Director, AI Strategy & Integration

About CSA Education and Zia Learning

At CSA Education, we're more than just an educational content and services provider – we’re a dedicated curriculum development partner committed to our clients’ success. Our core values guide every decision we make and shape every interaction with our clients and staff. We pride ourselves on our welcoming culture, our dedicated team, and our innovative approach to high-quality solutions.

Zia Learning, a subsidiary of CSA Education, delivers innovative digital solutions, customized curriculum, and professional development to transform teaching and learning. Founded by educators, we understand both the technology and the pedagogy behind effective digital practice. We serve as a true partner to districts and schools, re-envisioning the next-gen classroom.

CSA Education / Zia Learning is an entirely remote company with offices based in downtown Chicago. Applicants can be anywhere within the United States. 

About the Role

The Director of AI Strategy & Integration knows K-12 curriculum development and has deep working knowledge of AI to know what it can and can't do. This role brings together real industry experience and genuine technical knowledge to find smarter, more efficient ways to do the work. We're looking for someone who can spot opportunities others might miss, propose creative solutions that actually hold up in practice, and make honest calls about when AI adds value and when it doesn't. This role is for someone who is excited about what the right technology, used in the right way, can do for our work and our clients.

Responsibilities

Strategy & Decision-Making

Strategically guide the use of AI, ensuring that AI is always serving the work by recognizing when automation adds real value in time, cost, or quality, and when human instructional expertise needs to lead.

Research AI tools by vetting new and emerging options against the real needs of our work while protecting client IP and our proprietary models and frameworks.

Project Integration

Identify AI opportunities during the bidding stage that lead to more accurate pricing, resource planning, and project scoping.

Partner with curriculum development, project management, and production teams to build workflows that efficiently and logically balance human expertise and what AI can reliably produce for high-quality outputs.

Turn real project experience into repeatable processes by testing AI capabilities, documenting what works, building standardized workflows that apply across different projects, and improving the processes over time.

Content & Quality

Design and oversee the AI systems that produce first-draft instructional materials, building them around standards, client requirements, curriculum models, and compliance needs so the outputs are consistent and scalable.

Own the quality of AI-generated content before it reaches the team for review, making sure it reflects project requirements, including sound instructional design and standards alignment.

Team Development

Build and lead training that goes beyond basic proficiency to genuine AI fluency across the team.

Supervisory Responsibility

The Director will manage independent contractors and internal AI contributors. This includes ownership of AI phase timelines, budgets, and quality control, with direct accountability to the Senior Executive team.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Education, Instructional Design, or a related field (Advanced degree preferred).

5+ years experience in K–12 curriculum development, instructional design, or education technology, with a track record of owning large, multi-phase projects from start to finish.

Demonstrated expertise in using AI tools to generate instructional content, including building and managing the prompts, workflows, and version control across multiple concurrent projects.

Experience collaborating across departments, earning trust through informed recommendations, and keeping projects aligned on quality and timelines while adapting smoothly when project needs shift.

Proven ability to train teams and implement new technologies in ways that build on how the team already works.

Competencies

K–12 Expertise: Deep knowledge of standards alignment, UDL principles, and public-sector compliance requirements.

AI Fluency: Strong working knowledge of prompt engineering and how LLMs work in practice.

Critical Thinking: Able to cut through AI hype and make clear-eyed decisions about where the technology actually delivers business value.

Initiative & Ownership: Able to take ambiguous or complex information and turn it into something concrete and actionable without needing a lot of direction to get there.

Problem-Solving: Comfortable digging into a problem independently and experimenting until a more efficient path emerges.

Communication & Coaching: Able to translate personal expertise into clear processes and guidance that other people can learn from, replicate, and build on.

Additional Details

This is a full-time staff position.

Flexible schedule within regular business hours

Travel

Position may require up to 10% travel. This travel is primarily overnight to attend in-person client meetings and conferences.

EEO Statement

CSA Education LLC and its subsidiaries, including Zia Learning, provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, CSA Education LLC complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.