Chief Education Officer

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Chief Education Officer
Remote / Hybrid
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About Nishan
Nishan's mission is to make original scientific research accessible to students regardless of institutional privilege. We build the infrastructure (peer-reviewed publication, research tooling, outreach, computational resources, and academic community) that lets pre-professional students across every STEM discipline become producers of knowledge rather than passive consumers of it. Our team is a growing group of researchers, educators, students, and operators who believe that the distribution of scientific talent is far wider than the distribution of scientific opportunity, and that this gap is an engineering problem we can solve.
About The Role
A library of resources is not the same as an education. Students can be surrounded by material and still learn nothing if it is disorganized, pitched at the wrong level, or written by people who have forgotten what it is like not to already know. Nishan exists to give students the tools to produce knowledge, and the Chief Education Officer is the person most responsible for making sure those tools actually teach.
This is not a ceremonial role. As Chief Education Officer, you own the education department and all curriculum across the organization. You will direct our flagship library, the collection of interactive learning e-modules, curated original resources, research guides, and how-tos that students rely on to go from curiosity to competence. You will define what makes a learning resource good and hold every piece of content to it. You will lead the people who build that content, and you will be the person who says a module is not ready when it does not actually teach, because a library that looks impressive but leaves students confused fails the exact people it was built for.
If you are more interested in producing content than in the harder work of making sure students learn from it, this is not the right role, and we would rather tell you that now.
Key responsibilities
Own the education department and all curriculum across the organization, including its structure, scope, and standards
Direct the flagship library, including the interactive learning e-modules, curated original resources, research guides, and how-tos, and set the bar for what earns a place in it
Define what makes a learning resource good, from level and sequencing to clarity, and hold every piece of content to that standard
Lead and coordinate a large group of curriculum writers, module builders, and contributing educators
Turn educational goals into concrete proposals and plans that are scoped, staffed, and scheduled
Build the pathways that take a student from a first how-to to independent research, so the library functions as a curriculum rather than a pile of files
Establish review and revision processes so material stays accurate and current instead of being published once and forgotten
You may be a good fit if you
Have designed curriculum, learning materials, or educational programs, and care whether students actually learn rather than whether the material looks complete
Have written proposals or plans and carried them through, whether in school, in an organization, or in a competitive program like HOSA or DECA
Have led or coordinated large groups toward a shared deliverable
Understand how to sequence material so a beginner can reach competence, and can spot when an explanation assumes too much
Can give writers and contributors direct feedback that improves their work without discouraging them
Believe that making material accessible and keeping it rigorous are compatible goals, and are prepared to do the hard work of holding both
Strong candidates may also have
Experience teaching, tutoring, or mentoring, especially students who lack strong institutional support
Familiarity with instructional design or the mechanics of building interactive and online learning
Experience building an education program from an early stage, when there is no existing curriculum to inherit
A working understanding of where AI tools can help produce or personalize learning material, and where they mislead
Prior involvement in STEM outreach, competitive academic organizations, or student leadership
How we're different
We believe the highest-impact work in science education is not teaching students facts but giving them the infrastructure to generate knowledge themselves. Nishan operates as a single coordinated organization pursuing a small number of ambitious efforts rather than a scattered collection of programs. We treat the quality of what we teach as a non-negotiable, because a resource that confuses the student it was meant to help does more damage than no resource at all. We are collaborative, we argue openly about how something should be taught, and we value people who can hold a high standard and a wide door at the same time. The easiest way to understand what we care about is to use what we have built and notice that it is meant to teach, not to impress.
Logistics
Minimum education: None required. We evaluate candidates on the learning experiences they have designed and the groups they have led, not on credentials.
Required background: A record of designing educational material or programs and leading people to build them, demonstrated through curriculum, teaching, proposals, or comparable experience.
Commitment: This is currently a part-time and largely volunteer leadership role within a nonprofit organization. We are candid about this because we respect your time, and because the people who thrive here are motivated by the mission rather than the compensation.
Location: Remote, with occasional coordination across time zones. We are a distributed team.
We encourage you to apply even if you do not meet every qualification listed. Research consistently shows that people from underrepresented groups are more likely to experience imposter syndrome and to disqualify themselves prematurely. We would rather read your application and decide together than have you decide not to submit it. We think broadening who participates in science is central to our mission, and that makes a range of perspectives on our team more important, not less.
A note on safety
Your safety matters to us. Nishan representatives will only ever contact you from our official organizational domain. We will never ask for money, fees, or banking information at any stage. If a communication seems unusual, do not click any links. Visit our official site directly to confirm any opening.
Come work with us
Nishan is a mission-driven nonprofit built by people who think the current distribution of scientific opportunity is indefensible and fixable. We offer meaningful ownership over what and how the organization teaches, a collaborative and intellectually honest team, and the chance to shape what student science education is allowed to be. If that is the problem you want to work on, we want to read your application.
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