An exemplary edge compute orchestration system that is communicatively coupled with a set of edge compute nodes in a communication network receives a task assignment request generated by a user equipment (“UE”) device coupled to the network. The request is associated with an edge compute task that is to be performed in furtherance of an application executing on the UE device. The system also accesses node characterization data for the set of nodes and manages a node selection policy configured to facilitate a balancing of node performance and node efficiency when assigning edge computing tasks to different nodes in the set. The system selects a node for performance of the edge compute task from the set of nodes in response to the request, based on the node characterization data, and in accordance with the selection policy. The system assigns the edge compute task to be performed by the selected node.