Higher-ed Program Engineering

The brief

For six years Leif taught the full-stack bootcamp, the 2U/edX curriculum delivered in partnership with universities like Georgia Tech, in cohorts of thirty to fifty. The more interesting job came later: curriculum engineer on a full overhaul of that program, treating the curriculum as a system with inputs, feedback, and outcomes rather than a fixed syllabus.

The overhaul

It modernized the whole stack a student moves through: AI and LangChain added, core material moved to TypeScript, CI/CD and test-driven development made habits instead of topics, and a Python module built in. The goal was a path from day one to a shippable project that stays tested, current, and repeatable across instructors and cohorts.

The scale

The curriculum ran through the 2U/edX bootcamp network, taught in partnership with universities like SMU and UPenn, so the same work reached programs well beyond a single campus. That reach is the point: not one classroom but a learning system, built to keep working when many different people run it. The curriculum belongs to 2U/edX and its university partners. Leif was one of a small team doing the engineering that made it run at scale.