researchers how agentic AI is transforming photonic and multi-physics design.
You'll start by driving adoption in photonics, but this is a growth role. As we expand into broader multi-physics simulation products, you'll have the opportunity to shape and lead education strategy across new domains, growing the scope and impact of your work over time.
This is a remote position open to candidates based in the US or Canada. Frequent travel to universities, research institutions, and conferences is expected. We also have an office in the Boston area if you prefer in-person or hybrid work.
What You'll Do
Strategic
- Define and execute a university adoption strategy targeting electrical engineering, photonics, physics, and applied optics departments across the US and Canada.
- Build and maintain partnerships with professors, lab directors, and department heads. Understand their curriculum needs and research challenges, then map our tools to them.
- Set measurable goals for university engagement, user growth, and long-term institutional adoption.
- Serve as the voice of the academic user back to our product and engineering teams. Surface what's working, what's confusing, and what's missing.
- As we expand into multi-physics products, lead the strategy for bringing new simulation capabilities into academic environments.
Hands-On
- Design and deliver workshops and demos showing students and researchers how to use our GUI, Python client, and agentic AI tools to accelerate photonic/RF/EM design workflows.
- Create tutorials, example projects, and course-ready materials with a focus on high-impact application areas like AI datacenter optical interconnects, silicon photonics, and RF/EM system design.
- Grow a community of student users, university champions, and academic advocates who organically spread adoption.
Qualifications
- Genuinely passionate about education. You believe that getting powerful tools into the hands of students and researchers early changes the trajectory of their careers and their fields.
- Technical foundation in photonics, RF, or EM. You have a degree (BS required; MS/PhD preferred) in electrical engineering, physics, optics, or a related field.
- Comfortable with code. You're fluent enough in Python to walk someone through a scripting workflow and debug on the fly.
- AI-curious (or AI-obsessed). You're excited about what agentic AI means for engineering workflows.
- A natural communicator. You light up when explaining complex ideas.
- Both strategic and hands-on. You can set a quarterly adoption plan and also jump into a live workshop and troubleshoot a simulation on the spot.
- Self-directed and energetic. This is a role where you'll define the playbook as you go.
- Willing and able to travel. You're comfortable with frequent trips to campuses, conferences, and research labs.
Requirements
- Experience in technical evangelism, developer relations, or academic outreach.
- Existing relationships within university photonics/EE departments.
- Background in AI datacenter architecture, optical interconnects, or silicon photonics.
- Experience creating video tutorials, technical blog posts, or course materials.
- Familiarity with agentic AI frameworks or LLM-based automation tools.
- Experience with multi-physics simulation beyond photonics (thermal, structural, RF).
Benefits
- A leadership role at the intersection of AI and photonics, two of the fastest-moving fields in tech.
- A clear growth path as we expand into multi-physics products and new academic markets.
- The chance to shape how an entire generation of engineers learns to work with AI-driven simulation.
- A team that is serious about its mission to advance science and technology education.
- A collaborative, technically deep culture that values curiosity and initiative.
- Competitive compensation with equity of a fast-growing startup.
- Medical, dental, and vision health insurance.
- 401(k) Contribution.
- Gym allowance.
- Friendly, thoughtful, and intelligent coworkers.
Job Requirements
- Genuinely passionate about education. You believe that getting powerful tools into the hands of students and researchers early changes the trajectory of their careers and their fields.
- Technical foundation in photonics, RF, or EM. You have a degree (BS required; MS/PhD preferred) in electrical engineering, physics, optics, or a related field.
- Comfortable with code. You're fluent enough in Python to walk someone through a scripting workflow and debug on the fly.
- AI-curious (or AI-obsessed). You're excited about what agentic AI means for engineering workflows.
- A natural communicator. You light up when explaining complex ideas.
- Both strategic and hands-on. You can set a quarterly adoption plan and also jump into a live workshop and troubleshoot a simulation on the spot.
- Self-directed and energetic. This is a role where you'll define the playbook as you go.
- Willing and able to travel. You're comfortable with frequent trips to campuses, conferences, and research labs.
- Experience in technical evangelism, developer relations, or academic outreach.
- Existing relationships within university photonics/EE departments.
- Background in AI datacenter architecture, optical interconnects, or silicon photonics.
- Experience creating video tutorials, technical blog posts, or course materials.
- Familiarity with agentic AI frameworks or LLM-based automation tools.
- Experience with multi-physics simulation beyond photonics (thermal, structural, RF).
Benefits
- A leadership role at the intersection of AI and photonics, two of the fastest-moving fields in tech.
- A clear growth path as we expand into multi-physics products and new academic markets.
- The chance to shape how an entire generation of engineers learns to work with AI-driven simulation.
- A team that is serious about its mission to advance science and technology education.
- A collaborative, technically deep culture that values curiosity and initiative.
- Competitive compensation with equity of a fast-growing startup.
- Medical, dental, and vision health insurance.
- 401(k) Contribution.
- Gym allowance.
- Friendly, thoughtful, and intelligent coworkers.
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