AI Innovation Engineer

Job Summary

The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) is an exciting and dynamic work environment grounded in organizational principles that include family and personal life/work balance; an inclusive, respectful, and supportive work environment; professional development opportunities; innovation; and alignment with the campus's teaching, learning, and research missions. DoIT provides core IT infrastructure services to the university, develops and implements services for the university and, in some cases, for the Universities of Wisconsin, plays a major role in managing the state‑wide higher education network and regional networks.

The Integrated Business Solutions team, within the Division of Information Technology, is looking for a highly skilled AI Innovation Engineer who will collaborate with stakeholders and colleagues across UW‑Madison campus and university partners to drive administrative AI and Automation processes to improve operational efficiency.

The candidate should enjoy working independently on an agile team to design, develop and implement custom applications and work on AI initiatives. They should also have experience in using Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI agents. This position will be expected to collaborate with cross‑functional teams and IT colleagues to deliver quality solutions.

• Developing cloud‑based workflow and interactive AI solutions.
• Testing and validating AI agents to ensure accuracy and reliability.
• Assisting in the management of a cloud‑based application platform including utilization, observability and security functions.
• Understanding of data strategy, cybersecurity and risk practices.
• Using AI coding tools to build features more rapidly while making sure the code is secure, reliable, and fits our platform.

• Leads sub‑functional team for application development or enhancement
• Prepares program documentation and training requirements
• Develops, prepares, or modifies technical specifications for complex projects, system integrations, and upgrades
• Designs and implements test plans, and prepares systems test data
• Conducts analysis for the evaluation and selection of vendor software solutions and packages
• Reviews application design specifications, codes new applications, and makes enhancements to existing applications
• Assist in the adoption of agentic AI solutions
• Maintains cloud hosted infrastructure and integrations
• Reviews application modules for quality assurance and checks compliance with application architecture standards
• Trains and provides technical guidance to lower level staff
• Conducts systems analysis, reviews and interprets system requirements, and develops detailed system design specifications for system integration and upgrades
• Contributes to the development of data structure and systems performance strategies

This position is eligible for any of the following: 100% remote work; partial remote work; or fully on‑site. Remote work requires an approved flexible work arrangement (FWA), which is reviewed and approved annually. An FWA requires successful candidates to possess their own high‑speed internet and phone to perform the work on a university‑provided computer. Per University policy, transportation between home and assigned work location is not payable/reimbursable and will be at the employee's expense.

• Software development experience (preferred 5 years) including AI engineering (preferred 1 year)
• Advanced programming experience in JavaScript/Type Script or Python (preferred 2 years)
• Proven experience designing and implementing agentic AI Workflows and applications
• Hands‑on experience with AI‑assisted development tools (Claude Code, Github Copilot or Gemini Code Assist)
• Experience with managing applications in public cloud platforms (AWS or GCP)
• Demonstrated experience with Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform or Open Tofu.

• Strong understanding of clustering algorithms.
• Experience with Dev Ops practices and building CI/CD pipelines
• Experience in higher education or large enterprise environments
• Experience with Kubernetes and container orchestration at scale