Senior AI Developer

Advertising Summary: 

Department Summary: At the VCU Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, our mission is to foster transformative research, discovery, and innovation at Virginia Commonwealth University through excellence in service.

We partner with faculty in all schools and departments as they seek funding, plan studies, establish collaborations, calculate budgets, submit grant applications, negotiate industry contracts, and secure patents and licensing agreements.

Our commitment to supporting and elevating the research community at VCU has resulted in record levels of sponsored research and has placed VCU among the nation’s premier public research universities.

Through our passion for discovery and willingness to take on challenges, we continue to advance the work that matters most and position the university as a national leader in research, innovation, creativity, and scholarship.

Duties & Responsibilities:

The Senior AI Developer will be a member of the OVPRI IT team and is responsible for the design, development, and maintenance of customized artificial intelligence solutions that enhance the research mission of the University. The Developer will leverage Large Language Models (LLMs) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to create secure tools that will accelerate and enhance the research administration process. The incumbent must balance high-level machine learning engineering with a deep commitment to digital ethics and institutional data sovereignty.

Typical Duties:

LLM Development and Management

• Custom LLM Implementation: Design and maintain LLM models that allows the research community to access models via a secure, authenticated internal interface.
• RAG Pipeline Construction: Build and optimize Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines that allow AI agents to "read" university-specific research administration and regulatory affairs data (grant proposals, contracts, agreements, protocols, etc) without leaking that data into public training sets.
• Vector Database Management: Manage and scale vector databases to ensure high-speed semantic search across research administration and regulatory affairs documents.
• New AI

Documentation

• Document LLM and RAG processes and configurations
• Document APIs to allow applications to utilize AI technologies developed
• Provide recommendations on appropriate training documents for models and fine-time parameters.
• Provide detailed training documentation to users as needed.

Research AI Technologies

• Research new AI technologies and provide recommendations on implementation. 
• Test new AI methodologies and usages and provide recommendations for integration with existing systems

Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications

Demonstrated ability to work in and foster an environment of respect, professionalism and civility with a population of faculty, staff, and students from all backgrounds and experiences, or a commitment to do so as a staff member at VCU.

Only applicants who do not require current or future sponsorship for employment will be considered

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Data Science, Information Technology, or a related field.

Minimum of 2 years of experience in software development with at least 1 year of hands-on experience developing applications using LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, or open-source models); or an equivalent combination of education and professional experience.

Advanced proficiency in Python, including experience with asynchronous programming and data manipulation libraries (Pandas, vLLM, LangChain, PyTorch). 

Demonstrated experience building with RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architectures and orchestration tools (like document chunking, embedding, and retrieval inferences). 

Experience with at least one Vector Database (e.g. Chroma, Qdrant).

Ability to translate complex technical AI concepts for non-technical stakeholders (Faculty, Staff, and Students).

Ability to manage tasks on multiple concurrent projects.

Preferred Qualifications

Subspeciality or Degree in a field related to Artificial Intelligence.

Previous experience working within a Higher Education environment. 

Experience utilizing an HPC cluster (slurm/ bash scripts and GPU usage) 

Knowledge of PEFT (Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning) methods, specifically LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation) 

Basic ability to build rapid prototypes to demonstrate AI tools to users.

Demonstrated knowledge of data security and accessibility standards.

Salary Range: 68,300 - 105,000

Benefits: All full-time university staff are eligible for VCU’s robust benefits package that includes comprehensive health benefits, paid annual and holiday leave, generous tuition benefits, retirement planning and savings options, tax-deferred annuity and cash match programs, employee discounts, well-being resources, abundant opportunities for career development and advancement, and more.

Unit: Office of the Vice President for Research & Innovation 

Department: Research Information Systems

FLSA Exemption Status: Exempt

Hours per Week: 40

Restricted Position: No

ORP Eligible: No

Flexible Work Arrangement: Fully Remote

University Job Title: 24255N - Sr IT Developer/Programmer 2 - Open