Returnship; Product Builder

Colibri Group · California

  • Junior
  • Full-time
  • Posted 2026-10-02
  • Confirmed live on 30 October 2026

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Job description

At Colibri Group, culture is at the heart of everything we do. Our values Love, Joy, Boldness, Teamwork, and Curiosity guide how we work together, support our customers, and make a difference in the communities we serve. Colibri Group is a leader in online professional education, serving more than one million learners each year across a family of trusted education brands. Our Product & Technology teams build the products that help professionals advance their careers and stay indispensable in a changing world. Our returnship brings that mission to experienced professionals ready to relaunch their own careers.
 
Come Build What’s Next
We’re looking for experienced professionals to join Colibri’s Returnship Program as a Product Builder (Returnship). Your career break does not erase the expertise you earned. This paid, 12-week opportunity gives you a structured way to bring that experience back into technology work while learning how to build with AI.
In this individual contributor role, you will join a cross-functional product pod: a small team working together to solve customer and business problems. You will take a problem from an early prototype to working, AI-enabled software in the hands of real users, then improve it through feedback and weekly iteration. You will have meaningful ownership, with responsibility for the quality, progress, and outcomes of your work.
We welcome experience across engineering, product, design, learning, program management, business systems, and related disciplines. Bring your professional judgment and readiness to learn. Through AI-native training, hands-on delivery, and collaboration with your pod, you will build current skills while contributing the perspective of your prior career.
 
About the Returnship Program
Paid, temporary program lasting 12 weeks, with a commitment of 40 hours per week, fully onsite in Pleasanton, California
Designed for experienced professionals returning after a career break, typically two or more years away from paid work
Placement at Colibri’s individual contributor level IC2 or above during the program, based on prior experience, with a discipline descriptor reflecting your professional background
Structured AI-native training and real project work, supported by manager coaching, mentorship, and peer connections
This temporary program does not include company-sponsored benefits. The program may lead to future employment in Product & Technology; conversion is not guaranteed and depends on performance, business needs, and approved headcount. Any future role and level will reflect demonstrated scope; prior level informs placement but does not guarantee it.
 
What You’ll Do
Refresh your skills and apply them immediately. Complete Colibri’s AI-native training and use it in active project work, building fluency in current tools and ways of working
Own a customer or business problem. Move from prototype through build, hardening, release, and iteration while owning the outcome and timeline within your pod’s commitments
Deliver working software to real users. Take the fastest responsible path to a minimum viable product and then beta. Your work will reach production, beyond a local demonstration
Apply your professional judgment. Use your prior experience to define scope, weigh trade-offs, align stakeholders, and help the pod make better decisions
Show progress every week. Demonstrate your work in weekly demos and communicate progress, risks, and next steps clearly and honestly
Direct and evaluate AI tools. Use AI coding and agent tools to accelerate delivery. When output falls short, identify the cause and improve the context, prompts, tools, or tests behind it
Bring the standards of your discipline. Create strong requirements, designs, architecture, tests, learning designs, or programs, as relevant to your background, and learn how other disciplines contribute.
Own quality. Review AI-generated and peer work for maintainability, test coverage, security, and fitness for purpose. Build quality into the work throughout delivery
Support others and keep learning. Share your experience with early-career builders, help teammates break down and communicate work, seek feedback, and change your approach when evidence calls for it
What You’ll Bring
Typically three or more years of prior professional experience in engineering, product, design, learning, program management, business systems, or a related field
A career break from paid work, typically two or more years, and readiness to relaunch your career through hands-on product delivery
Evidence of the scope you held before your break, such as products delivered, outcomes owned, or teams and stakeholders influenced
Readiness to retrain on AI coding and agent tools, work at pace, and take responsibility for the quality of what you build
Professional judgment, customer empathy, clear communication, and a collaborative approach to mentoring and receiving feedback
A bachelor’s degree in a relevant field or equivalent p

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