Head Mentor for Machine Learning & AI (Summer 2025)

Head Mentor for Machine Learning & AI ($40 per hour)

 This is a part-time remote position (15-20 hours/week) from June 9 to Aug 8, 2025

Do you remember that person who made you realize your true potential?

The one who championed you while you traversed the path towards academic or professional success.

Your mentor. Maybe you had one, or even several, if you were very lucky!

If you are a grad student with AI and machine learning skills, SureStart is offering YOU the chance to pay that mentorship forward by helping newer students develop machine learning and AI skills. It will also help you develop your leadership skills and experience --- all while getting paid for your efforts!

This summer we are working with the MIT RAISE Initiative once again to host a very exciting 6-week AI program called the MIT FutureMakers Create-a-thon! This program runs from July 1st through August 8th, 2025 and will bring together students from across the US to help them develop skills related to AI, applied machine learning, app development and entrepreneurship through a virtual program led by grad-student mentors.

The role of Head Mentor for Machine Learning and AI is crucial in this Create-a-thon! 

Your responsibilities will be to:

• Host daily presentations to present the curriculum to the students during the six week program.
• Host daily office hours to unblock students (or mentors) if they are stuck by pointing them to resources, showing them how to debug code, and/or giving them helpful hints to discover the answer on their own.
• Support other undergrad or graduate student mentors as they work with their small teams.
• Help the mentors to assist students in using their technical skills to build a final AI-based project to complete the program.
• Review Trainee tracking sheets and help mentors keep their group accountable for finishing the prior day's tasks.
• May occasionally need to help the program manager or invited guests to host students and mentor events and conduct surveys to gauge understanding.
• Head mentor may be expected to manage their own team of 5-6 students as well, where they support and encourage a small group in developing AI and Machine Learning skills using the program curriculum.

The curricula and support materials for the program will be provided and you will be trained in how to mentor effectively. You will be supported in your work by the program manager and program director.

Requirements for applicants

• Masters or Phd or Post-doctoral students in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Data Science/Analytics, Machine Learning, or similar fields. Currently enrolled or recent graduates are both welcome to apply.
• Strong foundational knowledge of Machine learning, Computer Vision, Speech or Natural Language Processing.
• Applicants must be proficient in programming in Python, using Jupyter Notebooks or Google Collab, and GitHub.
• Passionate about teaching and mentoring younger students; especially invested in mentoring students from underserved backgrounds in science and technology.
• Experience with teaching or supervising students learning Machine learning, Computer Vision, Speech or Natural Language Processing.
• Available for 15-20 hours a week; including 1-2 hours on some Saturdays to assist student teams for Create-a-thon prep, if needed.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, and a can-do attitude!
• Must be available to participate in required paid mentor training:
  • Curriculum training in June (exact dates TBD)
  • Mentoring Across Difference training from 5:00-6:30PM ET from June 9-11th.

Benefits

• You will deepen your technical skills (look up 'protege effect')
• Work on exciting, challenging and incredibly rewarding work critical to the future of ethical AI 
• Build up your CV with real-world leadership and management experience - years ahead of your classmates!
• Get trained in mentorship and professional skills, including communication, self-branding, entrepreneurship, equitable leadership, and more
• Attend technical skills talks by industry professionals
• Be an integral part of an impactful movement towards opportunity, equity and representation
• Valuable networking opportunities with industry leaders within enterprise, tech and academia

It is a win-win for you and your trainees. So if you are interested, apply today!

If you're excited about being a mentor but are hesitating about the requirements, go ahead and apply anyway - we'd love to hear from you!

Diverse minds building diverse technology is SureStart's mission. We would love to see a wide variety of candidates presenting their unique perspectives, experiences, and skills. We are an equal opportunity employer and highly value diversity. SureStart does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Keywords for this job: machine learning, computer vision, affective computing, training, mentorship, MOOC, online training, data science jobs, machine learning jobs, machine vision, affective computing, emotion AI, Natural Language Processing, NLP, internships, interns, co-ops, speech recognition, tts, speech synthesis, image processing, HCI, human computer interaction, Python, Tensorflow, Keras, PyTorch, data scientist.