Alpha Systems Jobs in Chicago, IL (NOW HIRING)

An AI can teach a six-year-old to read. It cannot make her care. That gap is your job.

At Alpha, K-3 students learn academics through AI-powered apps in two hours a day. As a Guide you lead one cohort band — either K-1 (Kindergarten–1st) or 2-3 (2nd–3rd) — and tailor your energy, pacing, and workshops to that band. No lectures. No worksheets. Half your day you run one-hour life-skills workshops on public speaking, focus, and giving and receiving feedback. A playbook exists, but the best in this role adapt it to their cohort and design new activities when something is missing. The other half, you sit with students 1:1 or in tiny groups, review Coachbot analytics, and coach each of them to 100% of their weekly app goals. Warmth earns you the right to push. Pushing shows them you believe they can get there.

A quarter succeeds when every student hits their weekly app goals, passes the Test2Pass for every life-skills workshop, and 90%+ say they love you. Miss any of those three and you missed the job. In year one you master the playbook; once you prove you can hold the bar, the path opens to Lead Guide, where you coach newer hires while still running your own cohort.

If you love traditional teaching, want a curriculum handed to you, or believe warmth and high standards are in tension, this is not the job. If you have been an early-elementary teacher who thrived on circle time, a camp counselor for little kids, a youth sports coach, or a children's theater performer, the final step before an offer is a shadow day coaching real Alpha students. Apply today.

What you will be doing

• Leading one-hour life-skills workshops for cohorts of K-3 students on public speaking, focus, feedback, and other durable skills, adapting the playbook to your cohort instead of reading from it.
• Running daily 1:1 and small-group motivation sessions that keep every student on pace for weekly app goals, using Coachbot analytics, Alpha's incentive systems (school currency, leaderboards), and the relationship you've built with each child.
• Administering the Test2Pass, Alpha's mastery-based assessment, for each life skill, and coaching students who do not pass until they do.
• Meeting kindergarteners where they are with songs, stories, movement, and silliness while still holding second and third graders to real, measurable standards.
• Being the warm adult kids light up to see at drop-off AND the adult who refuses to let them coast.

What you won't be doing

• Lecturing from the whiteboard. Academic instruction lives in the apps, not in you.
• Writing curriculum from scratch. Alpha provides the playbook and you bring it to life.
• Supervising kids at computers. Motivation here is active, personal, and relentless.
• Lowering a weekly goal so a kid can hit it. If a student is behind, the fix is the student, not the target.
• Grading homework, running standardized test prep, or managing parent communication. Campus Leads own parent-facing work, and none of the rest exists here.

Guide II K-3 key responsibilities

Ensure every student in your K-3 cohort hits their weekly learning goals, masters each life skill, and leaves the year saying they loved you.

Basic 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, 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.
• Legally authorized to work in the US without visa sponsorship.

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.

About Alpha

Want to join a learning rebellion that's transforming the traditional classroom?

Alpha School is on a mission to reshape education with a bold approach that harnesses AI to accelerate learning and unleash student potential.

They don't play by the old rules.

Alpha is creating a new paradigm where students master core academics in just two hours a day, freeing up time for hands-on, passion-driven learning that truly prepares them for the real world.

Alpha School is rewriting the rules of education.

Sounds too good to be true? It's not.