---
title: 'Senior Applied AI Engineer at Outsmart'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-applied-ai-engineer-outsmart-lehi-tcw7kp2baj6p'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Senior Applied AI Engineer at Outsmart

- **Company:** Outsmart
- **Location:** Lehi, UT
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-03-31
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/outsmart/567e3d9f-a2ef-412e-9967-b1fd02bd3c9b

## Job description

Outsmart is a mission-driven, early-stage startup reimagining higher education for the age of AI by creating an entirely new collegiate experience that expands access and opportunity. Backed by $38M from top venture firms including Khosla Ventures, Forerunner, DST Global Partners, and Lightspeed, the company is led by former Duolingo executives and a founding team that also includes Emmy Award winners. With a strong culture centered around high-impact, detail-oriented team members, Outsmart is already seeing significant traction, generating 1–5 million weekly organic views on social media.

## What You’ll Be Doing

In this role, you’ll be at the forefront of the AI that powers Outsmart’s applications. As an early member of the engineering team you’ll play a critical role in setting the tone for Outsmart’s technical culture including setting standards for algorithmic quality, scalability, and AI-first development. You will work on both generative and discriminative use cases, focusing on content generation at scale, gamification, benchmarking and analytics, multi-modal behavior classification from mobile signals, and continuously modernizing Outsmart’s SDLC.

## Who You Are

- 5+ years experience in hands-on AI/ML role
- Deep and proven experience with agentic engineering
- Experience shipping AI-first applications at scale
- Experience using AI effectively to contribute cross-platform
- Demonstrable sense of Product, QA, and DevX
- Ability to work autonomously in a fast‑paced environment

## What You’ll Own

- Co-ownership of AI-first SDLC
- MCP/ML tooling
- Contribute to prompting standards across the engineering team
- Define and enforce benchmarks for AI applications
- Work with Product and Engineering leadership to define AI roadmap
- Own end-to-end deployment and maintenance of AI systems

What Helps You Succeed

- Craftsmanship and Extreme Ownership
- Open-mindedness
- Frequent, direct, honest, kind communication
- Demonstrable adoption of AI in all aspects of work
- Track record of shipping in an environment of high-performance
- User obsession

Salary Range: $190K-$250K

## Perks

- Competitive salary, equity, and benefits
- Healthcare for you and your dependents (medical, dental, and vision)
- Parental leave for any full-time employee (birthing, non-birthing, and adoptive parents)
- 15 PTO days per year, a winter break, and 12+ paid company holidays per year
- Remote work days
- Lunch provided in-office daily
- Working with super talented people who want to make a difference in the world

Outsmart is committed to building an equitable and inclusive workplace and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants for employment regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

## About Outsmart

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Outsmart is building the university of the future by reimagining higher education for the AI era, making it more affordable, accessible, and personalized.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage, raised $26M+ in total)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA with additional offices in New York, New York and Lehi, Utah
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Jorge Mazal (CEO), Daniel Falabella (CPO), Gina Gotthilf (CMO)

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Education Technology (EdTech) / Higher Education
- **Target Customers**: B2C – students and lifelong learners seeking an alternative to traditional, debt-heavy college education
- **Mission / Purpose**: To dramatically increase access to higher education in a way that is unprecedented and can change the world. The founders aim to make college-level education a basic, universal human right.

## Products & Services
- **Outsmart Platform (In Development)**: A mobile-first, AI-powered learning experience that aims to replace or supplement traditional college. Details are still under wraps (stealth mode), but it involves content generation at scale, gamification, benchmarking, multi-modal behavior classification, and psychometrically valid assessments. The offering is expected to be a more affordable, personalized, and engaging alternative to lectures and student debt.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding of **$26M+** (Seed rounds in 2024 and 2025)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Khosla Ventures (lead), DST Global (lead), Forerunner (lead), Lightspeed Venture Partners, Latitud, Abstract Ventures, Reach Capital, Karman Ventures, 20VC, and angel investors including Lenny Rachitsky (ex-Airbnb).
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew **+190% YoY** to 23 employees (as of mid-2025); has 21+ active job postings; monthly web traffic growing.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Founding Team Moat**: Led by three former Duolingo executives (CPO, CMO, and CEO) who were instrumental in scaling that platform to hundreds of millions of users. They bring deep expertise in gamification, growth, and product-led learning.
- **Strong Financial Backing**: $26M+ raised from top-tier venture capital firms in a short period, signaling high confidence in the team and vision.
- **AI-Native DNA**: The product is being built from the ground up for the age of AI, focusing on personalized, adaptive learning at scale.
- **Mission-Driven Focus**: Targeting the massive, broken $1.6 trillion US student loan market with a clear, compelling value proposition: high-quality, affordable higher education.

## Strategic Focus
- **Product Development**: Building and launching the core AI-powered learning platform and mobile apps (iOS/Android).
- **Hiring**: Aggressively scaling the team, particularly in Engineering (Senior Applied AI, Senior Mobile, Full-stack), Product (Principal PM), Learning Design (Senior Learning Designers, Faculty Leads), and Academics (Head of Academics, Lead Assessment Developers).
- **Content & Curriculum**: Developing high-quality, science-based learning content and valid assessment systems to ensure academic credibility.
- **Market Entry**: Moving from stealth mode to a public launch, targeting students frustrated with the cost and format of traditional higher education.

## Why Work Here
- **High-Caliber Team**: Join a tight-knit, ambitious team of former Duolingo, Amazon, Meta, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and Spotify engineers, product managers, and designers.
- **Big Mission**: The opportunity to work on a world-changing problem—reimagining higher education and solving the student debt crisis.
- **Ownership & Impact**: Early-stage company where employees are given real ownership over key features and products (0→1).
- **Culture**: Described as having "big mission energy," "AI in our DNA," and a "ship, a lot" mentality. Focus on craft and solving complex problems.
- **Work Policy**: On-site / office-first. Employees work from physical offices in San Francisco, New York, or Lehi, Utah.
- **Benefits**: Great benefits and perks, though specific details are not publicly listed. The company values real ownership and the chance to create something that truly matters.
- **Tech Stack**: Python, React, React Native, Swift, UIKit, GraphQL, Rive, Unity, and various ML/MLOps tools.

## Sources
1. [joinoutsmart.com (Company Website)](https://joinoutsmart.com/)
2. [LinkedIn Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/outsmart-college)
3. [TechCrunch - Ex-Duolingo execs raise $13M](https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/18/ex-duolingo-execs-raise-13m-to-launch-startup-democratize-access-to-college-education/)
4. [Built In - Outsmart Careers](https://builtin.com/company/outsmart)
5. [Abstract Ventures - Jobs at Outsmart](https://jobs.abstractvc.com/jobs/outsmart)

## Other roles at Outsmart

- [Principal Product Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-product-designer-outsmart-lehi-49dqsw1p937v) — Lehi, UT
- [Senior Learning Designer, Science](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-learning-designer-science-outsmart-lehi-tq3er826bfht) — Lehi, UT
- [Lead Assessment Developer](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-assessment-developer-outsmart-lehi-ag8ppkzt25k6) — Lehi, UT
- [Head of Academics and Learning Engineering](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-academics-and-learning-engineering-outsmart-lehi-q277v3x41z9b) — Lehi, UT
- [Faculty Lead & Learning Engineer - Sciences](https://feeny.ai/job/faculty-lead-learning-engineer-sciences-outsmart-lehi-xyz6a0rv5kqp) — Lehi, UT
- [Senior Applied AI Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-applied-ai-engineer-abby-care-san-francisco-ak1ydjz6sys9) — San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Applied AI Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-applied-ai-engineer-culture-amp-sydney-v44rfhbrmnht) — Sydney, Australia
- [Senior Applied AI Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-applied-ai-engineer-qualysoft-budapest-77yvp0pdmsm0) — Budapest, Hungary
- [Senior Applied AI Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-applied-ai-engineer-lemlist-france-8g0zkn11wvcj) — France
- [Senior Applied AI Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-applied-ai-engineer-forter-london-xfk9wf6wb901) — London, United Kingdom