Senior AI Platform Engineer

Position Information

Senior AI Platform Engineer is responsible for the technical design, development, and implementation of a comprehensive and scalable Generative AI platform for UC Riverside’s faculty, staff, and students. The role provides the university with a robust infrastructure for leveraging advanced AI technologies within academic, research, and administrative applications. This position will lead the development of AI‑driven microservices for university‐wide application integration, develop campus chatbots for interacting with faculty, staff, students, prospective students, and the campus community, provide expert technical guidance and mentorship to development teams on generative AI best practices, and establish and maintain robust AI/ML Ops pipelines for efficient model deployment and management.

The Senior AI Platform Engineer will serve as a technical subject matter expert, ensuring the platform’s architecture and implementation meet the university’s technical requirements for AI integration.

Information Technology Solutions (ITS) is recruiting for two (2) positions, both classified as predominantly remote with occasional campus visits as required. Working hours will be based on Pacific Standard Time (PST). The full salary range is $93,200 – $174,200 annually, with the expected pay scale up to $135,000 annually. Applicants must have current work authorization; UCR cannot sponsor employment visas.

Degree:
Bachelor’s degree in a related area and/or equivalent experience/training.

Required:

Master’s degree in a related area and/or equivalent experience/training.

Preferred:
Experience Requirements – 6 to 10 years of related experience.

• Advanced knowledge of secure software development.
• Highly advanced skills in software specification, design, modification, implementation, and deployment of large‑scale projects.
• Excellent project leadership and management skills.
• Ability to understand functional needs and develop conversion and system implementation plans.
• Advanced experience with identification and use of code libraries and open‑source forums.
• Planning for deployment and creation of feedback mechanisms.
• Software repository management skills.
• Experience developing and executing complex test plans.
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills, able to convey technical information to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Self‑motivated, able to work independently and as part of a team, meeting deadlines.
• Complex problem‑solving skills.
• Expertise in Large Language Models (LLMs) and related frameworks (e.g., Lang Chain, Transformers).
• Proficiency in prompt engineering techniques for optimizing LLM performance.
• Strong understanding of agentic AI concepts and experience building agentic AI applications (e.g., using Google Agent Builder).
• Design and implementation of AI/ML Ops pipelines for model deployment, monitoring, and management.
• Building and deploying RESTful APIs and microservices for AI integration.
• Strong understanding of cloud platforms (Google Cloud Platform, AWS, Azure), particularly Google Vertex AI.
• Experience developing and deploying chatbot applications.
• Knowledge of data privacy and security principles related to AI and machine learning.

• Familiarity with containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).

• UC Riverside is located on nearly 1,200 acres in Inland Southern California.
• UC Riverside is ranked No. 12 among all U.S. universities (Money Magazine 2020) and in the top 1 % worldwide (Center for World University Rankings 2019‑20).
• It is the top U.S. university for social mobility (U.S. News 2020).
• UCR is a member of the University Innovation Alliance.
• UCR ranks No. 2 in financial aid (Business Insider 2019) and No. 2 worldwide for research (Center for World University Rankings).
• UCR has two Nobel Laureates and 13 members of the National Academies of Science and Medicine.

UC Riverside is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual…