Early Childhood Educator, Alpha - $120,000/year USD

About the role

At Alpha, students in grades K–3 complete academic work through AI-powered applications over two hours each day. Your role involves leading a single cohort band — either Kindergarten and 1st grade (K-1) or 2nd and 3rd grade (2-3) — and adjusting your energy, tempo, and workshop delivery to that specific band. No lectures or worksheets here. Half of your day is dedicated to facilitating one-hour life-skills workshops covering topics such as public speaking, focus, and giving and receiving feedback. The remaining half of your day is spent in 1:1 sessions or small groups, analyzing Coachbot data, and coaching every student toward 100% completion of their weekly app targets.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate one-hour life-skills workshops for K-3 cohorts on topics including public speaking, focus, feedback, and other foundational skills, customizing the playbook for your cohort rather than delivering it verbatim.
• Conduct daily 1:1 and small-group coaching sessions to keep every student progressing toward weekly app targets, leveraging Coachbot analytics, Alpha's incentive structures (school currency, leaderboards), and the individual relationships you establish with each child.
• Deliver the Test2Pass, Alpha's mastery-based assessment, for each life skill, and provide coaching to students who do not pass until mastery is achieved.
• Meet kindergarteners at their developmental level with songs, stories, movement, and playfulness while simultaneously holding second and third graders accountable to concrete, measurable standards.
• Serve as the warm adult children are excited to see at drop-off AND the adult who will not permit them to settle for less than their best.

Requirements

• Willing to work on-site at an Alpha campus in La Jolla (San Diego), Lake Forest (Orange County), Palo Alto, Piedmont, San Francisco, Santa Monica, or South Bay (LA), CA; Greenwich, CT; Boca Raton, Miami Beach, or Palm Beach Gardens, FL; Chicago, IL; or Boston, MA (relocation support provided).
• Bachelor's degree in any subject.
• At least 3 years working directly with children ages 4 to 9 (early-elementary teaching, coaching, tutoring, camp counseling, or youth program leadership).
• A specific example you can describe of motivating a young child to a hard goal: the goal, what you did, and the outcome.
• Willingness to let AI handle the instructional content while you focus on motivation and life-skills coaching.
• Willingness to hold high standards with students even when they push back.
• Licenses and certifications required for the position.

Nice-to-have requirements

• Experience in youth athletics coaching, children's theater, camp leadership, Montessori/progressive early education, or after-school programs where you were directly responsible for motivating young kids toward specific goals.
• Personal history of high achievement (academic, athletic, or professional), such that holding others to a hard bar is a pattern, not a posture.
• Natural performer's presence with little kids: the ability to hold a room of kindergarteners through voice, silliness, and movement.
• Track record of turning shy or resistant little kids into confident, active participants.