Early Childhood Educator, Alpha - $100,000/year USD

• $100,000 annual W2 salary with weekly pay; health, dental, and vision coverage begins on day one
• On-site position at an Alpha campus in Phoenix, AZ; Oklahoma City, OK; Tulsa, OK; Nashville, TN; Austin, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Houston, TX; or Park City (Salt Lake City), UT (relocation assistance available)
  
  

Your role is not to teach. Your role is to motivate.

The most effective support you can offer a six-year-old who reaches 99% of their target is to decline to call it finished. If that principle feels uncomfortable, this role is not for you. If it energizes you—because maintaining high expectations is how you demonstrate belief in a kindergartener's potential—continue reading.

At Alpha, students in grades K-3 complete academic learning through AI-driven applications during two hours each day. As a Guide, you work with one cohort band—either K-1 (Kindergarten through 1st grade) or 2-3 (2nd through 3rd grade)—and customize your approach, tempo, and workshops for that specific band. No traditional lectures. No printed worksheets. Half of your day is spent facilitating one-hour life-skills workshops covering public speaking, concentration, and feedback exchange. These workshops serve as frameworks, not rigid scripts—the most effective Guides modify them for their cohort and create new ones when gaps emerge. During the remaining half, you meet with students individually or in small clusters, analyze Coachbot data, and coach each child toward completing 100% of their weekly application goals. With four-, five-, and six-year-olds, enthusiasm and play are not supplementary; they are the means by which you sustain attention long enough to accomplish learning. Warmth grants you permission to challenge. Challenging them shows your confidence in their capability.

A successful quarter means every student completes their weekly app targets, passes the Test2Pass for every life-skills workshop, and 90% or more report loving you. Falling short on any of these three measures means missing the mark. During your first year, you internalize the playbook; as you demonstrate your ability to maintain standards, advancement to Lead Guide becomes available—a role where you mentor new hires while continuing direct work with children.

If you prefer conventional teaching, expect a prepackaged curriculum, or view warmth and rigor as incompatible, this position is not suitable. If you have been an early-elementary teacher who excelled during circle time, a camp counselor for young children, a youth sports coach, a children's theater performer, or anyone capable of commanding a room of kindergarteners through voice, play, and sheer presence, the final step before receiving an offer is a shadow day on campus coaching actual Alpha students. If that prospect excites you most, submit your application today.

What You Will Be Doing

• Facilitating one-hour life-skills workshops for groups of 10-15 K-3 students covering public speaking, concentration, feedback, and other enduring competencies
• Conducting daily individual and small-group motivation sessions to maintain student progress toward weekly app targets, leveraging Coachbot analytics, Alpha's incentive structures (school currency, leaderboards), and the rapport you establish with each child
• Delivering the Test2Pass (Alpha's mastery-based evaluation) for each life skill, and coaching students who fall short until they achieve mastery
• Engaging kindergarteners at their developmental level with songs, narratives, movement, and playfulness, while maintaining real, measurable expectations for second and third graders
• Serving as the warm adult children are excited to see at morning drop-off AND the adult who will not permit them to settle for less
  
  

What You Won’t Be Doing

• Delivering whiteboard lectures; academic content is embedded in the applications, not delivered by you
• Creating curriculum from the ground up; Alpha supplies the playbook and you execute it
• Passively monitoring children at computers; motivation in this role is active, personal, and persistent
• Reducing a weekly target so a child can meet it; when a student falls behind, the solution involves the student, not the goal
• Scoring homework, conducting standardized test preparation, or handling parent outreach; Campus Leads manage parent-facing responsibilities, and the rest does not exist in this model
  
  

Early Childhood Educator Key Responsibilities

Ensure every student in your K-3 cohort completes their weekly learning targets, achieves mastery in each life skill, and finishes the year reporting that they loved you.

Basic Requirements

• Willing to work on-site at an Alpha campus in Phoenix, AZ; Oklahoma City, OK; Tulsa, OK; Nashville, TN; Austin, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Houston, TX; or Park City (Salt Lake City), UT (relocation assistance provided)
• Bachelor's degree in any field
• Minimum of 3 years working directly with children ages 4 to 9 (early-elementary instruction, coaching, tutoring, camp counseling, or youth program leadership)
• A concrete example you can articulate of motivating a young child toward a challenging goal: the goal itself, your actions, and the result
• Able to participate in a paid training program at our Austin, TX campus
• Willingness to allow AI to deliver instructional content while you concentrate on motivation and life-skills coaching
• Legally authorized to work in the US without visa sponsorship
  
  

Nice-to-have Requirements

• Background in youth sports coaching, children's theater, camp leadership, Montessori/progressive early education, or after-school programs where you held direct responsibility for motivating young children toward defined objectives
• Personal record of significant achievement (academic, athletic, or professional), such that maintaining high standards for others is a consistent practice, not an adopted stance
• Natural performer's energy with young children—the capacity to command a room of kindergarteners through voice, playfulness, and physical movement
• Demonstrated success transforming reserved or reluctant young children into confident, engaged contributors
  
  

About Alpha

Join the team building school around student growth

Alpha reimagines the school day around faster learning, stronger mentorship, and more time for students to build real-world skills.

Roles with real student impact: Alpha hires teachers (guides), operators, admissions experts, school & curriculum leaders, and remote team members.

Education work that pays like it matters: Alpha offers six-figure roles for people ready to help build a radically better school experience.

A culture built for builders: Alpha is fast-moving, ambitious, and student focused. It’s for people who want to improve the system, not maintain it.

Alpha is where you can do the most meaningful work of your career.

There is so much to cover for this exciting role, and space here is limited. Hit the Apply button if you found this interesting and want to learn more. We look forward to meeting you!

Working with us

This is a full-time (40 hours per week), long-term position. The position is immediately available and requires entering into an independent contractor agreement with Crossover as a Contractor of Record. The compensation level for this role is $50 USD/hour, which equates to $100,000 USD/year assuming 40 hours per week and 50 weeks per year. The payment period is weekly. Consult www.crossover.com/help-and-faqs for more details on this topic.

Crossover Job Code: LJ-5149-US-LakeFore-EarlyChildhood1