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
[https://hr.vcu.edu/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